Phd in PHD SCHOOL OF ARCHAEOLOGY

email: massimiliano.papini@uniroma1.it
phone:
building: Facoltà di Lettere

Massimiliano Papini, born in Pisa on 7/14/1970, is Professor of Archeology and History of Greek and Roman Art at the Faculty of Letters and Philosophy of the University of Rome “La Sapienza” (since 1 March 2008). He completed his scientific training at the University of Pisa (degree thesis with Prof. Eugenio La Rocca; co-supervisor Prof. Lucia Faedo) and at the Karl-Ebehards-Universität of Tübingen. At the Karl-Ebehards-Universität in Tübingen he wrote his doctoral thesis, defended in 2002 with Prof. Werner Gauer (first supervisor) and Prof. Eugenio La Rocca (second supervisor) and carried out teaching activities. Papini is a specialist in Greek and Roman sculpture (see the book Fidia. L'uomo che scolì gli dei, Rome 2014) and has demonstrated his inclinations in numerous articles and studies, including the two-volume monograph: Antichi volti della Repubblica. La ritrattistica in italia centrale (IV-II secolo a.C.). vol. I (text) and vol. II (plates), Rome 2004 (Bretschneider's Herm). A volume is dedicated to images of gladiatorial games in public and domestic spaces in the imperial era (Munera gladiatoria e venationes nel mondo delle immagini, Rome 2004), a work included among the Memoirs of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei), created during its activity as research at the Deutsches Archäologisches Institut.
Papini has also so far shown a propensity for research relating to the recomposition of the collections of antiquities of the seventeenth century (Barberini, Lancellotti) and the eighteenth century, among which the monograph La collezione di antiche sculture di Palazzo Braschi, Rome 2000 (Erma di Bretschneider), published among the Supplements to the Bulletin of the Municipal Archaeological Commission; he also prepared, together with a team of Italian experts, the scientific edition of the first volume of the sculptures of the Capitoline Museums (published in December 2010). He also oversaw the edition project of the sculptures (portraits, reliefs, ideal sculpture, architectural fragments, of the Dino and Ernesta Santarelli Foundation, Rome).
The scholar is animated by multiple interests; and in this sense, some studies of a more philological nature should be noted as well as his forays into the field of art history, evidenced by some of his articles dedicated to Guido Reni and Giorgio de Chirico. The 2011 monograph is instead dedicated to the theme of dead cities and ruins in the Greek and Roman world (Città sepolte e rovine nel mondo greco e romano, Bari-Rome, Laterza); also for Laterza is the 2023 book Il riposo degli imperatori. L'otium da Augusto alla tarda antichità.
His contributions have appeared in some of the most prestigious Italian and foreign journals of classical archeology (Classical Archaeology; Bulletin of the Municipal Archaeological Commission; National Journal of Archeology and History of Art; Art Bulletin; Bulletin of Monuments, Museums and Pontifical Galleries; Classical Archeology Workshop; Römische Mitteilungen; Bonner Jahrbücher).
He has worked, sometimes as an author for essays in catalogs, sometimes as organizer of sections of numerous exhibitions (Die Klassik. Idee oder Wirklichkeit in Berlin; I Giorni di Roma, Musei Capitolini); he also curated the Rome exhibition together with Eugenio La Rocca. La pittura di un impero (Rome, Scuderie del Quirinale 2009).
Since 2022 he has collaborated with the German Archaeological Institute (Dir. Ortwin Dally) in the project relating to the new excavations on the Capitoline Hill in cooperation with the Capitoline Museums. Also since 2022 he has also collaborated in the excavations at the Bagno Grande sanctuary of San Casciano, in which he is engaged in the study of the numerous bronze statues discovered.