Massimo Moretti is Associate Professor of Modern Art History and of Iconography and Iconology at the SARAS Department of Sapienza University of Rome. In 2021, he obtained the qualification of Full Professor for the same concurrency sector (10/B1). Since May 2018, he has been a member of the board of the doctoral program in Art History at Sapienza University and editorial coordinator of the series “Esordi”.
His studies focus on the history of patronage and reception of the arts in the modern age, the exchange of objects and ideas between Rome, Italian courts and European countries, decorative arts (especially majolica) and the history of book illustration. His research has been oriented towards the culture of the Counter-Reformation, with an approach to the study of the work of art understood as an instrument of communication and representation of dominant cultures but also of otherness and religious minorities. Since 2009 M. M. has been carrying out a systematic investigation in the fonds of the Archive of the Apostolic Nuncio Antonio Maria Graziani (1537-1611) now dispersed among Vada (Livorno), The Vatican Secret Archives, the Pontifical Gregorian University, the Kenneth Spencer Research Library in Lawrence, University of Kansas, which in 2020 awarded him the Alexander and Valentine Janta Endowment Travel Award. At the same US institution in 2022 he held a fellowship continuing his research in the Graziani and Commendone funds.
He is a member of the scientific council as well as editorial coordinator of the journal “Storia dell'arte”; since 2014 he has been a member of the scientific council of the periodical “Arte Marchigiana” and since 2021 of the journal “Accademia Raffaello. Atti e Studi”. Together with Michele Di Sivo, former Director of the State Archives of Rome, he directs the series “Artisti in Tribunale” published by De Luca Editori d'Arte. He is the creator and coordinator of the research project “Immaginare i Saperi. Tutte le imagini di una biblioteca” and the related digital platform, under an agreement between the SARAS department and the Biblioteca Universitaria Alessandrina. With Daniela Fugaro, director of BUA, he directs the series “Immaginare i Saperi” for which he edited the volume “Gli animali e la caccia nell'immaginario di Francesco Maria II della Rovere (De Luca Editori d'Arte).