Phd in HISTORY OF ART

Thesis title: La rappresentazione della donna nei busti romani del Seicento

The research investigates the representation of women in Roman sculpture between the second half of the sixteenth century and the early decades of the eighteenth century, a field hitherto underexplored compared to that of male subjects. Through a reasoned catalogue of female busts and an interdisciplinary approach integrating art history, anthropology, fashion studies, and gender studies, the work proposes an organic and complex reading of sculpture in this context. While the historiography has favored male portraiture and technical-historical aspects such as patronage and placement, the specificity of female effigies has rarely been analyzed independently. The research overcomes this limitation by comparing private and funerary busts, highlighting symbols such as the breviary, jewelry, and the veil as markers of identity, devotion, and social status.