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| Alessandro Nova | |
|---|---|
| Name | Alessandro Nova |
| Birth date | 1954 |
| Birth place | Milan, Italy |
| Occupation | Art historian, curator, professor |
| Alma mater | Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, University of Oxford |
| Notable works | Studies on Michelangelo, Renaissance sculpture |
Alessandro Nova is an Italian art historian, curator, and academic known for his scholarship on Michelangelo Buonarroti, Renaissance sculpture, and the visual culture of early modern Italy. He has held curatorial and professorial posts at major institutions in Milan, Basel, and Zurich, contributing to exhibitions, catalogues, and critical editions that shaped contemporary readings of High Renaissance art. His interdisciplinary approach bridges archival research, material analysis, and historiography within networks of European museums and universities.
Born in Milan in 1954, he completed undergraduate studies at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore before undertaking graduate research at the Warburg Institute affiliated with the University of London and at the University of Oxford. During his formative years he studied manuscripts and collections at institutions including the Biblioteca Ambrosiana, the Vatican Library, and the Bode-Museum. He trained under scholars associated with the Fondazione Cini and the Istituto Nazionale per la Grafica, and developed expertise in archival methods used at the Archivio di Stato di Firenze and the Archivio Segreto Vaticano.
He served on the faculty and in curatorial roles at the Kunstmuseum Basel, the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, and the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg before appointments at the Universität Zürich and later at the Università degli Studi di Milano. Nova was involved with research projects supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation and the European Research Council, collaborating with institutions such as the Getty Research Institute, the Bibliothèque nationale de France, and the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera. He contributed to exhibition catalogues for the Uffizi, the Museo Nazionale del Bargello, and the Victoria and Albert Museum and participated in advisory committees for the Fondazione Prada and the Museo del Novecento.
Nova's scholarship focuses on Michelangelo Buonarroti and sculptural practices in Florence and Rome between the late 15th and early 17th centuries. He has published on artists and figures including Giacomo della Porta, Donatello, Lorenzo Ghiberti, Benvenuto Cellini, and Pietro Bernini, situating them within contexts provided by patrons such as the Medici and the Papal States. His methodological influences derive from work by scholars at the Institute for Advanced Study, the Warburg Institute, and the Biblioteca Hertziana – Max Planck Institute for Art History. Major projects analyzed sculptural workshops, collector networks involving the Borromeo family and the Doria Pamphilj family, and conservation histories connected to the Opificio delle Pietre Dure and the Istituto Centrale per il Restauro. Nova contributed essays to volumes on iconography prepared for the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana and catalogued drawings housed in the Ashmolean Museum and the Musée du Louvre.
As professor he taught courses linked to curricula at the Università della Svizzera italiana, the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, and the Collegio Ghislieri, supervising doctoral candidates whose dissertations engaged with archives in the Archivio Storico Capitolino and with collections at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He directed seminars in collaboration with curators from the Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum and the National Gallery, London, and organized workshops with conservators from the Courtauld Institute of Art and researchers from the Max Planck Society. His mentorship fostered exchange with international fellowships at the Villa I Tatti and the American Academy in Rome.
Nova received fellowships and honors from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, the British Academy, and the Swiss Academy of Humanities and Social Sciences. He was granted research prizes by the Ministero dei Beni e delle Attività Culturali e del Turismo and received recognition from the Istituto Nazionale di Studi sul Rinascimento. His exhibition work earned awards from municipal cultural bodies in Florence and Milan and acknowledgments from professional organizations including the International Council of Museums and the Società Storica Lombarda.
- Studies on Michelangelo Buonarroti and sculptural practice in Florence and Rome; catalogue essays for the Uffizi, the Bargello, and the Victoria and Albert Museum. - Monographs and edited volumes published with academic presses associated with the Fondazione Federico Zeri, the Harvard University Press, the Cambridge University Press, and the Edizioni Quasar. - Contributions to journals such as The Burlington Magazine, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, Renaissance Studies, Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz, and Studi sul Rinascimento. - Critical editions of archival sources used by researchers at the Archivio di Stato di Venezia and the Archivio di Stato di Napoli. - Exhibition catalogues prepared in collaboration with the Getty Museum, the Musée du Louvre, and the Kunsthistorisches Museum.
Category:Italian art historians Category:Renaissance scholars