Diletta Gamberini
Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte, München, History of Arts, Advanced Postdoctoral Fellow of the Gerda Henkel Stiftung
I am a philologist and literary scholar by training, and my interests focus on the intersections of literature and the visual arts in early modern Italy. I am currently (2023-2025) an advanced postdoctoral fellow of the Gerda Henkel Stiftung, and I am based at the Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte in Munich.
My research has been supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, as well as by fellowships from Villa I Tatti -- The Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies, Columbia University’s Italian Academy for Advanced Studies, the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz, and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, and I have experience teaching Italian literature at Italian, German and North American universities.
Since 2018, I hold the Italian National Scientific Habilitation (ASN) to work as associate professor of Italian Literature, and, since 2024, the German Habilitation to work as full professor of Italian Studies, granted by the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität of Munich.
My research has been supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, as well as by fellowships from Villa I Tatti -- The Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies, Columbia University’s Italian Academy for Advanced Studies, the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz, and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, and I have experience teaching Italian literature at Italian, German and North American universities.
Since 2018, I hold the Italian National Scientific Habilitation (ASN) to work as associate professor of Italian Literature, and, since 2024, the German Habilitation to work as full professor of Italian Studies, granted by the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität of Munich.
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Books by Diletta Gamberini
https://books.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/arthistoricum/catalog/book/1177
New Apelleses and New Apollos intervenes in the burgeoning scholarly discourse on the intellectual life of artists in early modern Italy, revealing how poetry often provides fresh insights into art-theoretical debates, patronage questions, workshop cultures, issues of professional identity, and networks of personal relations.
https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110743661/html
For a preview: https://books.google.de/books/about/New_Apelleses_and_New_Apollos.html?id=g3lVEAAAQBAJ&source=kp_book_description&redir_esc=y
L’edizione mette a frutto uno studio rigoroso dei testimoni, innanzitutto i due manoscritti Riccardiani − in parte autografi − che conservano la quasi totalità del corpus poetico dell’artista. Una simile indagine ha permesso di individuare una cospicua serie di rime dubbie o apocrife e di pervenire alla datazione più sicura del materiale celliniano, predisponendo, sulla base di risultanze obiettive, un nuovo ordinamento. Il minuzioso commento che correda i testi si applica alla decrittazione di una lettera spesso ambigua e contorta, ma anche a una sua sistematica contestualizzazione nell’ambito delle principali problematiche artistiche e culturali che caratterizzano la coeva realtà fiorentina. Indagate nella loro genesi, di solito apologetica o polemica, le poesie riemergono allora quale potente documento di una personalità tempestosa come quella del Cellini.
Selected articles and book chapters by Diletta Gamberini
The article aims to enrich the understanding of the literary influences at work in Ludovico Ariosto’s "Orlando Furioso", specifically in Saint John’s defence of Dido (XXXV, 28). Modern scholars typically point to reflections on the Carthaginian queen by Justinus, Petrarch, and Boccaccio as key sources for the evangelist’s rebuttal of Virgil’s portrayal. While acknowledging the significance of these antecedents in Ariosto’s inventio, this study argues that a late-antique imitation and Michael Marullus’ humanistic rewriting of a Greek epigram from the Planudean Anthology were equally crucial. This critical insight also sheds light on Marullus’ prominent position at the beginning of the catalogue of modern writers defending women’s reputation ("Orlando Furioso" XXXVII, 8).
https://www.aup.nl/en/book/9789463727242/petrarch-and-sixteenth-century-italian-portraiture#toc
abstract
The article focuses on the close reading and contextualizing, in the framework of the author’s verse production and theoretical reflections in prose, of one of the ekphrastic pieces of Margherita Guidacci’s poetic collection L’Altare di Isenheim. In particular, the contribution takes as its object the poem commenting on the expressionistic panel that, in Matthias Grünewald’s polyptych, depicts St. Anthony’s temptation. After highlighting the interest in the visual arts, which the poet demonstrated on many occasions, and after tracing the circumstances of the genesis of the texts on the Colmar Flügelaltar, the article moves on to demonstrate two fundamental points. First, it documents how the author’s ekphrasis of an artwork is charged with ideological values alien to the iconic artifact but central to Guidacci herself, as in this case the critique of the rationalistic hybris and technocentrism of modern Western culture. Second, it underlines the links between such an ideologization of the work of art and Guidacci’s considerations on the artist’s role in the contemporary world.
Annalisa ANDREONI — Préface
Angela CERASUOLO — La parola agli artisti: la tecnica della pittura nelle lettere al Varchi
Roderick-Pascal WATERS — The Discorso della bellezza e della grazia in between Measure and Splendour
Claire LESAGE — Traces du discours sur les arts dans la théorie linguistique de Benedetto Varchi : les Due Lezzioni et L'Hercolano
Michele BELLOTTI — La lettera di Giorgio Vasari a Benedetto Varchi e il carteggio vasariano
Véronique MÉRIEUX — La contribution d’Agnolo Bronzino à l’enquête de Benedetto Varchi ou l’insoluble oxymore entre cadrage académique et intime conviction
Giovanna PERINI FOLESANI — Il Bronzino, ovvero il compitino del compito cortigiano
Olivier CHIQUET — Réconcilier la peinture et la sculpture, Léonard et Michel-Ange. La réponse de Jacopo Pontormo à Benedetto Varchi
Dario DONETTI — Just as Dante, so too Michelangelo. The Sculptor’s “Doglienza” in Francesco da Sangallo's Letter
Diletta GAMBERINI — Uomo universale e artefice “euphantasíotos” : l'immagine del perfetto scultore nella lettera celliniana sulla maggioranza delle arti
Frédérique DUBARD DE GAILLARBOIS — Le point de vue de la soubrette : Michelangelo, Varchi et la fante dottoressa
https://books.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/arthistoricum/catalog/book/1177
New Apelleses and New Apollos intervenes in the burgeoning scholarly discourse on the intellectual life of artists in early modern Italy, revealing how poetry often provides fresh insights into art-theoretical debates, patronage questions, workshop cultures, issues of professional identity, and networks of personal relations.
https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110743661/html
For a preview: https://books.google.de/books/about/New_Apelleses_and_New_Apollos.html?id=g3lVEAAAQBAJ&source=kp_book_description&redir_esc=y
L’edizione mette a frutto uno studio rigoroso dei testimoni, innanzitutto i due manoscritti Riccardiani − in parte autografi − che conservano la quasi totalità del corpus poetico dell’artista. Una simile indagine ha permesso di individuare una cospicua serie di rime dubbie o apocrife e di pervenire alla datazione più sicura del materiale celliniano, predisponendo, sulla base di risultanze obiettive, un nuovo ordinamento. Il minuzioso commento che correda i testi si applica alla decrittazione di una lettera spesso ambigua e contorta, ma anche a una sua sistematica contestualizzazione nell’ambito delle principali problematiche artistiche e culturali che caratterizzano la coeva realtà fiorentina. Indagate nella loro genesi, di solito apologetica o polemica, le poesie riemergono allora quale potente documento di una personalità tempestosa come quella del Cellini.
The article aims to enrich the understanding of the literary influences at work in Ludovico Ariosto’s "Orlando Furioso", specifically in Saint John’s defence of Dido (XXXV, 28). Modern scholars typically point to reflections on the Carthaginian queen by Justinus, Petrarch, and Boccaccio as key sources for the evangelist’s rebuttal of Virgil’s portrayal. While acknowledging the significance of these antecedents in Ariosto’s inventio, this study argues that a late-antique imitation and Michael Marullus’ humanistic rewriting of a Greek epigram from the Planudean Anthology were equally crucial. This critical insight also sheds light on Marullus’ prominent position at the beginning of the catalogue of modern writers defending women’s reputation ("Orlando Furioso" XXXVII, 8).
https://www.aup.nl/en/book/9789463727242/petrarch-and-sixteenth-century-italian-portraiture#toc
abstract
The article focuses on the close reading and contextualizing, in the framework of the author’s verse production and theoretical reflections in prose, of one of the ekphrastic pieces of Margherita Guidacci’s poetic collection L’Altare di Isenheim. In particular, the contribution takes as its object the poem commenting on the expressionistic panel that, in Matthias Grünewald’s polyptych, depicts St. Anthony’s temptation. After highlighting the interest in the visual arts, which the poet demonstrated on many occasions, and after tracing the circumstances of the genesis of the texts on the Colmar Flügelaltar, the article moves on to demonstrate two fundamental points. First, it documents how the author’s ekphrasis of an artwork is charged with ideological values alien to the iconic artifact but central to Guidacci herself, as in this case the critique of the rationalistic hybris and technocentrism of modern Western culture. Second, it underlines the links between such an ideologization of the work of art and Guidacci’s considerations on the artist’s role in the contemporary world.
Annalisa ANDREONI — Préface
Angela CERASUOLO — La parola agli artisti: la tecnica della pittura nelle lettere al Varchi
Roderick-Pascal WATERS — The Discorso della bellezza e della grazia in between Measure and Splendour
Claire LESAGE — Traces du discours sur les arts dans la théorie linguistique de Benedetto Varchi : les Due Lezzioni et L'Hercolano
Michele BELLOTTI — La lettera di Giorgio Vasari a Benedetto Varchi e il carteggio vasariano
Véronique MÉRIEUX — La contribution d’Agnolo Bronzino à l’enquête de Benedetto Varchi ou l’insoluble oxymore entre cadrage académique et intime conviction
Giovanna PERINI FOLESANI — Il Bronzino, ovvero il compitino del compito cortigiano
Olivier CHIQUET — Réconcilier la peinture et la sculpture, Léonard et Michel-Ange. La réponse de Jacopo Pontormo à Benedetto Varchi
Dario DONETTI — Just as Dante, so too Michelangelo. The Sculptor’s “Doglienza” in Francesco da Sangallo's Letter
Diletta GAMBERINI — Uomo universale e artefice “euphantasíotos” : l'immagine del perfetto scultore nella lettera celliniana sulla maggioranza delle arti
Frédérique DUBARD DE GAILLARBOIS — Le point de vue de la soubrette : Michelangelo, Varchi et la fante dottoressa
Tutti gli incontri si svolgeranno su piattaforma Zoom,
all‘indirizzo: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85659345839?pwd=UmFZYU0xN1NxMGJ1MjlQM054NXgvZz09; credenziali di accesso per la App: Meeting-ID: 856 5934 5839 | Password: 148258. Non occorre iscriversi.
Tutti gli incontri, organizzati presso il Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte di Monaco di Baviera, si svolgeranno su piattaforma Zoom,
all‘indirizzo: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85659345839?pwd=UmFZYU0xN1NxMGJ1MjlQM054NXgvZz09; credenziali di accesso per la App: Meeting-ID: 856 5934 5839 | Password: 148258. Non occorre iscriversi.
author’s literary production, the Vita is not the only writing that witnesses against the myth of the golden age of arts
under Cosimo I and Francesco I de’ Medici: as a matter of fact, Cellini’s poems offer a testimony which is just as significant. By connecting them to the most salient moments of the artist’s career at the court of Florence, the present
paper shall focus on how many of these verses express a radical and multifaceted criticism of contemporary Medicean patronage.
L’edizione mette a frutto uno studio rigoroso dei testimoni, innanzitutto i due manoscritti Riccardiani − in parte autografi − che conservano la quasi totalità del corpus poetico dell’artista. Una simile indagine ha permesso di individuare una cospicua serie di rime dubbie o apocrife e di pervenire alla datazione più sicura del materiale celliniano, predisponendo, sulla base di risultanze obiettive, un nuovo ordinamento. Il minuzioso commento che correda i testi si applica alla decrittazione di una lettera spesso ambigua e contorta, ma anche a una sua sistematica contestualizzazione nell’ambito delle principali problematiche artistiche e culturali che caratterizzano la coeva realtà fiorentina. Indagate nella loro genesi, di solito apologetica o polemica, le poesie riemergono allora quale potente documento di una personalità tempestosa come quella del Cellini.