B.A., M.A. University of Pennsylvania Ph.D. Princeton University
Robert Williams is the author of Art, Theory, and Culture in Sixteenth-Century Italy: From Techne to Metatechne (Cambridge, 1997), Art Theory: An Historical Introduction (Blackwell, 2004), and, in collaboration with Thomas Frangenberg, Francesco Bocchi's 'Beauties of the City of Florence', A Guidebook of 1591 (Harvey Miller, 2006). Recent articles include: "Italian Renaissance Art and the Systematicity of Representation" (Rinascimento, 2004), "Leonardo's Modernity: Subjectivity as Symptom" (The Life and the Work, C. Salas, ed., Getty Research Institute, 2005/6), and with Christopher Wood, "A Newer Protagoras" (Art Bulletin, 2006).
His current projects include a book on Raphael, which, by drawing upon the evidence of texts such as Vasari's biography as well as the works of the artist and his followers, seeks to expose fundamental aspects of Raphael's achievement that have been neglected by modern scholarship: the emergence of "synthetic" imitation as a creative technique, the understanding of decorum as a principle implying the deeper "systematicity of representation", and the rationalization of labor documented in Raphael's workshop practice. Recent professional activities include the planning, with James Elkins, of a conference on the future of Renaissance art scholarship, held at University College, Cork, in 2006, the proceedings of which will be published by Routledge, 2007.
undergraduate courses Leonardo da Vinci: Art, Science, and Technology in Early Modern Italy Art as Technique, Labor, and Idea in Early Modern Italy (undergraduate seminar) Art and Moral Values Michelangelo Art and Society in Late-Medieval Tuscany Italian Journeys: A History of Travel to Italy
graduate seminars 2000—2006 Vasari The System of the Genres Ut Pictura Poesis: New Approaches to the Relation between Art, Language,and Knowledge in Early Modern Italy Rubens The Culture of Libertinism (with Jon Snyder, Italian) Venice: Paradigms of Modernity, 1500-1900 (with Jon Snyder, Italian) The Idea of the Baroque (with Jon Snyder, Italian)
Robert Williams is the author of Art, Theory, and Culture in Sixteenth-Century Italy: From Techne to Metatechne (Cambridge, 1997), Art Theory: An Historical Introduction (Blackwell, 2004), and, in collaboration with Thomas Frangenberg, Francesco Bocchi's 'Beauties of the City of Florence', A Guidebook of 1591 (Harvey Miller, 2006). Recent articles include: "Italian Renaissance Art and the Systematicity of Representation" (Rinascimento, 2004), "Leonardo's Modernity: Subjectivity as Symptom" (The Life and the Work, C. Salas, ed., Getty Research Institute, 2005/6), and with Christopher Wood, "A Newer Protagoras" (Art Bulletin, 2006).
His current projects include a book on Raphael, which, by drawing upon the evidence of texts such as Vasari's biography as well as the works of the artist and his followers, seeks to expose fundamental aspects of Raphael's achievement that have been neglected by modern scholarship: the emergence of "synthetic" imitation as a creative technique, the understanding of decorum as a principle implying the deeper "systematicity of representation", and the rationalization of labor documented in Raphael's workshop practice. Recent professional activities include the planning, with James Elkins, of a conference on the future of Renaissance art scholarship, held at University College, Cork, in 2006, the proceedings of which will be published by Routledge, 2007.
