Description:

On Thursday, December 3rd at 4 PM CT, Elizabeth Rodini will present There and Back Again: Tracking Gentile Bellini’s Portrait of Sultan Mehmed II. This presentation will explore the complex, multiply entangled journey of this renowned Renaissance picture, raising a number of historiographical challenges and opportunities.  Moving from 1480 to the present, Rodini will follow the portrait across time and space, paying particular attention to matters of uncertainty, absence, and loss.

Elizabeth Rodini is Andrew Heiskell Director of Arts at the American Academy in Rome. Before assuming her position in Rome, she taught at Johns Hopkins University, where she founded the program in Museums and Society, as well as other universities.  Her work joins scholarship in the history of art, curatorial practice, and museology.  Her current research interests center on narratives of material heritage: the objects we protect and preserve, the stories we tell about them, and the way those stories get shared.

Rodini's visit is organized by William West (Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literary Studies), and is supported by Northwestern Buffett and the Office of the Vice President for International Relations through a Virtual International Visitors Grant.