| Art HistoryConservation
Archaeology
My work is focused on European art in the expanding and increasingly interconnected world of the period 1200-1800. I am concerned with how art allows humans to think through time and find orientation in the world. Trained as an historian, I came to art history to understand the specific ways in which material artifacts shape meanings and structure ways of being in an environment, as well as what happens when works of visual art and models of art-making cross temporal and geographical boundaries. I've also maintained an active interest in contemporary art, and am regularly asked by contemporary art journals, exhibition organizers, and lecture conveners to comment on recent artistic developments within a larger historical framework.
Read MORE of Emmelyn's statementLately, my interests have turned to questions of physical orientation and configurations of place in early modern European art. Amerasia, an National Endowment for the Humanities-funded study co-authored with Elizabeth Horodowich and recently published by Zone books, excavates a world-configuration projected by Europeans during the period 1500-1800 and now largely forgotten. For the earlier period of 1200-1500, I am interested in how a pervasive eastward orientation in western medieval art contributed to many of the distinctive features of what is called Renaissance art: naturalism, perspective, story-telling, anachronisms of various kinds, and new forms of artistic self-awareness. My ultimate goal is to understand how it was possible for a Europe-centered view of the world to emerge in the sixteenth century out of this less familiar, “oriented” worldview. I have pursued research on these questions at various research centers, including the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton and the Harvard Center for Renaissance Studies at Villa I Tatti, Florence.
Global relations begin in the immediate vicinity of works of art. In tandem with my work on orientation and worldviews, I am also interested in how scale—not measurable size, but the sense of relation to size—fundamentally shapes how material works of art configure environments and bodily self-awareness. A forthcoming book, based in lectures I gave at the Prado Museum in 2023 and a seminar I conducted at the Freie Universität in Berlin, offers the first sustained account of questions of scale in European painting, focusing on the emergence and world-wide dissemination of the principle of “life scale” in painting after 1500.
I recently won a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship to write a book on the twentieth-century life of Mireya Lafuente, a modernist Chilean painter of Mapuche descent who advanced the study of American indigenous art in the 1920s and 30s, lived in the artistic hubs of Mexico City and New York in the 1940s, and traveled to Soviet bloc countries and China in the 1950s—and who was my grandmother.
Some of my ideas are controversial, yet I am no prideful loner. I am a great believer in dialogue and collaboration in my field and across fields, and with colleagues all over the world. I now serve as Editor of I Tatti Studies, a journal that publishes articles from across the Humanities on Italy in the context of early modern global. Recently, I’ve co-edited a volume of essays that build bridges between art conservation, art practice, and art history, another on the afterlife of Ravenna in the Renaissance as well as one on Metapainting in the early modern period and have written the Introduction to a volume of Leo Steinberg’s essays on Michelangelo’s Painting. I work often with colleagues across disciplines as well as in the world beyond academia, particularly the spheres of art making and curating. I have contributed pieces to London Review of Books, Times Literary Supplement, and Artforum, I serve as consulting editor at Cabinet Magazine, and I am a series editor for the Irving Sandler Essays in the Visual Arts at the Brooklyn Rail, putting me into collaborative relationship with artists and writers from many worlds.
I consider myself an ambassador of my home institution, actively connecting students and colleagues through larger networks of scholarly exchange. In 2007-8, my first year at NYU, I was a fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg, Europe’s answer to Princeton’s Institute for Advanced Study. Before that, I served as Mellon Professor, a two-year research position at this country’s pre-eminent research center in art history at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, and more recently I was Visiting Professor at Villa I Tatti, Florence and Visiting Chair at the Prado Museum, all positions that involved mentoring younger scholars. I have participated in several research groups across Europe, and I have served on the boards of prominent journals and on the selection committees of major granting agencies.
The field of early modern European art is neither as large nor as central as it once was. Like many of my colleagues, I have taken this is an opportunity to re-examine the field’s premises and attempt new configurations of what we study and how we study it. I don’t believe that graduate students belong to one advisor or one department. “It takes a field”—this should be our motto. Accordingly, I have mentored students, officially and unofficially, from many other programs, including UC Berkeley, UCLA, Harvard, Yale, USC, Rutgers, Princeton, Columbia, and various universities in the UK, Italy, Germany, France, and Spain.
Research Interests
- The temporal life of artworks: antiquarianism, anachronism, archaism, forgery
- Early modern art and the world; worldmaking as an achievement of visual media
- The role of visual art in managing the temporal disruptions caused by human activity in the world
- Classifications & reclassifications of art in early modern art theory, art history, & art collecting
- Persistences and revivals of medieval/early modern modalities in modern & contemporary art
- History of the discipline of art history
- Art and image theory
Selected Publications
Books
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Amerasia (co-authored with Elizabeth Horodowich), Zone Books, 2023. [order Amerasia online]
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The Expanded Field of Art Conservation (edited with Caroline Fowler), Clark Art Institute, 2022. [order The Expanded Field of Art Conservation online] |
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Ravenna in the Imagination of Renaissance Art (edited with Giancarla Periti), Brepols, 2020. [order Ravenna in the Imagination of Renaissance Art online] |
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Renaissance Metapainting (edited with Péter Bokody), Brepols, 2020. [order Renaissance Metapainting online] |
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Bending Concepts: The Held Essays on Visual Art (edited with Jonathan T.D. Neil), Rail Editions, 2019. [order Bending Concepts online] |
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Medieval Modern, Thames and Hudson, 2012. [order online] Interviews with Alexander Nagel about Medieval Modern: [www.tandhblog.co.uk] [www.popmatters.com] |
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The Controversy of Renaissance Art, University Of Chicago Press, 2011. Awarded 2012 Charles Rufus Morey Book Award from the College Art Association. Interview with Alexander Nagel about The Controversy of Renaissance Art: [www.rorotoko.com] |
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Subject as Aporia in Early Modern Art, co-edited with Lorenzo Pericolo, Ashgate Press, 2010. [order online] |
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Anachronic Renaissance (co-authored with Christopher Wood), Zone Books, 2010. [order online]
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Michelangelo and the Reform of Art Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000. [order online] Awarded the Gordan prize for best book in Renaissance studies by the Renaissance Society of America. |
Selected Writings
Essay and entry in Global Baroque: The World in Rome in the Age of Bernini (exh. cat. Rome, Scuderie del Quirinale), eds. Francesca Cappelletti and Francesco Freddolini (Milan: Electa, 2025), pp. 60-69, 210-215.
“Relational Aesthetics: Alexander Nagel on Bellini and Giorgione,” Artforum, 62, 8 (April 2024): 13-16 [Read "Relational Aesthetics" online]
“Michelangelo Was Making This: The Battle of the Lapiths and Centaurs is Not Over,” Cabinet Magazine 68 (Spring 2024) [Read "Michelangelo Was Making This" online]
“Raphael’s Global Philosophy,” Res: Journal of Anthropology and Aesthetics 77/78 (2022): 267-82. [Read "Raphael’s Global Philosophy" online]
"Parmigianino’s Madonna of the Rose: The Revelation of the Earth,” Res: Journal of Anthropology and Aesthetics 75/76 (2021): 291-303. [Read "Parmigianino’s Madonna of the Rose" online]
“The Shape of Generation in Art,” in Senzamargine: Passages in Italian Art at the Turn of the Millennium, eds. Bartolomeo Pietromarchi and Stefano Chiodi (Venice: Marsilio, 2021), pp. 61-71. [read "The Shape of Generation in Art" online]
“Hell Is for White People: A painting from 1515 turns a mirror on its viewers,” Cabinet Magazine, June 10, 2020. [read "Hell Is for White People" online]
“Shared Ground (Marie Denise Villers’ portrait of Marie Joséphine Charlotte du Val d’Ognes at the Metropolitan Museum),” in 4Columns, June, 2020.
[read "Shared Ground" online]
“Amerasia: European Reflections of an Emergent World, 1492-ca. 1700,” Journal of Early Modern History 23 (2019): 257-295. (Co-author: Elizabeth Horodowich) [download PDFof Amerasia]
“Conversations on the Page” (on the occasion of the Metropolitan Museum exhibition Michelangelo: Divine Draftsman and Designer), Times Literary Supplement, January 17, 2018. [download PDF of Conversations on a page]
“Don’t Look Away: Hubert Robert’s L’Accident,” Cabinet Magazine 54 (2014) [download PDF of "Don’t Look Away"]
“The Panic That It Induces,” Should I Go To Grad School?, eds. Bosko Blagojevic and Jessica Loudis (New York: Bloomsbury, 2014) [download PDF of "The Panic That It Induces"]
“Beyond the Relic Cult of Art,” Held Essays on Visual Art, Brooklyn Rail, July 15, 2014 [download PDF]
“Objects That Are Only Boundaries,” Jeff Koons: A Retrospective (New York: Whitney Museum, 2014) [download PDF]
“Style-eating Granite,” Cabinet Magazine, 2014 [download PDF]
Some Discoveries of 1492: Eastern Antiquities and Renaissance Europe, Seventeenth Horst Gerson Lecture, held on November 14, 2013 (Groningen: University of Groningen, 2013) [download PDF]
"How Medieval Art Can Help Us Rethink the Exhibition Industry,” Frieze Masters 2 (2013): 44-51 [download PDF]
"Robert Smithson Removed from the Source," Res: Anthropology and Aesthetics 63/64 (2013): 285-88 [download PDF]
"Interview with Robert Smithson, March 20, 1968 (prologue by Irving Sandler, annotated by Alexander Nagel)," Res: Anthropology and Aesthetics 63/64 (2013): 289-98 [download PDF]
Review of Franco Mormando, Bernini: His Life and his Rome, in London Review of Books, January 3, 2013 [download PDF]
Review of Painting for Profit: The Economic Lives of Seventeeth-Century Painters, eds. Philip Sohm and Richard Spear (Yale University Press, 2010) [download PDF]
"Art out of Time: The Relic and Robert Smithson,"Artforum 51, 2 (2012): 232-39. [download PDF]
“Twenty-five notes on pseudoscript in Italian art,” Res: Anthropology and Aesthetics 59/60 (2011): 229-48 [download PDF]
Contribution to the forum “Questions of Style,” Artforum 49, 1 (2010): 258-59. [download PDF]
“Roundtable on the Global before Globalization,” with Barry Finnbar Flood, Alessandra Russo, Eugene Wang, and Christopher Wood, moderated by David Joselit, October 133 (2010): 3-19. [download PDF]
“The Afterlife of the Reliquary,” in Treasures of Heaven: Saint, Relics, and Devotion in Medieval Europe, eds. Martina Bagnoli, Holger A. Klein, C. Griffith Mann, and James Robinson (Baltimore: Walters Art Museum, 2010), 211-22. [download PDF]
Coauthored with Christopher Wood. "What counted as an Antiquity in
the Renaissance?" In Renaissance Medievalisms, Toronto, 53-74.
Toronto: Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, 2009. [download PDF]
"Icons and Early Modern Portraits." In El
Retrato del Renacimiento, edited by Miguel
Falomir, Madrid: Museo del Prado, 2008.[download PDF]
"Authorship and Image-making in the Monument to Giotto
in Florence cathedral." Res: Anthropology and Aesthetics 53-54 (2008): 143-151. [download PDF]
"From the Vault: Preview of Jacopo Tintoretto at the
Prado." Artforum 45 (2007):
109-110. [download PDF]
Nagel, Alexander and Christopher Wood. "Towards a new model of
Renaissance anachronism." Art Bulletin 87 (2005): 403-32. (with responses by Michael Cole, Charles Dempsey, and Claire
Farago. [download PDF]
"Fashion and the now-time of Renaissance art," Res:
Anthropology and Aesthetics 46 (2004):
33-52. [download PDF]
"Experiments in art and reform in early
sixteenth-century Italy." In The Pontificate of Clement VII: History,
Politics, Culture, edited by Kenneth
Gouwens and Sheryl Reiss, 385-409. London: Ashgate, 2004. [download PDF]
"Art as gift: Liberal art and the Discourse of
Religious Reform in the Renaissance." In Négocier le Don-Negotiating
the Gift, 387-413.Paris: Deutsches Historisches Institut,
2003. [download PDF]
"The Antipodes of Modernity: Distinguished Scholars’ Session in honor of Leo Steinberg," lecture at the College Art Association, 2002. [link to lecture]
“Recent literature on Lorenzo Lotto.” (Review of Lorenzo
Lotto by Jacques Bonnet; Lorenzo Lotto by Peter Humfrey;, Lorenzo Lotto: Master
Painter of the Renaissance by David Alan
Brown, Peter Humfrey, and Mauro Lucco; Lorenzo Lotto e l'Immaginario
Alchemico by Mauro Zanchi), Art
Bulletin 80 (1998): 742-46. [download PDF]
"Altarpiece (Definition and History)." In The
Dictionary of Art.London: MacMillan, 1996, I, 707-13. [download PDF]
“Recent literature on Fra Angelico.” (Review of, Fra
Angelico: Dissemblance and Figuration by
Georges Didi-Huberman, trans. Jane Marie Todd and, Fra Angelico at
San Marco by William Hood), Art Bulletin,
78, 1996, 559-65. [download PDF]
"Leonardo and sfumato." RES: Anthropology and
Aesthetics, 24 (1993) 7-20. [download PDF]
Academic Degrees
Harvard University, Department of Fine Arts (1987-1993): M.A. 1990, PhD
1993.
University of California, Berkeley, Department of History (1982-1987):
B.A. 1987.
Université de Montpellier, Département d'Histoire (1984-1985):
D.E.U.G. 1985.
Highlights
“Relational Aesthetics: Alexander Nagel on Bellini and Giorgione,” Artforum, 62, 8 (April 2024): 13-16 [Read "Relational Aesthetics" online]
“Michelangelo Was Making This: The Battle of the Lapiths and Centaurs is Not Over,” Cabinet Magazine 68 (Spring 2024) [Read "Michelangelo Was Making This" online]
“Raphael’s Global Philosophy,” Res: Journal of Anthropology and Aesthetics 77/78 (2022): 267-82. [Read "Raphael’s Global Philosophy" online]
“Hell Is for White People: A painting from 1515 turns a mirror on its viewers,” Cabinet Magazine, June 10, 2020. [read "Hell Is for White People" online]
“Shared Ground (Marie Denise Villers’ portrait of Marie Joséphine Charlotte du Val d’Ognes at the Metropolitan Museum),” in 4Columns, June, 2020. [read "Shared Ground" online]
“Amerasia: European Reflections of an Emergent World, 1492-ca. 1700,” Journal of Early Modern History 23 (2019): 257-295. (Co-author: Elizabeth Horodowich) [download PDFof Amerasia]
“Conversations on the Page” (on the occasion of the Metropolitan Museum exhibition Michelangelo: Divine Draftsman and Designer), Times Literary Supplement, January 17, 2018. [download PDF of Conversations on a page]
“The Panic That It Induces,” Should I Go To Grad School?, eds. Bosko Blagojevic and Jessica Loudis (New York: Bloomsbury, 2014) [link to The Panic That It Induces]
Audio Recording of "The Falls," a panel organized by Alexander Nagel at Cabinet Event Space, New York.
Speakers: Emily Apter, Jeff Dolven, Alexander Nagel, and Jamieson Webster. October 29, 2014.
Podcast of The Review Panel. A discussion of four recent shows of contemporary art. Discussants: David Cohen, Alexander Nagel, Dorothy Spears, And Robert Storr (September 26, 2014)
“Beyond the Relic Cult of Art,” Held Essays on Visual Art, Brooklyn Rail, July 15, 2014 [link to Beyond the Relic Cult of Art]
"Protocols of Participation: Recent Models of Socially Engaged Art in the United-States and Europe," with representatives of Creative Time (Laura Raicovich, Nato Thompson) and of Nouveaux Commanditaires-Fondation de France (Xavier Douroux, Thérèse Legierse) and Thomas Crow (Institute of Fine Arts - New York University). Moderated by Alexander Nagel (Institute of Fine Arts - New York University). April 23, 2014
Watch Video of "Protocols of Participation: Recent Models of Socially Engaged Art in the United-States and Europe"
Watch Video of Xavier Douroux
interviewed by Alexander Nagel
“Objects That Are Only Boundaries,” Jeff Koons: A Retrospective (New York: Whitney Museum, 2014) [link to "Objects That Are Only Boundaries"]
“Style-eating Granite,” Cabinet Magazine, 2014 [link to "Style-eating Granite"]
Some Discoveries of 1492: Eastern Antiquities and Renaissance Europe, Seventeenth Horst Gerson Lecture, held on November 14, 2013 (Groningen: University of Groningen, 2013) [link to "Some Discoveries of 1492"]
Anachronic Renaissance/ Global Renaissance: A Dialogue between Serge Gruzinski & Alexander Nagel, March 26, 3-5 PM, CUNY Graduate Center. [more info about "Anachronic Renaissance/ Global Renaissance"]
“Some Discoveries of 1492: Eastern Antiquities and Renaissance Europe,” Horst Gerson Lecture, University of Groningen, November 14, 2013 [more info about "Some Discoveries of 1492"]
“Orientations of Renaissance Art,” Forschungszentrum Historische Geisteswissenschaften Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt, Nov. 6, 2013
“'The glass under water, the form that seems a form seen in a mirror',” Anacronismi: I Tempi Plurali dell’Immagine (Alexander Nagel, Georges Didi-Hubermann and Philippe-Alain Michaud), Palazzo Grassi, Venice, October 2, 2013 [more info]
“'I think tours would be interesting’: Some Smithson documents,” Robert Smithson: Entropie et Mémoire, Paris, Centre Georges Pompidou, September 28, 2013
Review of Franco Mormando, Bernini: His Life and his Rome, in London Review of Books, January 3, 2013 [link to Review of Franco Mormando, Bernini]
"Art out of Time: The Relic and Robert Smithson,"Artforum 51, 2 (2012):232-39. [link to "Art out of Time"]
“Twenty-five notes on pseudoscript in Italian art,” Res: Anthropology and Aesthetics 59/60, 2011, 229-48 [link to "Twenty-five notes on pseudoscript in Italian art"]
"Rebecca Chamberlain: Instructions for Use," Dodge Gallery, May 14-June19, 2011: [link to "Rebecca Chamberlain: Instructions for Use"]
Participant in seminar co-organized by Fondation de France and Clark Art Institute Research and Academic Program on "Looking at Contemporary Art Through Eyes Trained on the Past;" Antibes: Fondation Hartung, June 27-July 2, 2011.
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