Introducing Dr Claudia Daniotti
AQUILEIA Cultural crossroads from Antiquity to the Lombards | by Claudia Daniotti
I am thrilled to be joining Art Pursuits and lead the tour Aquileia: Cultural Crossroads from Antiquity to the Lombards.
Let me start by introducing myself.
I was born and raised in the Veneto region of Italy and have been fascinated with the “tangible remains” of the past for as long as I can remember. At 15, I decided that I would become an art historian when I grew up and I went on to study at Ca’ Foscari University in nearby Venice. It is in that unique city that I fell in love with the art of the Renaissance that soon became my area of expertise. Yet, one other strong interest emerged in me: a passion for the ancient world, for the arts of the Greek and Roman civilisations, their myths and legends, and the way in which those stories were transmitted, appropriated, and reinterpreted over centuries and up to the present day.
I left Venice and relocated to England as an art historian of Renaissance Italy trained in the classical tradition, a peculiarity of mine that a PhD at the Warburg Institute in London strengthened and consolidated. As an academic, I taught at universities like Warwick, Buckingham and Bath Spa, and have several publications in the fields of both art history and reception studies. I spent the last ten years researching, among other things, the captivating figure of Alexander the Great, and wrote a book on the huge popularity he enjoyed in the arts and culture of medieval and Renaissance Italy. I am also very passionate about sharing my knowledge and research with a wider interested public, and have been doing so for years by lecturing at the Courtauld Institute of Art, the V&A Academy and the Royal Academy, and by leading bespoke guided tours to the National Gallery, the British Museum, the V&A and the Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art in London.
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In the tour Aquileia. Cultural Crossroads from Antiquity to the Lombards we will explore a wonderful and yet little-visited part of Italy’s northeastern region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia. This is a complex land, which was prosperous and thriving under the Roman Empire, rose to unprecedented religious power amidst the war devastation and depopulation brought about by Attila the Hun in 452 CE, and was fully restored to political, cultural and strategic importance in the late sixth century, when the invading Lombards established here the first capital of their empire, later to be conquered by Charlemagne. Covering over seven hundred years of history, from Roman times to late antiquity and the early Middle Ages, our tour, based at Udine, will have at its core the UNESCO World Heritage site of Aquileia. A major trading centre connecting the Mediterranean to Central Europe, Aquileia was among the largest and wealthiest cities in the early Roman Empire, as the impressive remains of its port and forum help us understand. Its crown jewel, however, is the Basilica, still retaining its vast 4th-century mosaic floor, from which the Patriarchs (bishops) of Aquileia wielded both religious and political power for over a thousand years. Immersed in a picturesque lagoon, the seaside town of Grado preserves two striking 6th-century churches that cannot be missed, while nearby Concordia Sagittaria provides yet another example of an ancient Roman town turned into a prominent medieval diocese. The exquisite Tempietto of Cividale del Friuli will introduce us to the sophisticated, classically-inspired artistic language of the Lombard royal court, whereas the tucked-away Abbey of Sesto al Reghena will show us one of the best-kept secrets of the region: a fortified monastery founded by three Lombard brothers, decorated with remarkable medieval and Renaissance frescoes at the crossroads of local tradition, Northern European narrative and the artistic revolution championed by Giotto.
Dr Claudia Daniotti
