Hosted By: Netherlands Interuniversity Institute for Art History (NIKI), Florence
Format: International Conference & Public Programme
Date: Friday, 18 September 2026
Click here register for online attendance via Teams.
Click here to view the programme.
On 18 September 2026, the Netherlands Interuniversity Institute for Art History in Florence will host A Shift in Perspective: Critically Rethinking Women Artists’ Biography in the Early Modern Period, an expert meeting organised by Romy Kerkhof.
The programme brings together art historians, historians, museum professionals and digital humanities scholars to examine the role of artist biographies in contemporary research on early modern women artists. Its central focus is how biographical texts construct, transmit and transform knowledge through source networks, narrative strategies and their wider social and cultural contexts.
The meeting takes as a key case study Francesco Maria Niccolò Gabburri’s unpublished manuscript Le Vite di Pittori, compiled between approximately 1719 and 1742. As one of the most extensive early modern biographical collections to include women artists, the manuscript offers an important point of departure for investigating how their lives and careers were recorded across geographical, linguistic and cultural boundaries.
As part of the afternoon session dedicated to individual case studies, Jane Adams of Artemisia Gold Inc. will present “Investigating Artemisia in the Spada Gallery.” Her contribution will form part of a wider discussion on archival research, attribution, conservation and the recovery of women artists’ histories.
The public portion of the programme will be presented in hybrid format and includes contributions from scholars affiliated with the University of Florence, the Museum of Rome, Save Venice and other international institutions. A later session for invited participants will consider feminist scholarship, digital archiving and sustainable infrastructures for sharing research on women artists’ life writing.
The presentations are open to the public, with the option to attend online. The expert meeting is supported by the Friends of the NIKI.
