I'm a D.Phil candidate in the Department of History of Art, specialising in Italian Renaissance art. My doctoral thesis investigates the development and use of different kinds of backgrounds in Italian paintings of the period between c. 1450 and c. 1550 through the lens of the critical language of the period term 'campo'.
Focusing on the genre of backgrounds, my thesis provides the first broad overview of how four main types of backgrounds (including gold grounds, landscape backgrounds, architectural backgrounds and clothes of honour) were used as representational devices in Renaissance paintings and what they originally meant for the beholders. My doctoral research is supported by Inger Lawrance Prize, China Oxford Scholarship Fund, Great Britain-China Educational Trust, and Isaiah Berlin Scholarship.
Prior to my D.Phil at Oxford, I did two MSc degrees in Renaissance Studies and History of Art at the University of Edinburgh. I have had previous experience working with the museum collections of Edinburgh University and the digitisation of photographs at the Courtauld.