I am an art historian and scholar of the Italian Renaissance and also have a lifelong interest in horses and riding.
I earned my doctorate in Italian Renaissance Art History and Archaeology from the University of Maryland and have an undergraduate degree from Smith College. Born and raised in Hingham, Massachusetts, I began reading about horses at age eight, reading such children's classics as Marguerite Henry's "Misty of Chincoteague" and Walter Farley's "The Black Stallion." Although I am not currently riding, I have taken riding lessons at different times during my childhood and adult life.
I have been fortunate to be able to combine my interest in horses with my scholarly work. My doctoral dissertation, "The Palio in Italian Renaissance Art, Thought, and Culture" traces the history of palio horse races that were held in Renaissance Italy to celebrate religious feast days and the elaborate silk palio banners manufactured for such occasions. My masters' thesis, "The Sala dei Cavalli: Portraits of Champions," analyzed a cycle of frescoes by Giulio Romano in the Palazzo Te of Mantua, Italy, which show champion horses owned by the ruling Gonzaga family.
In 2007, I received a John H. Daniels Fellowship from the National Sporting Library and Museum in Middleburg, Virginia to undertake a translation of the library's first edition of Federico Grisone's "Gli ordini di cavalcare," "The Rules of Riding." Published in 1550, Grisone's text was the first modern treatise on classical or manege riding, the ancestor of modern dressage. I undertook the translation with Dr. Federica Deigan of the University of Maryland, to make this classic text more accessible to scholars and riders alike. After many years of work, the text was published by the Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona, in 2014.
I worked for the National Sporting Library and Museum from 2007 to 2010 where I managed the John H. Daniels Fellowship program, supervised communications, and coordinated a public lecture series and annual symposia. I have also worked as a researcher for the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Currently I work for the University System of Maryland and am completing my second year of coursework towards a Master in Library Science degree at the University of Maryland with the goal of entering the field of librarianship in an academic, research, or government library. My hobbies include volunteering at the Greenbelt Animal Shelter, photography, and following the sport of horse racing as a fan. I live in Greenbelt, Maryland, just outside of Washington, DC.
