University of St Andrews
Cecilia’s doctoral project seeks to expand the geographical boundaries of Italian Renaissance art by exploring how cross-cultural exchanges impacted on Siena’s artistic heritage. While examining the interchange of people, objects and knowledge between this Tuscan centre and the wider world – namely Mongol China, Ethiopia and the Eastern Mediterranean – Cecilia is particularly interested in how ‘otherness’ was understood and visualised by the Sienese community. Considering how the period examined (1300-1492) preceded the development of a European selfhood and distinctions based on ‘race’ or skin colour, then on what grounds was difference established, if at all?
