Lunarita is an art historian whose research explores the intersections between visual culture and politics, with a particular focus on Renaissance Italy. She holds a PhD in the History of Art from Sapienza University of Rome, where she completed a dissertation on the collection of Ottaviano de’ Medici (1482-1546) focusing on the relationship between artistic patronage, political identity, collecting, portraiture, and the circulation of images in and beyond Florence. More recently, her research investigates how visual and material culture contributes to the creation of ‘places’, and how artistic and heritage practices respond to catastrophe, environmental transformation, and cycles of decay, resilience, and reconstruction.
Lunarita is Postdoctoral Fellow and Scientific Coordinator of the AC(H)E – Art History, Catastrophes, (Heritage), Ecology Research Group at the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz–Max-Planck-Institut, where she has worked as a postdoctoral academic assistant and scientific collaborator within Gerhard Wolf’s department. She was also visiting scholar at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, and has held fellowships at the NIKI – Dutch University Institute for Art History and the Medici Archive Project, both in Florence.
She has published in several international journals and has most recently co-edited the volume The Medici Beyond Florence. Art and Politics, 1530-1648 (2025), and has worked as Curatorial Assistant on the exhibition Camere con vista. Aby Warburg, Firenze e il laboratorio delle immagini, held at the Gallerie degli Uffizi in 2023.
Education
2022: PhD, History of Art, University of Rome La Sapienza, L-Art/04, Ottimo cum laude,ÌýAutorappresentazione medicea tra Repubblica e Ducato: il caso di Ottaviano de’ Medici (1482-1546)
2018: MA,ÌýHistory of Art and Criticism, University of Rome La Sapienza, (110/110 cum laude)
2015: BA, History of Art and Criticism, University of Rome La Sapienza (110/110 cum laude)
Publications
Articles
‘Beyond Florence. The Medici? Representation, Distance, Resemantisation’, in N. Barbolani, M. Ruffini, L. Sterpetti, The Medici Beyond Florence. Art and Politics, 1530-1648, Rome 2025, pp. 11-16. ISBN 979-12-80-95-6927
‘Ottaviano de’ Medici e la sua collezione: arte e politica tra Repubblica e Ducato’, in: Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz, 2-3 (2023), pp. 235-269.
‘Forme, figure, accessori e ornamenti: Warburg e il Teatro mediceo’, in M. Faietti, E. D. Schmidt, G. Targia, G. Wolf and B. Sherman, K. Mazzucco,ÌýL.ÌýSterpetti, C. Wedepohl,ÌýCamere con vista. Aby Warburg, Firenze e il laboratorio delle immagini, Florence, 2023, pp. 90-91. ISBN 978-88-09-94002-4.
‘Il cavallo e “³¢â€™A²õ¾±²Ô´Ç“: Warburg a Firenze durante i moti del pane del 1898’, in M. Faietti, E. D. Schmidt, G. Targia, G. Wolf and B. Sherman, K. Mazzucco,ÌýL.ÌýSterpetti, C. Wedepohl,ÌýCamere con vista. Aby Warburg, Firenze e il laboratorio delle immagini, Florence, 2023, pp. 75-77. ISBN 978-88-09-94002-4.
‘Ottaviano de’ Medici e la cena di San Gregorio Magno in San Michele in Bosco a Bologna: il significato dei ritratti medicei’, in Ricerche dell’Istituto Nazionale d’Archeologia e Storia dell’Arte, Rivista dell’Istituto Nazionale d’Archeologia e Storia dell’Arte, 3 (2023), pp. 233-241.
‘Le tre età nelle Vite di Vasari: un itinerario critico’, in G. Antoni, S. Pierguidi, M. Ruffini, L. Sterpetti, Le tre età : il problema della periodizzazione nelle Vite di Vasari, Rome, 2022, pp. 11-20. ISBN 979-12-80956-05-7.
‘I prodromi delle mostre: le feste nuziali di Alessandro e Cosimo I Medici come esperienze espositive cinquecentesche’, in G. Antoni, M. Chirumbolo, G. Petrone, C. Zuber, ‘Inside the exhibition’: temporalità , dispositivo, narrazione, Rome, 2022, pp. 15-28. ISBN 978-88-7575-422-8.
Reviews
Federico da Montefeltro e Francesco di Giorgio Martino. Urbino crocevia delle artiÌý(Galleria Nazionale delle Marche, Urbino, 23 June–9 October 2022) [exhibition review], in Renaissance Studies, 37.4 (September 2023), pp. 628-633.
B. Edelstein, V. Conticelli, eds., Eleonora di Toledo e l’invenzione della corte dei Medici a Firenze (Palazzo Pitti, Florence, 5 February-13 May 2023) [book review], in The Burlington magazine, 166 (May 2024), pp. 510-512.
Edited volumes
N. Barbolani, M. Ruffini, L. Sterpetti, The Medici Beyond Florence. Art and Politics, 1530-1648, Rome 2025.ÌýÌý
M. Faietti, E. D. Schmidt, G. Targia, G. Wolf and B. Sherman, K. Mazzucco, L. Sterpetti, C. Wedepohl, Camere con vista, Aby Warburg, Firenze e il laboratorio delle immagini, Florence, 2023, pp. 75-77. ISBN 978-88-09-94002-4.
G. Antoni, S. Pierguidi, M. Ruffini, L. Sterpetti, Le tre età : il problema della periodizzazione nelle Vite di Vasari, Rome, 2022, pp. 11-20. ISBN 979-12-80956-05-7.
Conferences, Lectures and Workshops
‘Arts, Networks, and Legacies of Ottaviano de’ Medici (1482-1546)’, (co-convener), Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz—Max-Planck-Institut, Medici Archive Project, Uffizi Galleries, Florence, 5-6 November 2026.
‘Behind the Volcano: Hypervisualization, Making of Place, and the Politics of Heritage’, in Decay, Persistence, Re-Possession. Ecologies of Cultural Heritage, Organized by the the Max Planck Heritage Network, Florence, 30-31 October 2025.Ìý
Ottaviano de’ Medici, Giorgio Vasari e una collezione quasi dimenticata, Lecture, University of Naples Federico II, 10 December 2024.
Two Lands / Two Seas. Calabrian-Sicilian Art and Architecture in an Environmental Perspective, Summer school (co-convener), Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz—Max-Planck-Institut, 13-21 October 2023.
Ecologies and the Making of Place in Visual and Material Culture, panel (co-convener) at The Renaissance Society of America Annual Meeting, March 2023; ‘The Palace of Ottaviano (Naples): Place, Ecology, and Heritage’ (paper).
The Medici Beyond Florence. Art and Politics, 1530-1648, Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz—Max-Planck-Institut, 16-17 March 2023 (co-convener).
In Corso d’Opera 4, Doctoral Conference in the History of Art at Sapienza, Università di Roma, 24-25 June 2022 (co-convener); ‘Rappresentare l’identità medicea: due ritratti di Pontormo per la Serie aulica di Ottaviano de’ Medici’ (paper).
‘Due esempi di esposizioni medicee nel Cinquecento: le feste nunziali di Alessandro e Cosimo I’ (paper), in Inside the exhibition: temporalità , dispositivo e narrazione. VIII Giornata di Studi Dottorali del Rome Art History Network (RAHN), 21 October 2021.
‘A partire dalle tre età : un itinerario critico’, in Le tre età nelle Vite di Vasari, Giornata di studi a cura di S. Pierguidi e M. Ruffini, Sapienza, Università di Roma, 8 November 2020.
Work and Teaching Experience
2025: Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz—Max-Planck-Institut Postdoctoral Fellow and Scientific coordinator AC(H)E, Art History, Catastrophes, (Haritage), Ecology, Research Group, PI: Gerhard Wolf.
2025: University of Rome La Sapienza, Adjunct Professor, Iconography and Iconology, BA3 Course.
2022-2023: The University of Manchester, UK, Research Assistant, Leverhulme Research Project: New Muralism: Urban Futures through the Arts in Italy, Principal Investigator: Prof. Francesca Billiani.
2022-2025: Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz—Max-Planck-Institut, Post-doctoral Academic Assistant, Abteilung Wolf.
2021-2022: Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz—Max-Planck-Institut,ÌýScientific Collaborator, Abteilung Wolf.
2018-2022: University of Rome La Sapienza, Teaching Assistant and ‘Cultrice della materia’ History of Art and Criticism (code: L-Art/04).