Liliana Leopardi
Assistant Professor of Art, Art History

Liliana Leopardi’s current research interests lie in reframing the use of ornament in Renaissance paintings, conceiving it as an autonomous stylistic order that completes and signifies the visual representation. She also works on the construction of gender and sexuality in the Renaissance, and on fetishism and the relationship between word and image.  She is currently writing two articles on the construction of masculinity in the Renaissance.

In 2003, Professor Leopardi published her article “Carlo Crivelli: una Precisazione Biografica” in the international art journal Arte Veneta.  In 2004, she contributed the entry on Crivelli’s “Madonna della Passione” to Verona’s Castelvecchio Museum Catalogue. In 2007, she presented her paper “Fetishism in the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili: a Psychoanalytic Interpretation of the Relationship Between Word and Image” at the American Association for Italian Studies annual conference.  Professor Leopardi has also written a number of articles for the tourist organizations ContextRome and ContextFlorence, and for Rick Steves, author of a series of guidebooks on Italy and conductor of a series of TV shows aired on PBS.

Professor Leopardi is deeply committed to Chapman’s student-focused teaching mission and always strives to create a vibrant and stimulating learning atmosphere in the classroom.  She teaches courses in Ancient Roman and Greek art, Egyptian art, Medieval art, Italian Renaissance art, and Baroque art. She also teaches courses in gender identity and art and psychoanalysis.

Education
BA Psychology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, 1992
MA Psychology, California Graduate, Institute, Los Angeles, CA, 1995
MA Art History, Institute of Fine Arts, NYU, New York, NY, 2000
PhD Art History, Institute of Fine Arts, NYU, New York, NY, 2007

Please contact her at leopardi@chapman.edu