Michele Bacci


Michele Bacci, is an Italian art historian. He has been professor of medieval history of art at the University of Fribourg since 2011 and a member of the Academia Europaea since 2015.

Career

Michele Bacci studied art history at the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa and received his PhD there in 1999. Between 2002 and 2011, he was associate professor for medieval art history at the University of Siena; in 2011 he received a call to the chair for medieval art history at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland, which he has held since then. In Fribourg he is a member of the Institute for Medieval Studies. Visiting professorships and research stays brought him to, among others, the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, the University of Tokyo, the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, the Masaryk University in Brno, the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz-Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, and the University of Zürich. Since 2010, Bacci has been a member of the international consortium team for the restoration of the Nativity Church in Bethlehem, Palestine.

Exhibitions, projects, conferences (selection)

San Nicola. Splendori d’arte d’Oriente e d’Occidente,, 2007Forme e caratteri della santità in Toscana nell'età dei Comuni agiografia, iconografia, istituzioni, 2004–2006The Holy Portulane. The Sacred Geography of Navigation in the Middle Ages, 2013Von Venedig zum Heiligen Land. Ausstattung und Wahrnehmung von Pilgerorten an der Mittelmeerküste , 2014–2018Cultural Interactions in Medieval Georgia, 2017Royal Epiphanies. The King's Body as Image and Its Mise-en-scène in the Medieval Mediterranean , 2017–2021Cultural Interactions in the Medieval Subcaucasian Region: Historiographical and Art-Historical Perspectives, 2020-2023

Publications (selection)

Il pennello dell’evangelista. Storia delle immagini sacre attribuite a san Luca, Gisem-Ets, Pisa: Gisem-ETS, 1998.«Pro remedio animae». Immagini sacre e pratiche devozionali in Italia centrale , Pisa: Gisem-ETS, 2000.Investimenti per l’aldilà. Arte e raccomandazione dell’anima nel Medioevo, Bari-Roma: Laterza, 2003.Lo spazio dell’anima. Vita di una chiesa medievale, Bari-Roma: Laterza, 2005.San Nicola. Il Grande Taumaturgo, Bari-Roma: Laterza, 2009.The Many Faces of Christ. Portraying the Holy in the East and the West from 300 to 1300, London: Reaktion Books, 2014.The Mystic Cave. A History of the Nativity Church in Bethlehem, Brno-Rome: Masaryk University Press-Viella, 2017.Βένετο-βυζαντινές αλληλεπιδράσεις στη ζωγραφική εικόνων , Athens: Akademia Athinon, 2021.
Furthermore, Michele Bacci is Editor of the journal and co-editor of the series .
A full list of publications can be accessed here:

Memberships and awards (selection)

  • Hanno-und-Ilse-Hahn-Preis
  • Honorary Member of the Christian Archaeological Society of Athens
  • Elected member of the Academia Europaea
  • Member of the International Center of Medieval Art.
  • Editorial Board of the journals Frankokratia and Convivium
  • Advisory Board of the journals Revue d'histoire ecclésiastique, Römisches Jahrbuch der Bibliotheca Hertziana, Codex Aquilarensis, Perspective, Carte semiotiche, Memorie domenicane
  • Advisory Board of the project Magistri mediterranei. Movilidad y transferencia artística en el Mediterráneo medieval , Universitat autònoma, Barcelona, and Government of Spain