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Diane Ahl, Arthur J. ’55 and Barbara S. Rothkopf Professor of Art History, has edited a groundbreaking collection of essays on an influential Florentine painter of the early Renaissance, The Cambridge Companion to Masaccio, published recently by Cambridge University Press. She also contributed an essay to the volume, “Masaccio in the Brancacci Chapel.”
Ahl received significant assistance from EXCEL Scholars Amy Dorfman ’01, Natalia Swiderska ’03,and Christine Terzella ’03. In Lafayette’s EXCEL Scholars program, students assist faculty with research while earning a stipend. The program has helped make Lafayette a national leader in undergraduate research. Many EXCEL Scholars share their research through publications in academic journals and/or conference presentations.
Inspired by the 600th anniversary of Masaccio’s birth in 1401, The Cambridge Companion to Masaccio provides a reinterpretation of the foundations of Renaissance painting. It celebrates the achievements, influence, and legacy of early Renaissance art and one of its greatest masters, exploring the visual, intellectual, and religious culture of Renaissance Florence in the age of Masaccio, 1401-1428.
Written by a team of internationally renowned scholars and conservators, the essays in the volume investigate the artistic, civic, and sacred contexts of Masaccio’s works and the sites in which they were seen. They also reassess the artist’s connection to the past, especially to medieval workshop practices, ancient and Gothic art, as well as his novel experiments with technique, perspective, and narrative. Collectively, they re-evaluate his association with Brunelleschi, Ghiberti, Donatello, and his collaborator Masolino.
“This introduces significantly new interpretations of the history, urban life, and urban planning of the time,” says Ahl, “and previously unpublished information on Masaccio’s technique and the interpretation and patronage of his images.”
The book’s publication coincides with Italy’s celebration this year of the 600th anniversary of Masaccio’s birth, which (while one year late) includes conferences and exhibitions across the country. The Cambridge Companion introduces novel information on several of Masaccio’s works that were restored in anticipation of the national celebration.
A specialist in Italian Renaissance art, Ahl was drawn to the opportunity to assemble fresh insights on an extraordinarily influential painter of that era. Masaccio’s influence was still felt in the 19th century, she notes, as evidenced by drawings of his work by Manet. People still make pilgrimages to see his work in Florence, paying their way to observe in crowded museums and churches.
“The Renaissance in Italy generally is believed to have reached full flower in the 15th century,” she says. “Masaccio is considered a founder of Renaissance art. The first use of one-point perspective in painting occurs in his works. He interpreted subjects in a dramatic, unprecedented way, and experimented with technique and narrative.”
In the invitation by Cambridge University Press to edit the volume, Ahl was given complete freedom in choosing contributors. She assembled a lineup of leading scholars from Italy, England, and the United States representing a diverse range of disciplinary perspectives. Contributors include art historians, a theologian, a historian, a historian of science, a curator of Italian painting at the National Gallery of London, and two restorers of Masaccio’s paintings – one of whom organized Italy’s national celebration of his birth.
“This is the third book that I’ve edited,” says Ahl. “My role is to bring out the best in authors – to choose them carefully, work with them, shape their contributions, and challenge them. I think in this book, we have presented a new interpretation of what the Renaissance is about, without using conventional criteria. The focus of the book is not Masaccio; his work is point of departure for considering larger issues.”
Ahl’s own essay relates the artist’s paintings of scenes from the life of St. Peter in the Brancacci Chapel of Santa Maria del Carmine to the history, rituals, and earlier art in that church. She presents new interpretations of the chapel’s subject matter, the life of its patron, and the collaboration of Masaccio with the painter Masolino in executing the commission.
Dorfman, who graduated cum laude with honors in art, and Swiderska, a double major in International Affairs and art from Katowice, Poland, performed “wonderfully” in their editing assistance, notes Ahl, while Terzella, a double major in English and art from Lindenhurst, N.Y., also contributed in a shorter stint.
“Not only did they conduct research to assist in preparation, I had them read the essays to make sure they would be understandable to an educated undergraduate audience and not just my peers as scholars,” says Ahl. “They were responsible and made very cogent observations on the content. If there were a problem with a particular essay, they would identify it and indicate how a sentence could be rephrased or an argument reframed to make it more intelligible. Their contributions were invaluable.”
All of the students have done other work in the field. Swiderska, who spent a semester abroad in Florence, was the only undergraduate selected to intern at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice in June, while Terzella is serving an internship at the Long Island Museum of American Art, History, and Carriages. Dorfman, who interned at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco is now employed at the Guernsey’s auction house in New York.
A group of Lafayette students saw Masaccio’s work first-hand when they traveled with Ahl to Florence for a three-week Lafayette interim course, Florence: Birthplace of the Renaissance, team-taught with Rado Pribic, Williams Professor of Foreign Languages and Literatures and head of the International Affairs program. They explored the artistic and literary culture of Florence during the late Middle Ages and Renaissance, visiting its buildings, from church to palace; its art, including masterpieces by Giotto, Donatello, Botticelli, and Michelangelo; and its literature, including such classics as Dante’s Inferno and Boccaccio’s Decameron. They also visited Pisa, San Gimignano, Siena, Assisi, Montefalco, Venice, and Rome.
A recipient of 13 grants and awards for superior teaching and scholarship, Ahl says her work on projects like the Cambridge Companion has a great impact on her classroom instruction.
“It suffuses everything that I teach,” she says. “When I edit a book, I become a better teacher of writing. In editing or writing a book, I do research and what I learn is imparted to my students.”
Ahl is a co-curator of “Benozzo Gozzoli allievo a Roma, Maestro in Umbria,” international exhibition on Benozzo Gozzoli, running June 1-September 1 in Montefalco, Italy. She also served on the exhibition research committee and wrote two essays for the catalog. Ahl is the author of Benozzo Gozzoli, published by Yale University Press in 1996, the first comprehensive study in English in the 20th century of the work of the Italian artist known for his illustrations of 15th-century life in Florence. The book was named an Outstanding Academic Book of 1997 by CHOICE, the publication of the Association of College and Research Libraries, and co-awarded the 1998 Otto Gründler Prize for Best Book in Medieval Studies at the International Congress of Medieval Studies.
Ahl edited Leonardo da Vinci’s Sforza Monument Horse: The Art and the Engineering in 1995, and was coeditor of Confraternities and the Visual Arts in Renaissance Italy: Ritual, Spectacle, Image, published in 2000 by Cambridge University Press.
She is authoring another major work on 15th-century painting for Yale University Press, and a book on Fra Angelico, one of the greatest 15th-century painters, for Phaidon Press.
Ahl has published 40 articles, book chapters, conference proceedings, encyclopedia entries, exhibition essays, and reviews on Italian Renaissance art and architecture in Europe and America. Journals in which she has published include Antichità viva, Art Bulletin, Artibus et historiae, Journal of Interdisciplinary History, Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz, Rivista d’Arte, The Sixteenth Century Journal, Source, and Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte.
She has been a speaker or commentator at 22 national and international conferences, universities, and museums, including the International Congress on Medieval Studies, Sixteenth Century Studies Conference, National Gallery (London), University of London, and conferences in Florence, Montefalco, Pisa, and San Gimignano. She has been an outside reader for Cambridge University Press, Princeton University Press, Penn State Press, and University of Georgia Press.
A member of the Lafayette faculty since 1977, Ahl has taught 14 different art history courses and one interdisciplinary First-Year Seminar, and team-taught two courses, including one in Vienna, Austria, and the May course in Florence. She was awarded the Charles A. Dana Professorship in 1998, and named to the Rothkopf chair when its establishment in honor of Lafayette President Arthur J. Rothkopf ’55 and his wife, Barbara, was announced Oct. 26, 2001.
Ahl is a member of the Acquisitions Committee of Allentown Art Museum, a board member of Friends of Skillman Library, and chair of Lafayette’s Academic Research Committee. She has been a panelist for the National Endowment for the Humanities Museums and Cultural Institutions Committee; contributing author of The Renaissance Connection, Curriculum Guide for Lehigh Valley Middle Schools, coordinated by Allentown Art Museum; president (1991-93) and vice president (1990-91) of Italian Art Society, an affiliated society of College Art Association and International Congress on Medieval Studies; chair or co-chair at sessions of College Art Association (1992, 1999, 2002), International Congress on Medieval Studies (1990, 1992), and Sixteenth Century Studies Conference (1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997); and conference co-organizer of “Leonardo da Vinci’s Sforza Monument Horse: The Art and the Engineering,” co-hosted by Lafayette in 1991.
At Lafayette, Ahl has twice served as head of the art department. She was president and vice president, Lafayette College Chapter of Association of American University Professors; chair, Campus Life Committee and Cultural Program Committee; and member of more than 20 committees, including Academic Council, Academic Progress, Admissions, Gallery, Graduate Fellowships, Jewish Studies, Student Health, as well as advisory and search committees in the humanities, social sciences, and administration.
Ahl earned a bachelor’s degree from Sarah Lawrence College in 1971, and a Ph.D. from University of Virginia in 1977.
As an EXCEL Scholar, Natalia Swiderska ’03 assisted Diane Cole Ahl, Rothkopf Professor of Art History, in editing The Cambridge Companion to Masaccio.