Humanities and Social Sciences

History Program

Staff Profiles

Dr Adelina Modesti

Adelina Modesti joins the history program as ARC research fellow after many years as Lecturer in Theory and History of Art and Design at Monash. She was Italian translator for the Public Records Office of Victoria and Ballarat Council during the “Eureka 150” celebrations in 2004, and acts as consultant for Christie’s and Sotheby’s as well as international museums, in her specialised area of seventeenth century Bolognese art and culture. Adelina’s research interests are gender and social history, women’s cultural production and female patronage networks in early modern Italy and Europe. Adelina’s book, Elisabetta Sirani. Una Virtuosa del Seicento bolognese (Bologna: Compositori, 2004), based on her doctoral research, was the first monograph to be published on this important Baroque female artist. Commissioned as part of the University of Bologna and Comune di Bologna’s “Elisabetta Sirani Project”, to inaugurate the series Donne nell’Arte, the volume received a substantial publishing grant from the Fondazione Ca.Ris.Bo., with support from the Italian Ministry for Equal Opportunity. Adelina was also a member of the academic committee for the concurrent retrospective exhibition of Elisabetta Sirani’s works, held at the Museo Civico Archeologico, Bologna in 2004-2005.

Research Projects

Mapping Matrons: Women’s Cultural Patronage Networks in Seventeenth Century Northern Italy: from Maria Cristina of Savoy to Vittoria della Rovere

This ARC funded project will focus on a developing area of gender studies, matronage: the social agendas and politico-diplomatic motivations of élite women’s cultural patronage. Based on extensive archival research, this interdisciplinary contextual study will examine the commissioning and collecting practices of a group of dynastic women in early modern Italy, and chart the nature, scope and impact of their social networks, to determine the role and influence of gender on cultural production. Such studies of female influence and agency will shift traditional understandings of (élite male) power in European societies, adding an important historical dimension to contemporary debates concerning gender, social capital and female leadership. In particular it addresses women’s political influence and statecraft as expressed through their cultural activities and policies, retrieving women’s significant public engagement and community building in the realm of public taste. Historical precedents show how female networks and agency contribute to the community and public sector. This study will illuminate how our culture (and democracy) emerged in gendered networks of cultural exchange.

Graduate Supervision Areas and Topics

Research Grants

Most recently Adelina was awarded an Australian Research Council grant of
$258,572 over three years (Australian Postdoctoral) for her project Mapping Matrons.

Others grants include

• 2008 AEUIFAI Fellow, European University Institute, Florence (Dpt. History and Civilization)
  
• 2004 Publishing Grant of 80,000 Euros from the Fondazione della Cassa di Risparmio in Bologna for monograph on Elisabetta Sirani
  
• 1993 Italian Government Scholarship for PhD research at the State Archives of Bologna