Monika Schmitter

Monika Schmitter is a specialist in Italian art of the late-fifteenth and early-sixteenth century with an emphasis on the material culture and built environment of Venice.  She is particularly interested in portraiture, patronage, domestic art and architecture, gender and class issues, and the history of collecting. 

Her research on the sixteenth-century art expert Marcantonio Michiel has also led her to study in other cities in Italy, for example, Bergamo, Padua, and Cremona.  Her publications on painted palace facades analyze monuments in Trent, Rome, Vicenza, and Siena, as well as Venice.

Her book, The Art Collector in Early Modern Italy: Andrea Odoni and his Venetian Palace, was published by Cambridge University Press in 2021. She has also published articles in journals such as Renaissance Quarterly, The Burlington Magazine, Renaissance Studies, The Journal of Architectural Historians, and Studies in Iconography.

Latest Publications

• "Describing Giorgione's Tempest: Iconography, Genre, Interpretation." Studies in Iconography 43 (2022): 185-222
• The Art Collector in Early Modern Italy: Andrea Odoni and his Venetian Palace (Cambridge University Press 2021). This book has been reviewed by:
  • Peter Humfrey in The Burlington Magazine 164 (April 2022): 422-23
  • Christina M. Anderson in Art History (June 2023) https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8365.12723
  • Leah Clark in Journal of the History of Collections https://doi.org/10.1093/jhc/fhac027
  • F. Van Keuren in Choice (Vol. 60, Issue 2, Oct. 2022)

Please see Professor Schmitter's department profile for a full publication list.

Recorded Talks

• The Courtauld: The Art Collector in Early Modern Italy
• HFA Faculty Works: The Art Collector in Early Modern Italy: Andrea Odoni and his Venetian Palace

Awards and Accolades

Professor Schmitter has been a recipient of numerous fellowships and grants, including a Teaching Fellowship from the Marion and Jasper Whiting Foundation (2023), a Visiting Senior Fellowship at the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, National Gallery (2012), Samuel H. Kress Foundation Grant, Renaissance Society of America (2018, 2011), Gladys Krieble Foundation Grant for Study in Venice and the Veneto (2020, 2018, 2011, 2004, 2000), Villa I Tatti Fellowship, Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies, Florence, Italy (2000-2001), and Lilly Teaching Fellowship, University of Massachusetts (1999-2000).