PhD, Rutgers University
About
Area of Expertise: Italian Renaissance Art
Amy Bloch, Professor of Art History, is a scholar of Italian Renaissance art. Her recent publications explore Donatello and goldsmithing, his engagement with music and sound, Fra Angelico’s use of gold, Donatello’s and Lorenzo Ghiberti’s representations of the effects of early Christianity on the practice of sculpture, Jacopo della Quercia’s Fonte Gaia and the placement of Michelangelo’s David.
Research
Research Interests
Her current research investigates the practice of goldsmithing in Renaissance Italy, and in particular the representation, in paintings and sculptures, of objects made by goldsmiths
Grants/Funding
Her work has been supported by fellowships and grants from the Villa I Tatti (the Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies in Florence), the Renaissance Society of America and the College Art Association.
Publications
Professor Bloch’s book on Ghiberti’s artistic interpretations of Old Testament narratives in the Gates of Paradise was published by Cambridge University Press in 2016.
She has co-edited two books, the first a festschrift (Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, 2019) and the second a collection of essays focusing on fifteenth-century sculpture in Italy (Cambridge University Press, 2020).
Instruction & Advising
Courses
At the University at Albany, Professor Bloch teaches courses on Italian Renaissance art (1250-1450 and 1450-1600) and northern European art (1350-1600), and an introductory survey of art in/as protest.
Her recent seminars have considered the work of Michelangelo, the sculpture of Donatello and materials and materiality in the Italian Renaissance.