Laurie Taylor-Mitchell

My main area of research is 14th and 15th century Italian art, primarily in Florence and Tuscany. Most of my work has been interdisciplinary; my publications on the guild church of Orsanmichele in Florence examined painting and sculpture within the context of guild patronage. I’m currently collaborating with Julia Miller on a book about a religious order called the Humiliati (“the humbled ones,” depicted above on the right), and their church in Florence dedicated to All Saints (Ognissanti). We published an essay on the painter Giotto and his work for the Humiliati in the recent volume on Giotto, edited by Professors Anne Derbes and Mark Sandona, both faculty here at Hood.  

I’m also interested in the techniques of fresco and tempera in the making of wall and panel paintings, so we always spend some time discussing painting techniques in my courses pertaining to Italian art.  

Within the departmental classes as a whole, I also enjoy teaching Art 220 survey (Prehistoric to Medieval) in a department with our two archaeologists, Professors Ross and Gessert, because students may then actively pursue their interests in ancient art.  

The overall objective in my courses is to show how works of art express what it meant to be alive in the world in the past. This historical awareness often leads to the realization of how works of art tell us about what it means to be a complete human being in the present. For these reasons, the close relationship between the History of Art and Studio Art within the Art Department is one of the great strengths of Hood College. "Art is the evocation of life in all its completeness, purity, and intensity" (Rudolf Arnheim, Thoughts on Art Education).  

Courses Taught (Half-time appointment)

• ART 220 History of Art I (Introduction to Art: Ancient and Medieval)  
• ART 353 Early Renaissance Art in Italy  
• ART 357 High Renaissance Art in Italy   
• Humanities 501, Introductory Seminar  

Degrees

• Ph.D., History of Art, University of Michigan 
• M.A., History of Art, University of Michigan 
• B.A., Kalamazoo, College, English 

Publications

• "Images of St. Matthew Commissioned by the Arte del Cambio for Orsanmichele in Florence: Some Observations on Conservatism in Form and Patronage," Gesta, XXX/1, 1992, pp. 54-72. 
• "Guild Commissions at Orsanmichele: Some Relationships Between Interior and Exterior Imagery in the Trecento and Quattrocento," Explorations in Renaissance Culture, Vol. XX, 1994, pp. 61-88 
• "A Florentine Source for Verrocchio's Figure of St. Thomas at Orsanmichele," Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte, Vol. 57, 1994, pp. 600-609 
• "Botticelli's San Barnaba Altarpiece: Guild Patronage in a Florentine Context," The Search for a Patron in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, ed. David G. Wilkins, Lewiston (New York), 1996, pp. 115-135 
• “Giotto and the Humiliati,” written in collaboration with Julia I. Miller, The Cambridge Companion to Giotto, ed. Anne Derbes and Mark Sandona, Cambridge University Press, 2003 
• “Bernardo Daddi” and “Maso di Banco,” Medieval Italy: An Encyclopedia, ed. Christopher Kleinhenz, (Routledge Encyclopedias of the Middle Ages, Vol. 9), 2003 
• "Donatello’s Saint Rossore, the Battle of San Romano, and the Ognissanti Church," written in collaboration with Julia Miller, Burlington Magazine (forthcoming) 

Current Research

• Collaboration with Julia Miller on book examining the Humiliati order in Florence