Gerd Micheluzzi - art historian and PhD student at the University of Vienna - visited the art history institute in Florence for two semesters in 2020. His stay – funded by a Marietta Blau scholarship - was interrupted by the pandemic. This started an odyssey that brought him to the University of Hamburg as a research assistant at the end.
Micheluzzi did not choose Florence randomly as his research destination. As a PhD candidate he conducts research on the cast shadow in Italian painting of the 14th-15th centuries. The shadow was already an important motive in ancient times, but then it disappeared for centuries – at least in paintings – almost without a trace. In written sources, however, it has been clearly preserved. The natural philosophers of this time also devoted their attention to him.
This brings the former Marietta Blau scholarship holder to the edge of his discipline and beyond. Transdisciplinary research is important and necessary in his field. In this podcast he talks about his fascination for shadows, his love for Florence and the challenges of research stays in pandemic times.
