Research Interests
- Paintings and Drawings
- Italy and Eastern Europe
- Social and political history
- Intersection between philosophy and art-making
- Aesthetic Theory: notions of ugliness and the grotesque, aesthetic transformation, and aesthetic value
- Theatre and costume history
Education
BA, Philosophy, St. Edward’s University
BA, Theology, St. Edward’s University
Bio
Gianna Ligotino is a second-year MA student in the Department of Art and Art History. Her focus is European art of the eighteenth to twentieth century, particularly that of Italy and Eastern Europe, and intersection between philosophy and artmaking. Her thesis explores the final frescos of Venetian artist, Giandomenico Tiepolo, and aestheticization of ugliness through the depiction of Pulcinella, a commedia dell’arte character. Her previous projects have examined the anesthetization of ruins in ancient Rome and eighteenth-century Rome; the quasi-philosophical and historical argument for masks as living ornament; and the artist as a revelatory spectator as outlined by twentieth-century, Italian artist, Giovanni Paolini in his Delfo series. She graduated from St. Edward’s University with a BA in Philosophy, a BA in Theology, and a minor in Art History. She has held development and research positions at Women and Their Work in Austin and Diverse Works in Houston, TX.