Biography

Koichi Toyama is Professor of Art History at Keio University, Tokyo. He studied at Keio University, Tokyo University, and at the Università degli studi di Firenze. He was a visiting scholar at Oxford University in 2002-03 and is currently a visiting scholar at Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz until December 2013. His primary research addresses Florentine sculpture and Sienese painting in the Fifteenth Century. The former is represented by the articles on Luca della Robbia, Brunelleschi, and on pedestals for statues, and the latter is represented by an essay included in an I Tatti publication, Sassetta: The Borgo San Sepolcro Altarpiece.

Project Summary

His current research focuses on the fifteenth-century Sienese painters, primarily on Pietro di Giovanni d’Ambrogio and Vecchietta, and how they depicted (or did not depicted) cast shadows in their paintings. To understand these choices a variety of factors will be analyzed, from Florentine influences and Sienese conventions to their understanding of light and shadow.