Biography

Alexandre Ragazzi earned his Master’s and Ph.D. degrees at Unicamp (Universidade Estadual de Campinas - Brazil), the latter in a joint supervision program with the “Università degli Studi di Firenze”. Since 2011, he has been teaching art history at the “Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais”, Brazil. His research interests focus on the relationships between painting and sculpture in Italian Renaissance and Mannerist art. His current project addresses how painters used auxiliary plastic models during the preparation of their works, and the diffusion of this technique beyond Italy.

Project Summary

During the Quattrocento, Italian painters developed a new procedure which became very popular: the use of auxiliary plastic models (figurines made of clay or wax) to serve as models. This research project investigates the role of Matteo da Leccia in the dissemination of this artistic practice.