Biography

Ingrid Greenfield’s work broadly pertains to encounters between Europeans and West Africans between 1450 and 1650, with particular focus on the presence of and responses to sub-Saharan African material in Italian collections. She received a doctorate in Art History from University of Chicago. From 2017 to 2021, she held the postdoctoral position of Assistant to the Director for Academic Programs at I Tatti, and in 2020-21 she was a lecturer in the Fachbereich Kunstgestichte at the University of Basel, where she taught courses on the arts of Africa pre-1600. Together with Kate Lowe and in collaboration with the Medici Archive Project, Ingrid will be curating an exhibition on African ivories in Renaisssance collections at the Gallerie degli Uffizi’s Palazzo Pitti, scheduled to open in 2024.

Project Summary

The project Black Mediterranean / Mediterraneo Nero – Artistic Encounters and Counter-narratives / Incontri artistici e contronarrazioni seeks to call the field’s attention to the role played by the African continent in shaping Mediterranean aesthetics during the early modern period. It offers a unique opportunity to revisit concepts of the relationship between the African continent and the Mediterranean and broaden the perspective. As the project advances, it will build a network among regions and scholars and foster cooperation and exchange among art historians and cultural historians. A joint initiative with Avinoam Shalem (Columbia University) and generously sponsored by the Getty Foundation as part of their Connecting Art Histories initiative, this multi-year project consists of Fellowships, Visiting Professorships, Exploratory Seminars, Workshops, and Masterclasses. Mediterraneo Nero aims to establish cooperation with young and promising scholars from Africa and encourage productive relationships with existing African institutions of art and material history.