Elisa Cazzato PhD
I am committed to excellence in research through interdisciplinary exchanges, international experience, and well-informed translation of scientific knowledge
About me
I am a research fellow (RTDa) in Art History at the University of Naples Federico II.
I am currently leading a three-year project titled EPHEMER-ART: Tracing Artists and Practices of Ephemeral Art from Italy to Europe (1700–1880).
This research has received funding through the Italian Young Researchers 2024 grant.
SPECTACLE is a multidisciplinary investigation intersecting histories of culture, art, stage design, and theatre. It aims to define the cultural meaning of ‘spectacle’ and ‘spectacularity’ in France and in a selection of European capitals in the long 18th century. This is being established through research on the ephemeral constructions standing behind the process of spectacle-making (e.g. stage design, firework technology, circus performance). Specifically, this project investigates how Italian artists from different backgrounds provided key contributions to French and European spectacle broadly conceived (e.g. public and private performances, propaganda events). My research is also addressing questions on when and how genders, races, and forms of disabilities were used as forms of ‘ephemeral entertainment’, and how much these forms of spectacle created stereotypes that are still present in current times and society.
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Grant Agreement no 893106.
My background
I was awarded a PhD in Art History from The University of Sydney, with a thesis titled An Italian Artist in Paris: the life and career of Ignazio Degotti (1758-1824). My thesis was supervised by Prof. Mark Ledbury and was entirely funded by the University of Sydney international fellowship.
I am also a former Marie Skłodowska-Curie Global Fellow at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. For my project SPECTACLE I was a visiting scholar at the CELLF of the Université Sorbonne and in the Department of Art History at the New York University. Here, I assisted Meredith Martin on the dance production of the Ballet de Porcelaines.
In 2023, I organised the international conference Here Today, Gone Tomorrow? Ephemerality and Materiality in France in the Long Eighteenth Century, for which I also created a series of podcasts co-produced with Radio Ca’ Foscari. My publications include articles in the peer-review journals Studi Francesi, Dance Research, Humanities Research Journal, RIEF, and Status Quaestions. I am currently writing my first book on the life and career of Ignazio Degotti.