Gianna Ligotino is a first year PhD student in the Department of Art and Art History. Her focus is European art of the seventeenth to nineteenth century, particularly that of Italy and Eastern Europe. Her work features a strong interest in the intersection between philosophy and artmaking, aesthetic theory (notions of ugliness and the grotesque, aesthetic transformation, and aesthetic value), social and political histories, religious history, theatre and costumes, and questions of viewer reception. She received her MA in Art History from the University of Texas at Austin, and her MA thesis explored 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. Additionally, she holds a BA in Philosophy, a BA in Catholic Theology, and a minor in Art History from St. Edward’s University in Austin, TX. She has held development and research positions at Women and Their Work in Austin and Diverse Works in Houston, TX.
The College of Arts