Brendan Cassidy
Professor
School of Art History
University of St Andrews
United Kingdom
Biography
Brendan Cassidy taught chemistry in Ghana, West Africa before returning to university to take his M.A. in Art History at Edinburgh and his Ph.D. at Cambridge. He has been Research Associate at the Warburg Institute, University of London (1985-88) and Director of the Index of Christian Art at Princeton University (1988-95). He has taught at St Andrews from 1996 & offers courses on Late-Medieval & Early Renaissance Italian art and on cultural relations between Italy & Britain in the eighteenth century. His recent research has investigated painted & sculpted imagery as evidence of societal tensions in Italy c.1250-1400 and the ways in which it was employed by the political classes to influence public opinion & behaviour. With a particular interest in sculpture he is currently researching a social history of the craft in Italy from the thirteenth century to Michelangelo. He remains interested also in the phenomenon of the Grand Tour.
Research Interest
Painted & sculpted imagery as evidence of societal tensions in Italy
