{"id":226,"date":"2015-01-22T16:50:12","date_gmt":"2015-01-23T00:50:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arthistory.ucr.edu\/?page_id=226"},"modified":"2026-02-02T13:49:44","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T21:49:44","slug":"jeanette-kohl","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/arthistory.ucr.edu\/faculty\/jeanette-kohl\/","title":{"rendered":"Jeanette Kohl"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"JeanetteAssociate Professor
\nCo-Director, Center for Ideas and Society (CIS)<\/span>
\nPh.D., University of Trier<\/p>\n<\/i> 225 Arts Building
\n<\/i> (951) 827-5919
\n<\/i> jkohl@ucr.edu
\n<\/a><\/i> Curriculum Vitae<\/a>
\n<\/i> Academia website<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n

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Biography\/Education<\/strong><\/span>Research\/Teaching<\/strong><\/span>Selected Publications<\/strong><\/span>Books<\/strong><\/span><\/div>
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I am a German American art historian and at UCR since 2008. I earned my Dr. phil. (PhD) in 2001 from the University of Trier\/Germany with a dissertation on the self-fashioning of Venetian mercenary Bartolomeo Colleoni. Trained in both Modern and Contemporary Art and the Art of the Italian Renaissance, I have developed interests in Renaissance sculpture and material culture, diachronic perspectives on portraiture and the history of the human face, concepts of mimesis and representation, visualizations of the body in art and medicine, and the afterlives of the Renaissance in modern and contemporary art.<\/p>\n

During my academic career, I have been a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Max-Planck-Institute for Art History (Kunsthistorisches Institut) in Florence\/Italy (2001-2004), followed by positions as Assistant Professor at the University of Leipzig (2004-2008) and as Visiting Professor at Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena (2007). From 2006-2009, I organized and chaired the international network The Power of Faces.<\/em> As chair of the Art History department at UCR (2015-2018), I helped initiate and establish the university\u2019s Medical and Health Humanities programs. Since July 2021, I serve as one of two directors of our Humanities Center, the Center for Ideas and Society, <\/em>where I am responsible for the new BEING HUMAN INITIATIVE and for the Mellon Investment in Humanities Faculty<\/em> program https:\/\/ideasandsociety.ucr.edu\/beinghuman\/<\/a><\/p>\n

My research has been supported by grants and fellowships from the Getty Research Institute, the Mellon Foundation, the NEH, the Morphomata Institute in Cologne\/Germany, the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, and most recently the Hamburg Institute for Advanced Study, HIAS. Currently, I am finishing my new book \u201cThe Life of Busts. Sculpted Portraits in Fifteenth-Century Italy,\u201d to be published with Brepols, and I am launching two new scholarly projects: an edited volume (with Barbara Baert, KU Leuven\/Belgium) on \u201cWings and Feathers in Early Modern Art and Thought,\u201d and \u201cGlobal Faces,\u201d an international network of portrait experts.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Areas of Specialization<\/strong><\/p>\n

Italian Renaissance Art with an emphasis on Sculpture and Architecture
\nObject and Material Culture
\nPortraiture and the History of the Human Face
\nTheories and Concepts of Mimesis and Representation
\nEarly Modern Medicine and History of the Body in Art
\nAfterlife of the Renaissance in Contemporary Art<\/p>\n

Understanding our world and its histories through the lens of art and creativity is one of the most powerful didactic tools we have, and taking an art history class is one of the most memorable experiences many students report they had in their education. Explorations in the visual cultures of the world tell us how people lived, how they thought, what they opposed, and what they loved. And yet, art is more than a copy of reality \u2013 its signals are ambiguous. Art is insecurely hooked to reality, and that is part of its fascination. Many things we see or hear are not what we first assume they are, and to understand that I teach my students to see with both eyes, and to listen with both ears.<\/span><\/p>\n

At UCR, I have taught <\/span><\/span>Honors Freshmen Seminars and several \u2018CHASS F1RST\u2019 classes for freshmen, often with a concentration on the visual history of the human body. I also developed and taught courses on Art History in our School of Medicine. Among my regular and most popular classes are a Junior-Senior Seminar on Art and Love in the Renaissance, <\/b>an upper-division course The Artist as Artwork: Concepts of Self from the Middle Ages to the Present<\/b>, and courses on the Renaissance in Florence and Venice. I occasionally teach the department\u2019s mandatory graduate Seminar in Methodology,<\/b> and I have developed and taught graduate courses such as What is the Renaissance, Actually?<\/b>, Portraits, Mirrors, Veils,<\/b> and a slow-looking seminar on Renaissance Sculpture<\/b>. Whenever possible, I take my students to the Getty on field trips, and I frequently invite experts from other academic institutions and museums to join us for lectures and discussions.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Books<\/u><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The Life of Busts. Portrait Sculpture in Fifteenth-Century Italy<\/em><\/strong>, <\/em>in production for Brepols Renovatio Artium Series<\/p>\n

Renaissance Love. Eros, Passion, and Friendship in Italian Art Around 1500<\/em><\/strong>, <\/em>Jeanette Kohl, Marianne Koos, and Adrian Randolph (eds.), Munich\/Berlin 2014<\/p>\n

Similitudo. Konzepte der \u00c4hnlichkeit in Mittelalter und Fr\u00fcher Neuzeit<\/em><\/strong>, <\/em>Jeanette Kohl, Martin Gaier, Alberto Saviello (eds.), Munich 2012<\/p>\n

En Face.<\/em><\/strong> Seven<\/em><\/strong> Essays on the Human Face<\/em><\/strong>, <\/strong>Jeanette Kohl, Dominic Olariu (eds.), kritische berichte<\/em>, 1\/2012, Marburg 2012<\/p>\n

Kopf \/ Bild. Die B\u00fcste in Mittelalter und Fr\u00fcher Neuzeit<\/em><\/strong>,<\/em> Jeanette Kohl, Rebecca M\u00fcller (eds.), Munich\/Berlin 2007<\/p>\n

Fama und Virtus. Bartolomeo Colleonis Grabkapelle<\/em><\/strong>,<\/strong> Berlin 2004<\/p>\n

Re-Visionen. Zur Aktualit\u00e4t von Kunstgeschichte,<\/em><\/strong> Richard & Barbara H\u00fcttel, Jeanette Kohl (eds), Berlin 2002<\/p>\n

Selected essays and articles (since 2010)<\/u><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Lauras Aura. Ein T\u00eate-\u00e0-t\u00eate<\/strong>, in: In Love with Laura. <\/em>Petrarcas Geliebte als Marmorb\u00fcste Francesco Lauranas<\/em>, exh. cat. Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna, Vienna 2023, 24-38<\/p>\n

Heart in a Box, <\/em><\/strong>in: Recycle \u2013 (Re)Invent. <\/em>Festschrift for Frank Z\u00f6llner<\/em>, Julia Dellith, Johannes Gebhard, Daniela Roberts (eds.), Leipzig 2022, 42-63<\/p>\n

\u201cHic est Homo Platonis!\u201d Two Embodiments of Concepts of Man in Renaissance Art<\/strong>, in: Iconology: Neoplatonism and the Arts in the Renaissance<\/em>, Sergius Kodera, Berthold Hub (eds.), Abingdon\/New York 2021, 160-182<\/p>\n

Blood Heads. Index and Presence,<\/strong> in: Field Notes on the Work of Art<\/em>, Karen A. Lang (ed.), Bristol 2019, 226-230<\/p>\n

Hydrocephalus, Rickets, and the Bust of an Infant from Renaissance Italy<\/strong>,<\/em><\/strong> cover editorial in: Child\u2019s Nervous System<\/em>, no. 381, 2019, 1-4 http:\/\/link.springer.com\/article\/10.1007\/s00381-019-04134-y<\/a><\/p>\n

The Intelligence of Sculpture. Verrocchio and Leonardo<\/strong>, in: Leonardo in Dialogue. The Artist Amid his Contemporaries, <\/em>Francesco Borgo, Alessandro Nova, Rodolfo Maffeis (eds.), Venice 2019, 47-72<\/p>\n

A Murder, a Mummy, and a Bust. A Bust of Simon of Trent at the Getty<\/strong>, in: Getty Research Journal<\/em> 10, 2018, 27-60<\/p>\n

The Salutati Tomb in Fiesole: Animation, Representation and Scholarly \u2018Memoria\u2019, <\/strong>in: Wiener Jahrbuch f\u00fcr Kunstgeschichte<\/em> LXIII\/LXIV, 2017, 149-168<\/p>\n

Art and the Reformation,<\/strong> in: Kunstchronik<\/em> 70, no. 8, 2017, 443-452<\/p>\n

FACES: Faces, Art, and Computerized Evaluation Systems\u2013A Feasibility Study of the Application of Face Recognition Systems to Works of <\/strong>Portrait Art<\/strong> (co-authored with Conrad Rudolph, Amit Roy-Chowdhury, and Ramya Srinivasan), in: Artibus et Historiae,<\/em> no. 75, XXXVIII, 265-291<\/p>\n

Hannah Wilke: Intra-Venus<\/strong>,<\/em><\/strong> in: Venus as Muse. From Lucretius to Serres<\/em>, Hanjo Berressem, G\u00fcnter Blamberger, Sebastian Goth (eds.), Amsterdam\/New York 2015, 73-12<\/p>\n

Face Value. The Renaissance Portrait as \u2018Multiple\u2019<\/strong>,<\/em> in: Between East and West. Reproductions in Art. <\/em>Proceedings of the 2013 CIHA Colloquium in Naruto Japan, 15-18 January 2013, 61-82<\/p>\n

Mimesis<\/strong>. Notes from the Field, in: The Art Bulletin<\/em> 95\/2 (June 2013), 205-207<\/p>\n

No one in particular. Donatello\u2019s San Rossore<\/strong>, in: Inventing Faces. <\/em>Rhetorics of Portraiture Between Renaissance and Modernism,<\/em> Mona K\u00f6rte, Stefan Weppelman et al. (eds.), Berlin 2013, 15-28<\/p>\n

Casting Renaissance Florence. The Bust of Giovanni de\u2019 Medici and Indexical Portraiture<\/strong>, in: Carvings, Casts, and Collectors,<\/em> Peta Motture, Emma Jones, Dimitrios Zikos (eds.), London 2013, 58-71<\/p>\n

Recognizing the Royals. Leveraging Computerized Face Recognition to Identify Subjects in<\/strong> Ancient Artworks<\/em><\/strong> (co-authored with Ramya Srinivasan, Amit Roy-Chowdhury and Conrad Rudolph), in: ACM International Conference on Multimedia,<\/em> 2013, 581-584<\/p>\n

Schrift, Blut, Zeugenschaft. \u00dcberlegungen zum Verh\u00e4ltnis von Bild und Testament<\/strong>, in: K\u00fcnstler und der Tod. Testamente europ\u00e4ischer K\u00fcnstler vom Sp\u00e4tmittelalter bis zum 20. Jahrhundert<\/em>, Nicole Hegener, Kerstin Schwedes (eds.), W\u00fcrzburg 2012, 357-376<\/p>\n

\u201cWork Hard, Dream Big.\u201d Whose Renaissance?<\/strong> in: Kunsttexte<\/em> 4\/2012 (Teaching the Renaissance III: Europe and Beyond), 1-7<\/p>\n

Rehabilitating a Fallen Artist: Jean-L\u00e9on G\u00e9r\u00f4me Revisited<\/strong>, in: Kunstchronik<\/em> 64, 3\/2011, 124-131<\/p>\n

Morals, Males, and Mirrors. Busts of Boys in the Quattrocento<\/strong>, in: Desiderio da Settignano<\/em>, Joseph Connors, Alessandro Nova, Gerhard Wolf (eds.), Venice 2011, 89-101<\/p>\n

Icons of Chastity, Objets d\u2019amour. Female Renaissance Portrait Busts as Ambivalent Bodies<\/strong>, in: The Body in Early Modern Italy<\/em>, Julia Hairston\/Walter Stephens (eds.), Baltimore 2010, 123-142<\/p>\n

Body, Mind, and Soul. On the So-Called \u2018Platonic Youth\u2019 in the Bargello, Florence<\/strong>, in: Subject as Aporia in Early Modern Art<\/em>, Alexander Nagel, Lorenzo Pericolo (eds.), Aldershot 2010, 43-69<\/p>\n

Ercole a Bergamo. La costruzione genealogica di un Condottiero Rinascimentale,<\/strong> in: Ercole al bivio. Atti del convegno Le strade di Ercole. Itinerari umanistici e altri percorsi, <\/em>Galuzzo 2010, 127-150<\/p>\n

Academic Blogging<\/u><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

From Saint Cyricus to Simon of Trent \u2013 Or: How the Misidentification of a Getty Marble Bust Was Corrected,<\/strong> published: J. Paul Getty Museum, March 21, 2019 (co-authored with Anne-Lise Desmas, Senior Curator of Sculpture and Decorative Arts) https:\/\/blogs.getty.edu\/iris\/childs-portrait-sheds-light-on-a-violent-episode-in-renaissance-history\/<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Renaissance<\/p>\n

Renaissance Love: Eros, Passion, and Friendship in Italian Art Around 1500
\n<\/a><\/span>2014, Deutscher Kunstverlag<\/span>
\nJeanette Kohl, co-edited<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Love is not blind. On the contrary, love is highly visual and the visual arts above all others have the capacity to enflame its passion \u2013 an idea that goes back to Leonardo da Vinci. This volume, \u2018Renaissance Love: Eros, Passion, and Friendship in Italian art around 1500\u2019, presents the view of internationally renowned specialists in a collection of studies devoted to the intermeshing of art, love, and attraction. The essays not only provide valuable insights into contemporary research on the subject, but also afford new and surprising perspectives on Italian Renaissance art; in their scholarly approach to the topic they are a long-overdue contribution to the interdisciplinary discourse on love in Italian culture around 1500.<\/p>\n

Featured authors: Hans Aurenhammer, Stephen J. Campbell, Elisa de Halleux, Giancarlo Fiorenza, Jeanette Kohl, Marianne Koos, Alessandro Nova, Christopher J. Nygren, Jill Pederson, Ulrich Pfisterer and Adrian W.B. Randolph.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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