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Costanza BeltramiSenior lecturer

About me

I am a lecturer and researcher in Art History. My work explores Gothic art and architecture in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. Geographically, I focus mainly—but not exclusively—on the Spanish region of Castile and its international connections. I am interested in architectural drawings, collaboration, transculturation, and temporality.

Teaching

My teaching focuses on Medieval and Renaissance art and architecture from Cordoba to Florence (and beyond). I currently teach on the ground-level courses Konstvetenskap I and II. 

Research

Before joining Stockholm University, I studied Art History at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London, and worked at the University of Oxford/St Catherine's College. There, I focused on a range of topics broadly related to late-Gothic architecture, notably a newly discovered monumental drawing of a tower from Rouen cathedral, the subject of a book I published in 2016, and ornament prints and their use as artists’ models, which I investigated in an article published in The Burlington Magazine. Building on this experience, I have recently written an encyclopaedia essay on writing about medieval architecture.

In 2020 I completed my PhD thesis on the figure of Juan Guas (active 1453–1496), long recognised as the leading architect of late fifteenth-century Spain. Guas led construction projects at major cathedrals, and he designed monasteries, convents and palaces for the most eminent patrons of his time. He has been celebrated as the ‘genius’ who single-handedly created Spain’s ‘Hispano-Flemish’ style by fusing northern European Gothic with the so-called mudéjar construction techniques of southern Iberia, derived from Andalusi traditions. Thus, his buildings pose fascinating questions regarding migrant networks, cultural contact, the meanings of architecture, and the role of art in debates on national identity from the 15th century to the present. These questions underpin my current book project, on collaboration, artistic identity, and the geographies of exchange in late-Gothic Castile. A recent book chapter builds on this research to consider memory, modernity and anachronism in the decoration of the Toledan convent of San Juan de los Reyes and its later reception.

Broader issues of exchange animate the forthcoming volume Art, Travel and Exchange between Iberia and Global Geographies, 1400–1550, co-edited with Sylvia Alvares Correa and under contract with Brill. Bringing together contributions from international scholars working on Spain, Portugal, and related regions, this edited volume aims to address the impact of ‘itinerant’ artworks, artists, and ideas, and to investigate moments of encounter, conflict, and non-linear transfers of materials, techniques, and iconographies. I am also interested in architectural drawing, and I am currently editing a special issue on portable drawings and paper in Medieval and Gothic architecture.

I am Reviews Editor for the Journal of the British Archaeological Association.

Publications

My most recent publications: 

A selection from Stockholm University publication database

  • Karl Kinsella. God’s Own Language: Architectural Drawing in the Twelfth Century. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2023

    2024. Costanza Beltrami. H-Sci-Med-Tech

    Article

    Karl Kinsella’s book opens with an imaginary walk along the Seine, and the metaphor of walking extends from the first page to the more detailed exploration of In visionem Ezekielis presented in the volume’s central chapters. “On Ezekiel’s vision” is an unfinished biblical commentary written by Richard of Saint Victor (d. 1173) at the renowned French abbey of Saint Victor. Richard’s text proposes a literal exegesis of the prophet Ezekiel’s vision of a temple complex, contained in the Old Testament (Richard analyzes Ezekiel 40–48). Richard was the first to attempt a detailed study of the prophet’s complex visionary account. Kinsella’s book is explicitly structured as a walk-through of Richard’s analysis. Richard’s work itself retraces step-by-step the progress of the prophet’s vision, just as, in the biblical text, Ezekiel follows a man with a “brazen complexion” and a measuring rod through the temple complex (Ezekiel 40:3). “God’s own language” thus structured Ezekiel’s experience and its medieval commentaries, just as it organizes Kinsella’s resonating, multilayered analysis. Metaphors of movement are particularly fitting for this slender and engaging volume in which every word seems accurately calibrated to drive the “plot” forward.

    Read more about Karl Kinsella. God’s Own Language: Architectural Drawing in the Twelfth Century. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2023

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