Staff Profiles
I have a background in Byzantine Studies with a specialisation on material culture and art history.
Before joining Newcastle University I was postdoctoral researcher at the University of Salerno (2023), Richard McConnell Student at the British School at Athens (2023), Junior Fellow at Dumbarton Oaks (2019-2020).
During my PhD in Byzantine Studies at the University of Birmingham (2016-2021), I worked on the first comprehensive study on plaster reliefs (stuccoes) for the 9th -15th century Byzantium, which I am now transforming into a monograph.
I am interested in the manipulation of natural light and in the collaboration of artisans, patrons and the liturgy in shaping the Byzantine sacred space through processes of negotiations between artisans and patrons that led to artistic innovations. I also study stucco (and moulded plaster) decorations both from the artistic point of view (iconography and technique), and as 'ephemeral' material which offers an insight into economic history (élite and non-élite customer demand), as well as the history of guilds and workshops between the 9th and 15th centuries.
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Articles
- Vanni F, Varsallona J. Seeing Byzantium through Edwin Freshfield’s eyes: Arts and Crafts, antiquarianism, and learned societies at the end of the nineteenth century. Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies 2024, 48(1), 120-147.
- Vanni, F. Seeing the Unseen: Plaster Reliefs in Middle Byzantine Constantinople. Eurasian Studies 2021, 19(1), 106-128. In Preparation.
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Book Chapters
- Vanni F. Transferring skills and techniques across the Mediterranean: some preliminary remarks on stucco in Italy and Byzantium. In: Brubaker L; Darley R; Reynolds D, ed. Global Byzantium : Papers from the Fiftieth Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies. London: Routledge, 2022, pp.332-353.
- Vanni, F. La ‘finta’ porta in Sant’Ambrogio a Montecorvino Rovella (SA): alcune riflessioni su un unicum altomedievale. In: Federico Marazzi, Marianna Cuomo, ed. La pittura parietale aniconica e decorativa fra tarda antichità e alto medioevo. Tradizioni, temi e tendenze', 7-8/09/2019, Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli. Volturnia Edizioni, 2021, pp.189-206.