Center for the Art and Architectural History of Port Cities “La Capraia” /
The Medieval Kingdom of Sicily Image Database Project

The Center for the Art and Architectural History of Port Cities “La Capraia” (a partnership between the Edith O’Donnell Institute of Art History and the Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte) and the Medieval Kingdom of Sicily Image Database Project invite applications for a Spring 2023 Research Residency in Naples that brings together art history, museum studies, and the digital humanities.

Over the course of the spring 2023 semester (mid-January to early June), the Research Resident will dedicate 25 hours per week on site at the Museo di Capodimonte searching for historical representations of the medieval monuments of southern Italy. This research will be carried out by mining specific areas of the Capodimonte collection (primarily works on paper, paintings, and decorative arts including porcelain) and gathering essential information about those representations to create new entries for the Medieval Kingdom of Sicily Image Database. In carrying out this research, the Research Resident will work directly with the Center Coordinator in Naples, the Head of Digitization at Capodimonte, and the Program Coordinator at the O’Donnell Institute, with the supervision of the Director of the Center; the Research Resident will also collaborate with colleagues at Capodimonte and researchers and technologists from the Medieval Kingdom of Sicily Image Database Project team. At the beginning of the Spring semester, the Research Resident will participate in orientations to the Medieval Kingdom of Sicily Image Database and to relevant areas of the Capodimonte collections.

Candidates should hold at least a Master’s degree or its equivalent; demonstrate a foundation in art/architectural history as well as familiarity with Naples and southern Italy; show interest or experience in the digital humanities; and possess working knowledge of databases, spreadsheets, shared cloud storage, and basic photo editing software. The strongest candidates will demonstrate professionalism and adaptability, excellent organizational skills and attention to detail, and the ability to work both independently and collaboratively. Candidates may be of any nationality, but because the database is in English, should have excellent knowledge of English and Italian.

The Medieval Kingdom of Sicily Image Database Research Residency at La Capraia will run from 16 January through 9 June 2023. The Research Resident will be awarded free lodging and study space at La Capraia and a stipend of 3,000 EUR, administered by the Amici di Capodimonte, to help defray the cost of living. The Research Resident will be granted privileged access to collections and research resources at Capodimonte. The Research Resident is expected to dedicate 25 hours per week to the Kingdom of Sicily Image Database Project, and to participate in the organized activities, scholarly programs, and intellectual life of the Center. The Research Resident will be invited to present their work in an informal seminar at the end of the spring semester, and to contribute a short essay to the Center’s annual research report in the summer following the residency period.

The Research Resident will be responsible for obtaining appropriate visas if needed (the Center will provide official letters of support) and for providing proof of health insurance. The Research Resident must arrange their own travel to and from Naples. Because the Center is housed within an Italian institution, all residents are required to follow Italian law and demonstrate proof of vaccination against COVID-19 (pending current regulations when the residency period begins).

Candidates are invited to submit a cover letter, a CV, and a statement (1,000-1,500 words) that describes their interest in the project, how it relates to their academic and professional interests, and their academic and professional preparation to collaborate with the Medieval Kingdom of Sicily Image Database Project. Application materials must be in English. Materials should be sent in a single PDF file (with last name as the title of the file) to Center Coordinator, Dott.ssa Francesca Santamaria (lacapraiagmail.com). In addition, applicants must invite three recommenders to send letters of support directly to the same email address. All materials, including letters of recommendation, are due by June 30, 2022. Finalists will be invited to Zoom interviews with members of the Medieval Kingdom of Sicily Image Database Project team.

About the Medieval Kingdom of Sicily Image Database Project

Launched at Duke University and headed by Caroline Bruzelius (Duke University, Emerita) and Paola Vitolo (Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II), the Medieval Kingdom of Sicily Image Database (https://kos.aahvs.duke.edu/) was created to collect, host and display images made by travelers, mapmakers, historians, architects and artists of medieval and early modern monuments and cities of Southern Italy. It includes prints, drawings, ground plans and elevations, paintings, photographs, and any other type of image of sites from roughly 1100 to 1450. We include images of cities and monuments, and of interior furnishings, such as tombs, altars, mosaics, ceilings, pavements and frescoes. The image sources include public and private collections, museums, libraries and archives, print books, and online resources. The project expands as new images are found and cataloged. Entries in the database are indexed by location, artist, and collection. Recent images, produced or published after circa 1950, including architectural plans, photographs, and reconstructions, can be found as part of the “Visual Docs” category for each monument represented.

Historic views of southern Italian buildings are important historical documents because this geographical area has been deeply affected by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and World War II bombardment, as well as by urban renewal projects, nineteenth- and twentieth-century restorations, and urban expansion and industrialization in the post-World War II period. The database aims to enhance knowledge of Southern Italy, the historic Kingdom of Sicily, and to serve as an aid in study and research, as well as understanding the many changes to buildings and cities over time.

Visit the Database at https://kos.aahvs.duke.edu/ and follow us on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/medieval.kosid.

About the Center for the Art and Architectural History of Port Cities “La Capraia”

Founded in 2018, the Center for the Art and Architectural History of Port Cities “La Capraia” is a partnership between the Edith O’Donnell Institute of Art History at the University of Texas at Dallas and the Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte, with the collaboration of the Amici di Capodimonte and Franklin University Switzerland. Housed in La Capraia, a rustic eighteenth-century agricultural building at the heart of the Bosco di Capodimonte, the Center engages the museum and the city of Naples as a laboratory for new research in the cultural histories of port cities and the mobilities of artworks, people, technologies, and ideas. Global in scope, research at the Center is grounded in direct study of objects, sites, collections, and archives in Naples and southern Italy. Through research residencies for advanced graduate students, small field seminars, and larger programs organized with partner institutions, the Center fosters research on Naples and southern Italy as a site of cultural encounter, exchange, and transformation, and cultivates a network of scholars working at the intersection of the global and the local.

Download an overview of the Center at https://tinyurl.com/LaCapraiaOverview, visit our website at https://arthistory.utdallas.edu/port-cities/, and follow us on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/lacapraia.