Chiara Cecalupo

Name: CHIARA CECALUPO
PhD: PhD in Museology and History of Early Christian Archaeology
UC3M department: Humanities: History, Geography and Art
E-mail (uc3m): ccecalup@hum.uc3m.es

Project:

LIT! Living in the catacombs! Reception of catacomb art in European culture and architecture between the 19th and 20th century

Reception of ancient art and archaeology in modern and contemporary Europe follows many paths and expresses in different ways, especially in the last two centuries. In the middle of the 19th century, due to the incredible discoveries of early-Christian catacombs in Rome, the fever of Christian art exploded in Europe and expressed in many special ways. One of these, the center of this research, is the birth of many architectural buildings and constructions inspired by catacomb art, i.e. fac-simile catacombs, museums structured as catacombs, internal decoration of private rooms inspired by hypogea Christian paintings. There are traces of this phenomenon in many European countries, but the topic has been little investigated, even if it had undoubted repercussions of culture and art of Europe between the 19th and the 20th century. The project LIT! analyses in depth the cases of buildings inspired by catacombs, their influxes and effect on national and international culture, and offer the first, complete study on the topic of reception of early-Christian catacomb art in Europe from the middle of the 19th to the beginning of the 20th century, one of the most crucial moment for European cultural and political definition. The project develops an international approach to the topic by combining archaeological research with art and architecture, sociology, and common culture on the European level. It will serve to give a new strong contribution to the study of European antiquarianism and Historiography of Christian Archaeology.

CV:

Chiara Cecalupo received her PhD in Museology and History of Early Christian Archaeology at the Pontificio Istituto di Archeologia Cristiana in Rome and her BA and MA in Museology at the University of Pisa. She is a specialist in history of archaeology, reception of antiquities from the 16th to the 19th century and antiquarian studies in the Mediterranean area. Her main focus is on the rediscovery of early-Christian catacombs in the Mediterranean basin (especially Italy and Malta), on history of archaeological museums and collections of early-Christian objects, on archival studies applied to the archaeology. She has a very strong record of publication concerning museology and history of Christian archaeology. As a researcher, she collaborated with several universities and museums in Italy and Malta, with the Vatican Museum and with the Italian Council of National Research (Istituto di Scienze del Patrimonio Culturale). She is also leading an international research project concerning the rediscovery of Italian and Maltese catacombs in the early-modern times. She is an active member the Römisches Institut der Görres-Gesellschaft.

Public profiles of the researcher:

Scientific Production

Scientific Pubblications

Catacumbas en museos: archivos documentales y fotográficos para la historia de la museografía, in Anales historia del arte, 32, 2022, pp. 237-255 (in press) [Available online]

The study and dissemination of an iconography: banquet scenes from the catacombs of Rome to the facsimile catacombs of the nineteenth century, in Journal of Art Historiography, 26, 2022 [Available online]

The Malta Pavilion at the British Empire Exhibition of 1924 as an Expression of Maltese Museology, in Il Capitale Culturale, 25, 2022, pp. 491-518 [Available online]

The Collecting History of an Early Christian Lead Vessel: From Carthage to the 1867 Paris Universal Exhibition, in American Journal of Archaeology, 126 (2), 2022, pp. 243–259.

Notes on letters from Maltese archaeologists to Alfred Louis Delattre (1902–1909), in Journal of Mediterranean Studies, 30 (1), 2021, pp. 21-40.

The Catacombs in Rome. Collecting and displaying in the first Christian cemeteries, in God's Collections [Available online]

Christian Archaeology in Malta between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries from two unknown letters, in Bulletin of the History of Archaeology, 32(1): 1, 2021, pp. 1–15 [Available online]

Giovanni Battista e Michele Stefano de Rossi all’Esposizione Universale di Parigi (1867), in Rivista di Archeologia Cristiana, 97 (2), 2021, pp. 319–347 [Available online]

Breve esbozo histórico del coleccionismo de antigüedades (siglos XVII-XXI) (con C.M. Mauro), in Abantos. Homenaje a Paloma Cabrera Bonet, Madrid 2021, pp. 939-948 [Available online]

Communication and dissemination activities

Congress organization

29.09.2021, Organization of the international workshop “Revealing Christian Heritage. Talks on the rediscovery of Christian archaeology between 1860 and 1930”. UC3M, Madrid/hybrid.

Invited speaker

14.07.2022. “La arqueología cristiana en Tarragona a principios del siglo XX. Descubrimientos, estudios, museos y la relación con Roma”, Museu Biblic, Tarragona.

23.06.2022. "L'histoire de l'archéologie chrétienne au Maghreb", École thématique “Penser les archives de l’archéologie au Maghreb", Archives Nationales de Tunisie, Tunis.

Chair of session

Chair of session “Mesa 2. Arte entre dos mundos” at the international congress “Pompeya y Herculano entre dos mundos. La recepción de un mito en España y América”, UC3M/Musseo Aruqeologico Nacional, Madrid.

Conferences

14.06.2022. “La Catedral de Roma: un centro de cultura, colecciones y espiritualidad”, International Congress Congreso Internacional VIII Centenario Catedral de Burgos 'El mundo de las catedrales', Burgos.

30.05.2022. “Navigating Christian Antiquities through the Archive”, International Congress Antiquity in the Archives, Norwegian Institute, Roma.

14.10.2021. "Bulićev Tusculum kao zrcalo međunarodnog muzeološkog iskustva" (con Bozana Maletić). Congress Salona između Sredozemlja i Panonije. Archaeological Museum, Split/hybrid.

29.09.2021. "Reception of catacomb art in European culture and architecture". International Workshop Revealing Christian Heritage. Talks on the rediscovery of Christian archaeology between 1860 and 1930.

10.09.2021, Kiel. “Fac-simile catacombs in Europe between the 19th and the 20th century as monumental expression of memory and emotion”. International Congress 27th Annual Meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists (EAA).

Poster

03.03.2022. “Reminiscenze iconografiche delle catacombe e delle chiese romane in alcuni mosaici del Verano (Roma)” (con Guido de Blasi). Poster presentation at the congress XXVIII Colloquio AISCOM. Udine/hybrid

26-27.03.2022. “Catacombs, facsimile copies and museums between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries: How digital archives and open access amplify the post-pandemic workplace of a historian”. Poster presentation at the International Congress 2022 Marie-Curie Alumni Association Annual Conference and General Assembly. Lisbona/hybrid

Review

Open access peer-review: López Salas E. A collection of narrative practices on cultural heritage with innovative technologies and creative strategies [version 1; peer review: 2 approved]. Open Research Europe, 2021, 1:130 [Available online]

Dissemination activities

“La arqueología cristiana en Tarragona y su relación con Roma”. Església de Tarragona. July-August 2022 (in press).

02.03.2022, “Dalle catacombe al museo: storia dei musei cristiani”. Società Friulana di Archeologia, online meeting https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7S1ADEGYBI

“Dalle catacombe al museo: storia dei musei cristiani”. In Bollettino della Società Friulana di Archeologia, 1, anno XXVI, aprile 2022, pp. 8-9 [Available online].

“Getting some perspective”, in The Academic Woman Magazine: Celebrating Women’s achievements, oct-dec 2021.

24-25.09.2021. Research Showcase, ERN Intersection, European Researchers’ Night. https://twitter.com/GlobalSciShow/status/1441447336018956289

“Reasearch - Living in the catacombs!”, in 27th Marie Curie Alumni Association NEWSLETTER, June 2021 https://www.mariecuriealumni.eu/newsletters/27th-mcaa-newsletter/reasearch-living-catacombs

Organization of expositions

18.03.2022-01.04-2022. Scientific organization of the exposition “Una postal de las catacumbas. Exposición de tarjetas postales artísticas de las catacumbas romanas de 1890”. Biblioteca de Humanidades, Comunicación y Documentación. Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Getafe (Madrid).

Website and social media

https://catacombsrediscovery.com/conex-plus-project-lit/

https://twitter.com/ChiaraCecalupo