Amy Bloch

Areas of Expertise: Italian Renaissance Art and Architecture

Amy Bloch, Associate Professor of Art History, is a scholar of Italian Renaissance art. Her recent publications explore Donatello and goldsmithing, his engagement with music and sound, Fra Angelico’s use of gold, Donatello’s and Lorenzo Ghiberti’s representations of the effects of early Christianity on the practice of sculpture, Jacopo della Quercia’s Fonte Gaia, and the placement of Michelangelo’s David. Her current research investigates the practice of goldsmithing in Renaissance Italy, and in particular the representation, in paintings and sculptures, of objects made by goldsmiths. Professor Bloch’s book on Ghiberti’s artistic interpretations of Old Testament narratives in the Gates of Paradise was published by Cambridge University Press in 2016. She has co-edited two books, the first a festschrift (Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, 2019) and the second a collection of essays focusing on fifteenth-century sculpture in Italy (Cambridge University Press, 2020). Her work has been supported by fellowships and grants from the Villa I Tatti (the Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies in Florence), the Renaissance Society of America, and the College Art Association. At the University at Albany, Professor Bloch teaches courses on Italian Renaissance art and architecture (1250-1450 and 1450-1600) and northern European art (1350-1600), and an introductory survey of art in/as protest. Her recent seminars have considered the work of Michelangelo and the sculpture of Donatello, in particular his creative and nontraditional use of materials.