Lisa M. Rafanelli, Ph.D.

Associate Professor

Associate Professor Lisa Rafanelli joined the Department of Art History at Manhattanville College in 2004 as a full-time member of the faculty, and a specialist in the art and architecture of the Italian Renaissance. She teaches a wide range of lecture courses from the introductory level Survey of Art History, to courses on Medieval Art and Architecture, Art in Italy during the Early and High Renaissance, Northern Renaissance Art, and Baroque Art and Architecture in Italy. She has offered advanced seminars on Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Fifteenth Century Florence, Renaissance Venice, and Women Artists of the Italian Renaissance and Baroque. Prof. Rafanelli also offers specialized seminars as part of the Castle Scholars Program. Beginning with the academic year 2009-2010, Prof. Rafanelli assumed the position of Chair of the Department of Art History.

Prof. Rafanelli regularly leads the Art History Department's study tours abroad, a program now in its 13th year. Study tours are offered in a three year rotation, with the most recent schedule: Florence and Tuscany (2010), Venice (2011), and Rome (2012).

Prof. Rafanelli chairs the Faculty Admissions Committee at Manhattanville College, and is an elected member of the Faculty Status Committee.

Prof. Rafanelli earned her J.D. in 1992 from Columbia University School of Law, and her Ph.D. in 2004 from New York University's Institute of Fine Arts. She has published numerous articles in scholarly journals and edited anthologies, and regularly presents papers and chairs sessions at annual conferences.

She is currently at work co-authoring a book, Gender and Belief in Italian Renaissance and Baroque Art.

Recent publications:

Review article, "To Touch with the Gaze," IKON: Journal of Iconographic Studies 6 (Brepols Publishers), June 2102.

"Thematizing Vision in the Renaissance: The Noli Me Tangere as a Metaphor for Art Making" Chapter 10 in Sense and the Senses in Early Modern Art and Cultural Practice, A. Sanger and S. Kulbrandstad Walker, eds., Ashgate (June 2012,), pp. 149-168. ISBN 978-1-4094-004-2

"Michelangelo's Noli Me Tangere for Vittoria Colonna: A Reflection of the Changing Status of Women in Renaissance Italy," in Reinventing Mary Magdalene: Iconographical Studies from the Middle Ages to the Baroque, Amy Morris and Michelle Erhart, eds. (Leiden: Brill) (in press, anticipated late Fall 2012). ISBN 978-90-04-23195-5

"To Touch or Not to Touch: The Noli Me Tangere and Incredulity of Thomas in Word and Image from Early Christianity to the Ottonian period," in Noli Me Tangere: Text Image Context: Contributions of Exegesis, Art History, Philosophy and Literature Studies Concerning the Prohibition of Touch in John 20:17 (Annua Nuntia Lovaniensia, 67) R. Bieringer, K. Demasure and B. Baert eds. (in press, anticipated 2012), pp. 135-174.

"Sense and Sensibilities: A Feminist Reading of Titian's Noli Me Tangere (1509-1515)," Critica d'Arte 35/36 (2009), pp. 28-47.

Recent conference participation:

Session chair and organizer, "Faith, Gender and the Senses in Italian Renaissance and Baroque Art, I and II" (Renaissance Society of America Annual Conference, San Diego, scheduled for April 2013)

"Gender and Belief in Italian Renaissance and Baroque Art," Faculty Lecture Series, Manhattanville College, April 25, 2012.

Session chair and organizer, "Consuming the Renaissance in Popular Culture" (College Art Association 97th Annual Conference, Chicago, February 10-13, 2010).

"Michelangelo's Noli Me Tangere for Vittoria Colonna as a Signifier of the Changing Status of Women in Renaissance Italy," presented at the International Conference: Noli Me Tangere in Interdisciplinary Perspective (Katholieke Universiteit, Leuven, December 17-18, 2009).

"To Touch or Not to Touch: The Noli Me Tangere and Incredulity of Thomas in Word and Image from Early Christianity to the Ottonian period," presented at the International Conference: Noli Me Tangere: Word, Image, Context (Rome, Academica Belgica, April 1-4 2008).