head of the Centre
Prof. Ivan Foletti, MA, Docteur ès Lettres
Professor at the Department of Art History
Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University, Czech Republic
Head of the Centre for Early Medieval Studies and Hans Belting Library
Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University, Czech Republic
Ivan Foletti (MA in Art History, University of Lausanne; PhD in Art History, University of Lausanne; Habilitation in Art History, Masaryk University) is an art historian specializing in the study of historiography of Byzantine art and the art of Milan, Rome and Constantinople in the late antique and early medieval period. More specifically, he studies early Christian monuments from the liturgical and ritual point of view. In addition, he is interested in using social and anthropological approaches to explore the impact of the period of migrations on art in the Mediterranean area.
Ivan is currently a Professor of Art History at Masaryk University, where he teaches courses on medieval art (Byzantium, West, Islam). He is the head of the Centre for Early Medieval Studies in Brno, editor-in-chief of the international peer-reviewed journal Convivium. Exchanges and Interactions in the Arts of Medieval Europe, Byzantium, and Mediterranean (Brno, Lausanne, Prague 2014–) and director of the Hans Belting Library. He is also director of three Editorial collections Studia Artium Mediaevalium Brunensia (Rome 2013–), Parva Convivia (Brno 2016–) and Convivia (Brno, Rome 2017–). He taught as invited professor at the universities of Fribourg, Lausanne, Naples, Padua, Poitiers, Prague and Venice, and he was also a fellow at the Swiss Institute in Rome, at the Max-Planck-Institut für Kunstgeschichte – Bibliotheca Hertziana, and at the Zentrum für Literatur- und Kulturforschung in Berlin.
Ivan directed the Swiss national found Ambizione project (2013-2017), “Les morts et leurs corps comme lieu d'éthno-agrégation et de contacte: la cas d'Ambroise, de Gervais et de Protais au haut Moyen Âge,” dedicated to the interaction between objects, relics and migrants in Milan and Lombardy in 4-10th century and the experimental project “Migrating Art Historians” (2017, Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University). Currently, he is directing the project “Transforming the Spaces and the Minds. Materiality, Performativity and Perception in the Late Antique (4th–6th century) Baptismal Zones” (2017-2019, Grant Agency of Masaryk University).
Ivan has published over 20 articles in peer-reviewed journals, such as Arte Lombarda, Convivium, Kunstchronik, Perspective, and Zeitschrift für Kunsgeschichte. He is the author of 3 monographs: Da Bisanzio alla Santa Russia, Rome 2011 (English translation in 2017), with Manuela Gianadrea; Zona Liminare. Il nartece di Santa Sabina, le sue porte e l'iniziazione cristiana, Rome 2015; and the forthcoming Oggetti, reliquie e migranti La basilica Ambrosiana e il culto dei suoi santi. Moreover, he is the editor of some 24 conference proceedings and collective monographs.