Project: Against Earth: Architectural Underground and Foundation in Sixteenth- to Seventeenth-century Italy

Project: Capricious Nature: Landscape and Environmental Anxiety Before the Capriccio

Project: Writing architectural history through the lens of 18th-century theoretical treatises. The origins of the concept of the ‘teatro all’italiana’

Project: From fortifications to canals: Historical knowledge transfer about territorial modernization from Italian and German-speaking sources into the Danube basin

Aleksandar Bede received his degree in Architecture from the Faculty of Technical Sciences at the University of Novi Sad (Serbia). In 2017, he received his PhD in Urban Planning from IUAV Venice with his thesis, Prototyping a Provincial Capital: Socialist Modernisation of Novi Sad. In 2023, he was a fellow at the Summer School in Classical Architecture hosted by the Faculty of Architecture and History of Art, University of Cambridge (UK).

His research focuses on urban and territorial modernisation projects across the Danube basin, particularly between Croatia, Hungary, Romania and Serbia, in the context of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. This project aims to explore how agricultural and architectural innovations transformed this territory from the 17th to the 19th centuries by tracing primary sources on German and Italian architecture and consulting studies related to engineering, agriculture, and architecture. The Tablinum Fellowship offers the opportunity to consult German and Italian treatises on urbanisation and early industrialization, as well as all the source material compiled by the CISA Andrea Palladio for the recent exhibition Acqua, terra, fuoco. Architettura industriale nel Veneto del Rinascimento, curated by Deborah Howard (Palladio Museum, 12 November 2022 - 12 March 2023).

Project: Collaborative practices in the decoration of Palladio’s Villas in the Veneto: The Case of Battista Zelotti

Alexis Nanavaty is a second-year PhD student in Art History at The Courtauld Institute of Art, London. She received her Master of Arts, with Distinction, from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, in May 2023. Her research interests centre on collaborative networks of artists and villa culture at the Palladian Villas

During her time at the CISA Andrea Palladio, she is writing a chapter on the Villa Emo, which will contribute to her multi-year PhD thesis, Collaborative practices in the decoration of Palladio’s Villas in the Veneto: The Case of Battista Zelotti. This project examines the collaborative partnerships between Andrea Palladio and the artists who painted the decorations in the villas he designed. More specifically, her research explores the relationship between Palladio and the Veronese artist Battista Zelotti, who was involved in multiple villa projects, most notably at the Villa Foscari, the Villa Godi, and the Villa Emo. Once completed, her work will offer a new perspective on the decorative elements of the Palladian Villas and provide a foundation for future studies on this subject.

Project: ‘Restoring’ antiquity: intermedial transformation processes from the ancient source object to its publication in books

Marlene Schwemer studied Art History and Romance Philology (Italian/Portuguese) at the Universities of Vienna, Roma Tre and Ca' Foscari in Venice. Her Master's thesis examined Palladio's references to antiquity in the design of the Villa Pisani in Montagnana and was supported by a research grant from the German Centre for Venetian Studies. During her studies, she worked as a teaching assistant for the Institute of Art History, University of Vienna, at various research institutions, including the Hertziana in Rome, in museums, such as the Haus der Kunst in Munich, and for the contemporary architecture magazine Detail. Her research focuses on the history of Italian Renaissance architecture, particularly the reception of antiquity in the 16th century, Palladio's drawings and 16th-century art literature.

Her current project examines the study of antiquities by Palladio and other Renaissance architects. The starting point of this research is the reconstruction of ancient Roman ruins on paper. These drawings were then further processed into woodcuts, which in turn served as inspiration for architectural designs. By tracing this intermedial process of interpreting antiquities, her work will offer new perspectives on the reception of ancient architecture in the 16th century, emphasising the interplay between archaeological study and artistic innovation.