Lydia’s research centres on the Renaissance in the Umbrian region of Italy.

Her doctoral thesis concentrated on patronage in Perugia and the surrounding towns. In 2023 Lydia will be taking up a Post Doctoral Fellowship at the NIKI Institute in Florence to continue her research on collecting and marketing in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries of the textiles known as Tovaglie Perugine or Perugia Towels.

Selected Academic Papers

2022 De bono ligname stagionato como tale lavorio recede: Patrons and Panels in Early Modern Perugia, Renaissance Society of America Dublin Conference

2021 Tovaglie Perugine: Rural Handicraft or Product for a New Consumer Age? Annual Conference of the Renaissance Society of America

2019 Painted Performance: Art and Theatre in an Umbrian Confraternity, PhD Research for the Seminar School of Advanced Study, University of London. This paper was awarded most Impressive Presentation of the Year 2019-20

2018 Patrons and Painters: Choosing an Artist in Renaissance Umbria, Work in Progress at The Warburg Institute

2016 Tracing the Materiality and Depiction of Perugia Towels in Renaissance Italy, MEMS Festival, University of Kent

2015 El Maestro el Megliore: being ‘the best’ in the art market in Perugia in 1505, Association for Art History Annual Conference