Anaelle Rossi
Anaelle Rossi (France, 1999) is a PhD student in art history at the University of Grenoble Alpes and the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, under the supervision of Guillaume Cassegrain and Giovanni Careri. Her thesis, titled Les Histoires d’Esther. Traditions judaïques et pensée chrétienne dans l’Italie du nord (1490-1630) aims to examine the representation of the biblical heroine Esther and explore the cultural and political implications associated with this motif in the early modern period. Through a hermeneutical approach that intimately combines texts and images, she seeks to identify cultural constants within this narrative framework, from which the historical and imaginary figure of the Jew is considered.
Her project at Villa Medici
During her residency at Villa Medici, Anaelle Rossi will conduct research on the works of the artist Giovanni Guerra in Rome, particularly those representing the story of the Book of Esther. This research will focus on a painted cycle present at Villa Medici, notable for its association with a cycle depicting the stories of Joseph. The portrayal of an identity tension within these two figures from the Old Testament suggests the hypothesis of Esther’s connection to a Hebrew imagination constructed through a Christian dialectic. Reevaluating Giovanni Guerra’s work in Rome will further deepen the arguments made in her thesis regarding the relationship between pictorial and theological inquiries, as well as the interaction between the Catholic and Jewish communities in the context of this iconographic theme.