Jacob Eisensmith

Jacob specializes in early modern Italian art, with a focus on painting and visual culture. His current research is concerned with the role of cultural contact between Italian port cities and the larger Mediterranean, specifically how such interactions manifest themselves within Italian arts as a means of identity formation. His past work has examined the relationship of textiles, their depiction in paintings, and sumptuary laws in fourteenth and fifteenth century Northern Italy. His research interests include materiality, the politics of urban space, reception, and cultural contact between Italy and the larger Mediterranean.