Angiola Maria Romanini - Infinite Women

Born: 26 February 1926, Italy
Died: 18 January 2002
Country most active: Italy
Also known as: NA

This biography is shared from The Dictionary of Art Historians, part of the Duke Digital Art History and Visual Culture Research Lab, in line with the Creative Commons licensing. See below for full attribution.

Professor of art history; directed the publications of the Enciclopedia Italiana, founder and director of the magazine Arte Medievale. Romanini was born in Legnano and trained at the University of Pavia under Eduardo Yetwart Arslan (1899-1968). She then continued her studies at the Scuola di specializzazione di Roma under Geza De Francovich and Guilo Carlo Argan where she focused on late medieval art and architecture. She wrote extensively on the humanistic culture of northern Italy including works on Donatello, Mategna, and Bramante. She contributed to important works on Lombard architecture throughout the 13th to 15th century and also Romanques art during the Veronese era. She argued that the formation of the Cistercians and their development of the fulcrum marked a transition between the Romanesque and Gothic in Lombardy. Her monograph on Arnolfo di Cambio marked a transition in the scholars focus from individual artists to scientific research. In 1972, she transferred to the University of Rome as the Chair of the Medieval Art History department. She organized Settimane di Storia dell’arte medievale, a weekly international conference that has been fundamental for international bibliography. Many of these conferences lead to publications. She was a member of the Accademia dei Lincei beginning in 1987, the Pontificia Accademia di Archeologia e Storia dell’Arte, and the Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften of Vienna. The first of her twelve publications for the l’Enciclopedia dell’arte medievale was released in 1991. These monumental volumes, noted for their scholarly approach, were promoted by the Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana.
In addition to her work in academia, she promoted the discipline of art history through her organization of international conventions which lead to the formation of Storia dell’arte medioevale in Italia, a university textbook. Her commitment to the field of art history and work on the prestigious magazine Arte medievale contributed to a revival of medieval studies in Italy.