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Professor Salvatore Settis FBA

Salvatore Settis' research focuses on Greek and Roman archaeology and art history; the history of the Classical tradition; and European art from the Middle Ages to the Baroque period
Fellow type
International Fellow
Year elected
2026
Subjects
Art history
Sections
History of Art and Music

Summary

Professor Salvatore Settis (b. 1941) was Director of the Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles (1994-1999) and of the Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa (1999-2010), where he also taught Classical Archaeology and Art History.

A Founding Member of the European Research Council (2007-2011), he chaired the High Council for Cultural Heritage of Italy (2007-2009) and the Scientific Council of the Musée du Louvre (2010-2023), was Warburg Professor at Hamburg, and delivered the Isaiah Berlin Lectures at Oxford, the Mellon Lectures at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, the Cátedra del Prado Lectures in Madrid, and the Borromini Lectures at the Università della Svizzera Italiana.

He is a member of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, the Académie Royale de Belgique, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, the Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere e Arti, the Accademia delle Arti del Disegno, and the Academies of Sciences in Berlin, Munich, and Turin.

His research interests include Classical Archaeology, Renaissance Art History, and the preservation of landscape and cultural heritage. His books include:

  • La Tempesta interpretata. Giorgione, i committenti, il soggetto' (Turin, 1978) [English: 'Giorgione's Tempest. Interpreting the Hidden Subject', Cambridge 1990]
  • 'La Colonna Traiana' (Turin, 1988)
  • 'Laocoonte. Fama e stile' (Rome,1999)
  • 'Italia S.p.A. L’assalto al patrimonio culturale' (Turin, 2002)
  • 'Futuro del Classico', (Turin 2004) [English: 'The Future of the Classical', (Oxford 2006)]
  • 'Se Venezia muore' (Turin, 2014) [English: 'If Venice Dies', (New York, 2016)]
  • 'Incursioni. Arte contemporanea e tradizione' (Milan, 2020).

He edited 'Memoria dell'Antico nell'arte italiana', 3 vols, (Turin, 1984-86), 'I Greci. Storia, arte, cultura, società', 6 vols. (Turin, 1995-2002), and 'The Classical Tradition' (Harvard University Press, 2010) (with A. Grafton and G. W. Most); and is the general editor of the series 'Mirabilia Italiae'.

Exhibitions he curated include: Serial Classic (Milan, Fondazione Prada, 2015); Portable Classic (Venice, Fondazione Prada, 2015); Recycling Beauty (Milan, Fondazione Prada, 2022-23); The Torlonia Marbles. Collecting Masterpieces (Rome, Musei Capitolini, 2020-2021; Milan, Gallerie d’Italia, 2022; and Paris, Louvre, 2024).

Current post

Emeritus Professor

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