°ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¿ª½±½á¹û

Photograph of Donal Cooper

Phone number: +44 (0)1223 761850

Email: dac66@cam.ac.uk

Website:

Professor Donal Cooper

Fellow, Director of Studies in History of Art
University Positions
University Professor
Subjects
Specialising in
Italian Renaissance art

Donal Cooper is a specialist in medieval and Renaissance art in Italy and the broader Mediterranean.

Academic interests

Donal Cooper's main academic interest is art and architecture in Italy and the Mediterranean during the later Middle Ages and Renaissance. He is particularly interested in:

  • Giotto
  • Franciscan artistic patronage at Assisi and elsewhere
  • The art and culture of Venice and its maritime empire in the Adriatic
  • The display of Renaissance art in the modern museum.

Degrees obtained

  • BA, Oxon.
  • MA and PhD, London.

Awards and prizes

  • Philip Leverhulme Prize for outstanding research, 2007.
  • Art Book Prize for The Making of Assisi, 2014.

Biography

Donal Cooper read modern history at Oxford University before studying art history at the Courtauld Institute of Art. He completed his PhD on Franciscan art and architecture in central Italy at the Courtauld in 2000.

Between 2002 and 2005 he worked in the Research Department at the V&A, contributing to the redisplay of the Museum’s . Before joining Cambridge in 2013, he was Assistant and then Associate Professor in the History of Art Department at the University of Warwick.

He was awarded a Philip Leverhulme Prize for outstanding scholarship in 2006 and held a Hannah Kiel Fellowship at the Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies at Villa I Tatti in Florence from 2009 to 2010.

Dr Cooper’s research focuses on sacred art and architecture in Italy from the 13th to 16th centuries, with particular emphasis on the patronage of the most dynamic religious order of the age, the Franciscans.

Beyond Italy, Dr Cooper researches Latin artistic patronage in the Eastern Mediterranean, especially in Dalmatia, Crete, and other former territories of the Venetian Stato da Mar.

​Donal’s interests range widely from Byzantine style mosaics through Renaissance painting to Baroque architecture, but a common thread is the perception of artworks within their historical contexts. In other words, how artworks could have been viewed differently at different times by a range of different audiences.

Donal’s approach combines close examination of paintings and artefacts in museum collections with extensive on site analysis of historic buildings in Italy and elsewhere. He is also keen to exploit the potential of new digital technologies for presenting past environments. This sensitivity to historic contexts shows how we can still discover fresh insights about major works by painters like Giotto and Raphael.

Dr Cooper welcomes applications from research students interested in the art and architecture of Southern Europe between around 1200 and 1550.

Department link

Publications, links and resources

The first volume of his co authored study with Dr Janet Robson on the Basilica of San Francesco, , was published by Yale University Press in 2013, receiving a five star  and winning the .

Other recent publications have focused on , and Dr Cooper was a major contributor to the catalogue accompanying the exhibition held at the Louvre in spring 2013. Future publications reassess works by Raphael and Titian for Franciscan churches in light of their spatial settings and ritual contexts.

He is also interested in the application of to recover and communicate original contexts for artworks. In conjunction with the National Gallery, Dr Cooper is co supervising an AHRC funded doctoral project to reconstruct the historic settings of a number of the gallery’s Renaissance altarpieces.

Together with Professor Francois Penz in Cambridge's Department of Architecture, he collaborated with the National Gallery to and virtual reconstruction for the recent Visions of Paradise exhibition which ran from November 2015 to March 2016.

Hear from our students

  • Photograph of a postgraduate student

    Jake

    Postgraduate

    When applying to Cambridge colleges it can feel a bit overwhelming as there are so many to choose from. I applied to °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¿ª½±½á¹û because it has a large MCR which was important for me because I wanted to feel part of a community. Now that I’m doing my PhD here, I’m very glad I did choose a college with a large postgraduate community. Throughout the year there are lots of postgraduate events, including formal dinners, special formals at Christmas and Easter, bops in the bar and film nights in...

    Read more
    Postgraduate
  • Photograph of a postgraduate student

    Matthew

    Postgraduate

    °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¿ª½±½á¹û has been at the heart of my Cambridge experience. I chose the College because I was impressed by its distinctive blend of academic rigour and extracurricular achievement. A College for all-rounders, Jesus is a lively and rewarding place to study. I couldn’t be happier here! Friendly and engaged, the Jesus postgraduate community never ceases to impress me. At ease with themselves and forever curious, my peers go out of their way to cultivate a sense of camaraderie. After a day of leafing through old manuscripts at the National...

    Read more
    Postgraduate
  • Postgraduate at °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¿ª½±½á¹û

    Dolly

    Postgraduate

    I chose °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¿ª½±½á¹û because of the great mixture of undergraduates and postgraduates, and when I first visited I thought it was the most beautiful place I had ever seen! The sense of community in Jesus has had an enormous impact on my experience here. Whether you need help, advice, cheering up or even just a chat there is always someone there to put a smile on your face. From the MCR committee to the Porters, the canteen staff to the gardeners, everyone is so friendly and welcoming. Jesus also...

    Read more
    Postgraduate
  • Photograph of a postgraduate student

    Tara

    Postgraduate

    °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¿ª½±½á¹û has all the benefits of being large, historical and prestigious college, whilst also retaining fantastic welfare: the staff and other students all care about each other, and will be there to cheer you on when you are thriving, but also there to support you if you need any help. I chose Jesus due to several reasons, including its prime location, where it is very central, and easy to access everywhere, even if you work in one of the institutes further out. I also selected Jesus for its MCR...

    Read more
    Postgraduate
  • °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¿ª½±½á¹û Postgraduate Student

    Imogen

    Postgraduate

    I chose Cambridge for my PGCE as it’s the leading UK institution for teacher training and Education, with an exciting, research-dominated, cutting edge course. The staff are welcoming and approachable, and make studying here an absolute joy. I’ve already completed one of my three primary school placements, in a reception class in a school just outside Cambridge, and am due to start the next one soon. I chose Jesus because of its reputation as a sporty College, but the proximity to the city centre is a big bonus. Jesus also...

    Read more
    Postgraduate