I am a historian of art with a particular interest in the intersections between the realms of art, religion, and science in the early modern period. While the major focus of my research has been on early modern northern Europe, I have always been interested in artworks, and artifacts that travelled across cultural, religious, and aesthetic boundaries and challenged traditional definitions of media and genres. My current projects span such topics as collecting practices and collection spaces; the visual and spatial imagery of interiority; the interactions between various arts and crafts in early modern Europe, especially Antwerp; and historical aspects of artists’ materials and techniques, especially concerning the diverse uses of wax, papier-mâché, and, most recently, precious metals (gold, silver, and copper).

Until 2018, I was a professor and head of the Department of Early Modern Art at the Institute of Art History at the University of Bern with which I remain associated as professor emerita. Prior to my appointment at the University of Bern (2009–2018), I was a professor and chair of art history at the University of Washington, Seattle (1998–2009), and also held research and/or teaching positions at the University of Zürich, the Freie Universität Berlin, and the Warburg Institute, London. I earned my Ph.D. at the University of Zurich, and achieved my professorship habilitation at the Freie Universität in Berlin. I served as the principal investigator or co-investigator of six major collaborative research projects, funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation, Marie Curie Actions, the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research, and the University of Bern.

My professional awards include fellowships from the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study, the Huntington Library (Los Angeles, CA), the International Research Center for Cultural History (Vienna), the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts (Washington, D.C.), the J. Paul Getty Research Institute (Los Angeles, CA), the New York Public Library, the Newberry Library (Chicago, IL), the Villa I Tatti (Firenze), and the Herzog August Bibliothek Bibliothek (Wolfenbüttel). In winter term 2023, I was a fellow at the DFG Center for Advanced Studies “Imaginaria of Force” at the Universität Hamburg. In spring semester 2024 I was the Robert Janson-La Palme *76 Visiting Professor in the Department of Art and Archaeology at Princeton University, where I taught a course on “Elemental Ecologies in Early Modern Art” and organized the conference “Metamorphic Matter: Elemental Imagery in Early Modern Art” related to the theme.

From March 16 to April 15, 2026, I will be a guest scholar at the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florence. My project explores how two prominent contemporaries, the merchant and alchemist Emmanuel Ximenes (1564–1632) and the painter and diplomat Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640), engaged with the world as makers, collectors, and lovers of art. While both Ximenes and Rubens chose Antwerp as their home, they maintained close relationships with Italy, specifically Florence (Ximenes) and Rome (Rubens).

For a complete list of research projects, fellowships, and awards, see curriculum vitae.