Dr. des. Davide Ferri
Leiter Forschungskoordination und Öffentlichkeitsarbeit
Researcher
Davide Ferri is a historian of art and visual culture specializing in the early modern Mediterranean and its global entanglements. His interdisciplinary research combines postcolonial and ecocritical approaches to examine the political agency of images, territories, and the historiography of art history itself. He received his Ph.D. in Art History and Interdisciplinary Cultural Studies from the University of Bern in 2026 (Dr. des., summa cum laude), and holds B.A. and M.A. degrees in Art and Visual History and Classical Archaeology from Humboldt University of Berlin.
From 2019 to 2023, Ferri was a Doctoral Fellow at the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz – Max-Planck-Institut, where he also served as Academic Assistant to the Director. Since 2023, he has headed the institute’s Research Coordination and Public Relations team, working at the intersection of research, institutional strategy, and public engagement. He has held fellowships from the DAAD and the Swiss-European Mobility Programme, as well as travel and residential fellowships from the Walter Benjamin Kolleg and the Académie de France à Rome – Villa Médicis. He serves on the editorial board of ArtHist.net and previously gained curatorial and museum experience at the Humboldt Forum Foundation and in Berlin-based galleries specializing in East Asian art. In 2025, he was awarded the Early Career Prize of the Swiss Association of Art Historians.
Ferri is currently revising his dissertation into a first monograph, “Territorial Aesthetics: Genoa’s Visual Politics across Mediterranean Ecologies, 1625–1655.” His current research further explores the visualization of urban spaces, island studies, and the visual histories of labour.
- Mediterranean Sea
- Art and visual history, c.1600–1850
- Republic of Genoa
- Territoriality, environments, ecologies
- Postcolonial perspectives on embodiment and personification
- Concepts and constructions of identity in the visual arts
- Visualization of urban spaces
- Island studies
- Visual histories of labour
- ArtHist.net – International Communication and Information Network for Art History (Member of the Editorial Board)
- Verein zur Förderung der Kunsthistorischen Instituts in Florenz (Max-Planck-Institut) e.V. (Board Member)
Publications (Selection)
- Davide Ferri, "Urban Models between Visual and Material Culture: Exploring Genoa, Objects, and Cities around 1650," in La città degli storici dell’arte / The City of Art Historians, ed. by Bianca De Divitiis and Marco Folin, Turin 2025, pp. 196–215.
- Identità e storie dell’arte in Italia, 1850–1950, ed. by Davide Ferri and Giada Policicchio, special issue of Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz, 66, 3, (2024).
- Davide Ferri and Giada Policicchio, "Contro l’identità? Percorsi critici tra storiografia e metodo," in: Identità e storie dell’arte in Italia, 1850–1950 (Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz, 66, 3), 2024, pp. 211–224.
- Davide Ferri, "Genuas Königin," in: Zeitschrift für Ideengeschichte 16/2 (Summer 2022), pp. 42–50.
- Davide Ferri, "Superbarocco. Arte a Genova da Rubens a Magnasco. Scuderie del Quirinale, Rome, 26th March–3rd July," in: The Burlington Magazine 164/1430 (June 2022), pp. 597–600.
- Davide Ferri, "Die Küstenlandschaften Palästinas, die Praktiken des Reisens und die Visualisierung des Territoriums im 19. Jahrhundert," in: Vor Anker gehen. Häfen im Land der Verheißung. Von Akko und Haifa bis Aschkelon und Gaza, exhib. cat. Stendal, Winckelmann-Museum, Petersberg 2020, pp. 13–30.
- Johann Joachim Winckelmann. Römische Schriften. Text und Kommentar (Schriften und Nachlaß IX/2), ed. by Adolf H. Borbein, Max Kunze and Axel Rügler, with a commentary by Balbina Böbler, Lilian Balensiefen, Max Kunze, Adelheid Müller, Davide Ferri, and Sabina Welker, Mainz 2020.
- Davide Ferri, "Venedig," in: Robert Wimmer. Zeichnungen der Italienreise, ed. by Elke Blauert, Joachim Brand, and Georg Schelbert, Berlin 2020, pp. 43–74, 79–90.
- Davide Ferri, "Winckelmann. Moderne Antike. Recensione della mostra al Neues Museum di Weimar dal 7 aprile al 2 luglio 2017," in: Johann Joachim Winckelmann (1717–1768) nel duplice anniversario (Studi sul Settecento Romano 34), ed. by Elisa Debenedetti, Roma 2018, pp. 177–183.
- Davide Ferri, "Gewächse, Staudenarrangements und Terrainstudien. Das ‚Kräuterblatt‘ in der deutschen Landschaftszeichnung 1760–1800," in: Maria Sibylla Merian und die Tradition des Blumenbildes, ed. by Michael Roth and Martin Sonnabend, exhib. cat. Berlin, Staatliche Museen, Kupferstichkabinett and Frankfurt am Main, Städel Museum, München 2017, pp. 229–236.