Davide Ferri, M.A.
Head of Research Coordination & PR / Researcher
Davide Ferri is an art historian interested in the connections between images, environments, and political discourses, primarily from 1600 to 1850, at the intersection of art history, image history, and cultural studies. Since 2023, he has been a Research Associate at the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz – Max-Planck-Institut, where he heads the Research Coordination and Public Relations unit. Additionally, he teaches as an adjunct lecturer in the Department of Art History at the University of Bern, Switzerland.
Davide holds a B.A. in Art History and Archaeology and an M.A. in Art and Visual History from Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany. He is completing a Ph.D. in Art History at the University of Bern under the supervision of Professor Urte Krass, as part of the doctoral program in Interdisciplinary Cultural Studies at the Walter Benjamin Kolleg. His dissertation, Territorial Aesthetics: Genoa’s Visual Politics across Mediterranean Ecologies, 1625–1655, examines 'territory' as an aesthetic operation across a broad transregional horizon and from ecocritical and postcolonial perspectives.
From 2019 to 2023, Davide was a Doctoral Fellow at the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz – Max-Planck-Institut and concurrently served as Academic Assistant to the Director. Prior to this, he worked at the Humboldt Forum Foundation and at the Census of Antique Works of Art and Architecture Known in the Renaissance, and he served as a curatorial assistant for Berlin-based galleries, focusing on ancient and contemporary East Asian art. In addition to his scholarly work, he has extensive experience in project management, public relations, and outreach, operating at the intersection of academic research, knowledge transfer, and public discourse. He has been a fellow of the DAAD and the Swiss-European Mobility Programme, and in 2025 was awarded the Early Career Prize of the Swiss Association of Art History.
- 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
- 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.