School of Art and Design Interim Director

Dr. Riccardo Pizzinato is a historian of medieval art and visual culture, with a primary focus on artistic production between 800 and 1300. His main interests include early medieval manuscripts and museum studies. He earned his M.A. in Late Medieval and Early Renaissance Art from the Catholic University in Milan, Italy, in 2005 and completed his Ph.D. in Medieval Art at The Johns Hopkins University in 2012. Before joining the University of Texas at Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV), Dr. Pizzinato served as the Zanvyl Krieger Curatorial Fellow in the Department of Manuscripts and Rare Books at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore from 2009 to 2012, where he contributed to the creation of a digital catalog of the manuscript collections. From 2013 to 2015, he was a Visiting Assistant Professor of Medieval Art at the University of Minnesota, Morris. In spring 2022, he held the position of Visiting Faculty Fellow in the Department of Art & Archeology at Princeton University. His research interests encompass medieval material culture, image theory, and the intersection of art, theology, philosophy, and aesthetics. Dr. Pizzinato has published in respected art history journals, including Gesta, Viator, and Speculum. In fall 2024, he was a Research Fellow at the Royal Museum of Art and History in Brussels, where he currently leads an interdisciplinary project that reassesses the history and significance of the Genoels-Elderen ivories, two eighth-century ivory artifacts from the collection. At UTRGV, he teaches courses on medieval art in Europe, Renaissance art, museum studies, and illuminated manuscripts.

Riccardo Pizzinato, PhD
School of Art and Design, Interim Director
riccardo.pizzinato@utrgv.edu
956-665-3480