Curator Laura Giles in Residence at Villa I Tatti, Italy

Last spring, Laura M. Giles, the Heather and Paul G. Haaga Jr., Class of 1970, Curator of Prints and Drawings, was a Craig Hugh Smyth Visiting Fellow for three months at the Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies, located in Villa I Tatti, Bernard Berenson’s former villa outside of Florence. These prestigious fellowships are designed for scholars in any field of Italian Renaissance studies who, because of their full-time occupations, do not have the research time that is normally enjoyed by university academics.Laura utilized this time to complete research and writing for a new catalogue on the Museum’s outstanding collection of Italian drawings, scheduled for publication in early 2014, and an exhibition of highlights from the fifteenth through early twentieth centuries. This major project, which has already benefitted from significant support from the Getty Foundation, is intended to introduce Princeton’s Italian drawings to a new and wider audience. Beyond the benefits of the Harvard Center’s research library and the opportunity for interdisciplinary exchange with other “Tattiani,” Laura will also take advantage of proximity to the Uffizi’s renowned holdings in Italian drawings.