Temple University

Jesse Rhianyu Sullivan (she/her) is an art history PhD candidate with an artist’s background. Her methodology prioritizes close looking, merging artistic, technological, and scientific approaches, while working alongside professional artists and mechanical engineers alike. She has worked and studied in Bologna, Florence, Venice, and London where she got her Master’s degree at the Courtauld Institute of Art. At Temple she has received a University Fellowship, the Marcia Hall Research Award, and the Departmental Temple Rome Fellowship. During the spring 2024 semester, she lived in Bologna, Italy doing essential in-situ research. Her dissertation, titled, “Ripples on the Surface: Active Dimensionality in Early Renaissance Painting,” tracks the use of gold in Italian painting through the end of the fifteenth century. She has worked as an instructor at Tyler School of Art and Architecture, Moore College of Art and Design, and Juniata College, and has presented her research at the Renaissance Society of America Conference, the Pratt in Venice Research Symposium, and the New College Conference on Medieval and Renaissance Studies.

MA, the Courtauld Institute of Art, 2016
BFA, Maryland Institute College of Art, 2012

Primary Advisor: Marcia Hall, PhD
Secondary Advisor: Tracy Cooper, PhD