Olivier Bonfait

University of Paris IV (Sorbonne)

February–June 2005

Olivier Bonfait taught art history of the modern period (fifteenth to eighteenth century) at the University of Paris IV (the Sorbonne) from 1993 to 1998, where his research concentrated on artistic literature in seventeenth-century France. He has been head of the art history section of the French Academy in Rome since 1998, and he also held the post of general curator of exhibitions at the Villa Medici and organized the exhibitions Le Dieu caché, Les peintres du Grand Siècle et la vision de Dieu (2000), and Maestà di Roma (2003), among others. His research project at the Clark will be to complete a critical edition of the highly influential Entretiens sur la vie des plus excellents peintres of André Félibien and a reflection on the writing of the art history in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century France.