Costanza Beltrami Senior lecturer

My teaching focuses on Medieval and Renaissance art and architecture from Cordoba to Florence (and beyond). I am particularly interested in object-based and on-site teaching.

I am Pedagogical Director of Studies in Art History and coordinate the Master's programme in Art History and Cultural Heritage Studies.

Before joining Stockholm University, I studied Art History at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London, and worked at the University of Oxford/St Catherine's College. There, I focused on a range of topics broadly related to late-Gothic architecture, notably a newly discovered monumental drawing of a tower from Rouen cathedral, the subject of a book I published in 2016, and ornament prints and their use as artists’ models, which I investigated in an article published in The Burlington Magazine. Building on this experience, I have written an encyclopaedia essay on writing about medieval architecture. I have also edited a special issue on drawings in Gothic architecture.

In 2020 I completed my PhD thesis on the figure of Juan Guas (active 1453–1496), long recognised as the leading architect of late fifteenth-century Spain. Guas led construction projects at major cathedrals, and he designed monasteries, convents and palaces for the most eminent patrons of his time. He has been celebrated as the ‘genius’ who single-handedly created Spain’s ‘Hispano-Flemish’ style by fusing northern European Gothic with the so-called mudéjar construction techniques of southern Iberia, derived from Andalusi traditions. Thus, his buildings pose fascinating questions regarding migrant networks, cultural contact, the meanings of architecture, and the role of art in debates on national identity from the 15th century to the present. These questions underpin my current book project, on collaboration, artistic identity, and the geographies of exchange in late-Gothic Castile. A recent book chapter builds on this research to consider memory, modernity and anachronism in the decoration of the Toledan convent of San Juan de los Reyes and its later reception. I'm currently exploring the reception of Spanish late-Gothic architecture in 19th-century London through the lens of the cast courts at the Victoria and Albert museum. Recent conference papers delivered in in Madrid and Oxford are available to watch online.

Broader issues of exchange animate the volume Art, Travel and Exchange between Iberia and Global Geographies, 1400–1550, co-edited with Sylvia Alvares Correa and published by Brill. Bringing together contributions from international scholars working on Spain, Portugal, and related regions, this edited volume aims to address the impact of ‘itinerant’ artworks, artists, and ideas, and to investigate moments of encounter, conflict, and non-linear transfers of materials, techniques, and iconographies. In 2026 and 2027, I will spend time working on materiality and exchange as Humbolt Fellow at TU Berlin, where I will explore the making and meanings of late-medieval drinking horns.

I am Reviews Editor for the Journal of the British Archaeological Association. I am always happy to hear from potential reviewers about new books in the journal's field of interest.

A list of my publications is available at this link.