Sheila ffoliott

Prof. Sheila ffolliott received her A.B. in Italian from Vassar College and her Ph.D. in the History of Art from the University of Pennsylvania.  The recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, The Bunting Institute, and the Center for Advanced Studies in the Visual Arts at the National Gallery of Art, she has spoken and published widely on Renaissance women as patrons and collectors, in particular Catherine de’ Medici, and on Renaissance and Baroque women artists.  She has also served on curatorial teams for exhibitions at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC.  

Now professor emerita in the Department of History and Art History at George Mason University, Prof. ffolliott regularly introduced students to archival research via the Medici Archive Project’s online documents.  Former students have produced important studies on women patrons and collectors of the Renaissance and can be found working in museums and teaching in universities in the U.S. and Europe.

Sheila (ffolliott) is past president of the Society for the Study of Early Modern Women and President-Elect of the Sixteenth Century Society.  She has served as a board member of the Jerome Foundation, the Northwest Area Foundation, the National Museum of Women in the Arts, and the American Friends of the Attingham Trust.  She joined the MAP Board of Trustees in 2012.