Alana O'Brien

Alana O’Brien completed her PhD at La Trobe University in 2002, with a thesis focusing on the cult of San Filippo Benizi, and Andrea del Sarto’s fresco cycle of Benizi’s life in the forecourt of the SS. Annunziata.From 2002-2005 she was a Research Fellow with the Medici Archive Project. From 2006 – 2011 she worked as a Curator at the La Trobe University Museum of Art and gave lectures in the University’s Art History department. To date her publications have regarded the Florentine flagellant confraternities of San Giovanni Battista dello Scalzo and San Sebastiano. Her research is concerned with the confraternities’ use of artist and artisan confratelli to embellish and maintain its premises, and to produce the functional objects necessary for its ceremonial and administrative functions. She is also investigating the web of contacts between artists and artisans who were members of the Scalzo, tracing their connections outside of the confraternity through various situations – work, family, neighborhood and friendship.