Victoria Bartels

Victoria Bartels is a PhD candidate at the University of Cambridge, where she works on the cultural history of Renaissance armor and masculinity under the supervision of Prof. Ulinka Rublack. Her dissertation topic—Masculinity, Arms and Armor, and the Culture of Warfare in Sixteenth-Century Italy and Germany—focuses on the practical and cultural uses of arms and armor in Florence and Augsburg. She is also interested in late nineteenth century collectors of Renaissance armor.Victoria obtained her MA from Syracuse University, where she was a part of their Florence Graduate Program in Italian Renaissance Art History. Her thesis was entitled “The Continence of Cosimo I de’ Medici: Male Chastity and the Tapestry of Joseph Fleeing from Potiphar’s Wife.” Victoria’s research with the Medici Archive Project will focus on criminal records, requests to bear arms, and arms legislation. She will also investigate the symbolic role of armor at Cosimo I’s court.