Kristen Van Ausdall teaches courses on the sculpture, painting, and architecture of 14th to17th century Europe. In addition to her intermediate courses in Early Renaissance, High Renaissance, Northern Renaissance, and Baroque Art, she offers more specialized upper-level courses, such as Blood and Bread: Sacramental Art in Renaissance Italy, Women in Renaissance and Baroque Art, and Donatello and His Contemporaries.

Professor Van Ausdall has a strong research interest in the sacred art of the Renaissance, and the ways in which it manifests itself in both Italian and Northern European imagery. Her most recent article is called "Communicating with the Eucharist: Sacramental Images and Spiritual Communion", and is currently at work, with two co-authors, on a multidisciplinary book on Eucharistic worship, was published in 2010.

In Spring 2008 she co-directed the Kenyon in Florence Program . In that program she taught a seminar on early Renaissance Tuscan sculpture, and team-taught an interdisciplinary course with Professor Reginald Sanders, "Art and Music of Renaissance and Baroque Italy." She directed the Kenyon in Rome Program in Fall 2011.

Areas of Expertise

Early Italian Art, Italian Renaissance Art, Northern Renaissance Art, Baroque Art

Education

Ph.D. Rutgers University
M.A. University of Oregon
B.A. California State University, Humboldt

Courses Taught

ARHS 111 Survey of Art, Part II
ARHS 216 Writing About Art
ARHS 222 Northern Renaissance Art
ARHS 223 Early Renaissance Art in Italy
ARHS 224 High Renaissance Art in Italy
ARHS 225 Baroque Art in Italy
ARHS 292 Art in Renaissance and Baroque Italy (in conjunction with MUSC 292: Music in Renaissance and Baroque Italy in Kenyon in Florence Program Spring 2008)

ARHS 375 Seminars:

Women in Renaissance and Baroque Art
Blood and Bread: Sacramental Art
Donatello and His Contemporaries
Early Renaissance Tuscan Sculpture (on site for Kenyon in Florence Program Spring 2008)

Affiliations:

College Art Association
Renaissance Society
Italian Art Society
Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies (regional affiliate)