Emily Ross (she/her) is a graduate student in the Art History department. She works at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, and her focus of studies is on the reinterpretation of medieval art in later revival eras. 

In April of 2024, she presented her paper, “Adorning Mary: The Brooch in Latter Quattrocento Florence,” to the Midwest Art History Society (MAHS) annual conference in Chicago. The paper focused on the presence of brooches in Madonna and Child paintings in Florence, and their relative boom in the 1460s and 1470s, corresponding to the height of productivity for goldsmith-painters and sumptuary law prescribing and limiting the wearing of brooches for women at the time. Other papers in the panel discussed violence and sensuality in Florentine mannerist sculpture and the continuous motif of Mary revealing Christ from under a blanket in Paduan art. 

The conference was held at the Art Institute of Chicago, and at the various buildings that the School of the Art Institute owns, with keynote addresses surrounding the opening of the exhibition “Picasso: Drawing from Life.” There were also tours of the prints and drawings study room and of the Smart Museum’s Modern Meiji exhibition.

Emily’s talk was very well received, garnering compliments from those who had not even been in attendance but heard it was a highlight from those who did attend.