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Lisa Boutin Vitela, Professor, Art History

Dr. Vitela received her B.A. from Emory University and her M.A. and Ph.D. from UCLA. Her articles about Renaissance banqueting practices, reception of early modern ceramics, and women's patronage practices have appeared in the journals Word and Image and Women's Studies: An inter-disciplinary journal. Her current research projects analyze the trade and collection of blue-and-white ceramics, especially porcelain, in Renaissance Venice as well as the creation and decoration of ceramics in the sixteenth-century papal and Medici courts in light of political pressures.

She has presented at many conferences and symposia, including at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Accademia Nazionale Virgiliana in Mantua, Italy, the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, and Università Ca' Foscari in Venice. She has presented lecture series at local museums including the Bowers Museum and Orange County Museum of Art (OCMA). 

Dr. Vitela was a co-organizer of the 2019 Cerritos College Florence Summer Study Abroad Program. 

She was a 2021-22 fellow in the Stanford University Education Partnership for Internationalizing Curriculum (EPIC) Fellowship program.

Dr. Vitela served as co-chair of the Women's and Gender Studies Department from 2024-26.  

Courses:

• ART 100: Introduction to World Art
• ART 101: Art History I -- Prehistory to Gothic
• ART 102: Art History II -- Renaissance to Rococo
• ART 107: Arts of Asia
• ART 118: History of Women in Visual Arts
• ART 125: Introduction to Visual & Cultural Studies
• ART 200: Visual & Cultural Studies Special Topics (Topic: Making and Remaking of Disneyland: Histories of the American Amusement Park)

Publications:

Forthcoming: "Marking the Baptism: Cima da Conegliano's Bowl and Venetian Material Culture," San Giovanni in Bragora: Cheisa, Campo, Comunità (provisional title), edited by Lorenzo Buonanno and Matteo Casini (Rome: Viella, 2026).

"Renaissance woman: Isabella d’Este," in Smarthistory, August 1, 2019, https://smarthistory.org/isabella-este-renaissance/.

“Virgilian Imagery and the Maiolica of the Mantuan Court” in Virgil and Renaissance Culture, ed. Luke Houghton and Marco Sgarbi (Tempe, Arizona: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2018), 49-62.

“Inscriptions and the dynamic reception of Italian Renaissance maiolica.” Word & Image: A Journal of Verbal/Visual Inquiry 30.2 (Jul., 2014): 168-176.

“Dining in the Gonzaga Suburban Palaces: The Use and Reception of Istoriato Maiolica” in Le Banquet de la Renaissance: Images et Usages, ed. Diane Bodart and Valérie Boudier (Pisa: Predella, 2013), 103-115.

“Passive Virtue and Active Valor: Carpaccio’s Two Ladies on an Altana above a Hunt.” Comitatus 43 (Sept., 2012): 133-146.

“Isabella d’Este and the Gender Neutrality of Renaissance Ceramics.” Women’s Studies: An inter-disciplinary journal 40.1 (Jan., 2011): 23-47.

Digital Resources:

Principal Investigator, IDEA Ceramics: a website dedicated to the study of ceramics owned by Isabella d’Este and other Renaissance Collectors. Co-PI: Dr. Valerie Taylor (Pasadena City College); Technology: Dr. Anne MacNeil (UNC Chapel Hill). Website published 2017-2021. 

Interview about the Renaissance for the podcast "Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness" produced by Earwolf Podcast Network (Episode #54, May 15, 2018).

Contributing Researcher and Participant, The Illustrated Credenza (2015): a short film about the maiolica service of Isabella d’Este. Film produced by Dr. Valerie Taylor and Mario Piavoli. Available on YouTube and Vimeo.

Art History Basix YouTube Channel