Dr. Maria Forcellino is an affiliated researcher at the KNIR from September 2015 till August 2016 and also from September 2016 till august 2017. She works in the framework of the KNIR Hadrianus project, carrying out a publication project on the late 18th-century Grand Tour of the Dutch patrician Johan Meerman (1753-1815). Following up on an earlier publication of Meerman’s notes on Naples (Forcellino 2008, see below), Forcellino now will concentrate on the extensive descriptions of 1775-76 Rome in Meerman’s yet unpublished travelogue.
Maria Forcellino (1961) is an independent art historian based in Amsterdam. She holds a PhD from Siena university (1989) and from the University of Amsterdam (2007). From 1996 till 2010 she taught art history at the University of Salerno as an assistant professor. She has worked on Michelangelo, particularly on his sculptural work in relation to his religious ideas, as well as 18th-century Neapolitan culture, including foreign travellers to this city.