Dr. Bar Leshem

Research Fellow  

Scientific Biography:

My research takes up questions of the reception of classical mythology in early modern art with a focus on Renaissance Italy, particularly domestic art and material and visual cultures of early modern women. My dissertation explored the gender dynamics of mythological imagery on sixteenth-century Italian carved wooden cassoni (marriage chests). Additionally, I am working on a new project that investigates the influence of classical imagery in early modern visual representations of astronomy. In a parallel research avenue, I examine the classical reception and gender issues in Comic Studies, with an emphasis on the American superhero genre of the 1930s-40s. 

Fields of research and instruction (keywords): Early Modern Art, Art History, Gender Studies, Classical Reception, Comics Studies.

Recent Publications: 

• Leshem, Bar, “Niobe’s Loss: A Warning on Sixteenth-Century Cassoni,” The Early Modern Women Journal. Forthcoming Spring 2024.
• Leshem, Bar. “What’s Love Got to Do with It? Ovid, the “Love of the Gods,” and Cinquecento Carved Cassoni.” Il Capitale Culturale: Studies on the Value of Cultural Heritage, Supplementi no. 15 (2023): 193-224. Doi: https://doi.org/10.13138/2039-2362/3278.
• Leshem, Bar, “Visualizing Superman: Artistic Strategizing in Early Representations of the Archetypal Man in Comic Books,” Arts 10(3), 62 (2021). Doi: https://doi.org/10.3390/arts10030062.