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MARCO BUSSAGLI was born in Rome on 9th December 1957.
Graduated in Art History at Sapienza University - Rome, with a dissertation on the iconography of Angels, presented with supervisors Maurizio Calvesi and Fernanda De Maffei.
The dissertation later became a book that has had three editions: Storia degli Angeli. Racconto d’immagini e di idee, Milan 2004 (History of the Angels. Tale of images and ideas).
He completed his education in the Istituto Centrale della Grafica, where he attended the courses held by Luca Patella. He obtained his diploma in 1985 and exhibited in 1986 at the XLII Biennale in Venice, Arte e Scienza. Arte e Alchimia edited by Arturo Schwarz and Maurizio Calvesi.
From 1985 to 1995, he worked and studied as collaborator and author at the Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana Treccani and contributed to the compilation of the Enciclopedia dell'Arte Medievale (EAM) in 11 volumes (Encyclopedia of Medieval Art), for which he wrote some encyclopaedic entries, such as Abbigliamento liturgico (1991, I, pp 39-44), Angeli (1991, I, pp. 629-638), Astri (1991, II, pp. 665-670),
Cielo (1993, IV, pp. 739-748), Gerarchie angeliche (1995, VI, pp. 548-551), Zodiaco (2000, XI, pp. 849-853), id est: Liturgical clothing; Angels; Celestial bodies; Angelic hierarchies; Zodiac.
From 1987 to 1989, he was appointed temporary Assistant Professor of "History of Art, Style and Fashion" at the Academy of Fine Arts in Macerata. In 1988, he won a fellowship from the Academy of Saint Luke for his unpublished research in Art History with a study on the wooden ceiling of the Stirling Castle in Scotland. In 1989, he won the Frances A. Yates (short term) fellowship at the University of London, Warburg and Courtauld Institute. In 1989, after winning a competition, he became Assistant (Adjunct Professor) of "Artistic Anatomy" at the Academy of Fine Arts of Rome. In 1991, he won a fellowship awarded by the Accademia dei Lincei and the British Library for his unpublished research in Art History with a study on Cotton's Bible that flowed in an exhibition for the 2000 Jubilee, curated together with Mario D'Onofrio: M. Bussagli, Dal Vento all’Angelo, in Le ali di Dio, M. Bussagli, M. D'Onofrio (edited by), exhibition catalogue, Bari-Caen, Milan 2000, pp. 33-36; namely: From the Wind to the Angel, in The Wings of God, exhibition.
This research has become a point of reference for the studies on the iconography of angels, as shown by his participation to several conferences: M. Bussagli, Il coro angelico di Valenza e i suoi significati (The angelic choir of Valenza and its meanings), Proceedings of the International Conference of Studies, edited by M. Miglio, Rinascimento Italiano e committenza valenzana gli angeli musicanti della cattedrale di València, Istituto Storico per il Medio Evo, Rome 2011, pp. 150-157.
From 1989 to 1992, he was Contract Professor of Iconography of Musical Instruments at the University of Macerata, School of Fermo. From 1995 to 1999, he was editorial director at the publishing house «Magnus» in Udine and curator of the volumes: M. Bussagli (edited by), Roma. L’arte nei secoli, 2 vols., Udine 1999, which have been translated into French, German, English, Polish and Russian. Namely: Rome. Art over the Centuries. In 1997, he won a national competition and was appointed Tenured Professor of "Artistic Anatomy" at the Academy of Fine Arts of Rome. His interest in Artistic Anatomy is closely linked to his painting research and resulted in a series of studies: M. Bussagli, Anatomia Artistica. Manuale di disegno. Il corpo nell'arte. Le ossa e i muscoli. Le proporzioni, Giunti, Florence 1996, re-edited in 1998, 2001 and 2007, (Artistic Anatomy. Drawing manual. The Body in art. Bones and Muscles. The Proportions); Il nudo nell'arte. La storia. Temi e soggetti. Bellezza ed erotismo, (The Nude in Art. History. Topics and subjects. Beauty and eroticism Florence), Giunti, Flornce 1998, re-edited in 2003,and Il nudo dal Quattrocento al Manierismo (The nude from the Fifteenth to Mannerism) in G. Fossi (edited by), Il nudo. Eros Natura Artificio, Giunti Florence 1999, pp. 65-80; reprinted and distributed by L'Espresso magazine, June 2002.
There are also specific studies such as Leonardo e l'Uomo vitruviano. A misura d'uomo (Leonardo and the Vitruvian Man. On a human scale), in Art e Dossier, n. 146, June 1999, pp.17-20, published on the Bocconi University of Milan's mathematics website, to which La Gioconda di Leonardo. Geometrie del sorriso (Leonardo's Mona Lisa. Geometries of the smile) must be added, in Art e Dossier, n. 189, May 2003, pp. 34-38, also published on the Bocconi University of Milan's Mathematics website.
He worked as a consultant with the Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana Treccani - after the experience of the EAM - in order to deal with the topic of anatomy in a methodological way. The result is a 6-volume collection, L’Universo del corpo (with CD-Rom), created in collaboration with the Museo della Specola in Florence (The Universe of the Body). He carried out a substantial study on the iconographic aspects of non-European artistic cultures, which is the only study of its kind on such a vast topic: from ancient Egypt to India, from China, Polynesia and Oceania to pre-Columbian cultures: M. Bussagli, Le culture non occidental (Non-Western cultures), in L’Universo del corpo, I, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 1998, pp. 148-208.
He wrote the following thirteen encyclopaedic entries, some of which were the first to address the topic both from an anatomical and artistic point of view: Antropomorfismo, in L’Universo del corpo, I, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 1999, pp. 291-298; Decorazione, in L’Universo del corpo, III, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 1999, pp. 106-110; Diversità, in L’Universo del corpo, III, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 1999, pp. 219-225; Fumetto, in L’Universo del corpo, III, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 1999, pp. 647-653; Gigante, in L’Universo del corpo, III, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 1999, pp. 739-743; Mano, in L’Universo del corpo, IV, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 2000, pp. 342-345; Movimento in L’Universo del corpo, IV, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 2000, pp. 501-505; Nano, in L’Universo del corpo, IV, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 2000, pp. 524-526; Norma, in L’Universo del corpo, IV, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 2000, pp. 628-630; Nudità, in L’Universo del corpo, IV, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 2000, pp. 631-640; Ombelico, in L’Universo del corpo, IV, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 2000, pp. 688-689; Scaramanzia, in L’Universo del corpo, V, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 2000, pp. 406-408; Urbanistica e Architettura, in L’Universo del corpo, V, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 2000, pp. 766-771. Namely: Anthropomorphism; Decoration Diversity; Comics; Giant; Hand; Movement; Midget; Norm; Nudity; Belly button; Good Luck; Urban planning and Architecture.
In 2002 the M.I.U.R. Ministry appointed him expert for the evaluation of experimental courses in the Academies of Fine Arts.
He held the course in Iconology at LUMSA in Palermo from 07/04/2005 to 20/05/2005 and was course tutor from 18th to 23th July at the Summer Campus.
The following volumes are worth mentioning: Arte e erotismo, Electa, Milan 2001 (with Stefano Zuffi; translated in Spanish, French and Japanese: Art and Eroticism); Fumetto (Comics), published by Electa in the «XX secolo» series, in 2003; Il Corpo umano. Anatomia e significati simbolici, Electa, Milan 2005 (translated in French, Spanish, German and Russian), id est: The human body. Anatomy and symbolic meanings.
The aspects of the relationship between human body and architecture were further developed in two books: Capire l'Architettura, Giunti, Florence 2003 (Spanish, English, German, Dutch, American and Romanian editions - in 2005, a condensed edition was released: Understanding Architecture ); L’uomo nello spazio. L’architettura e il corpo umano, Medusa, Milan 2005 (Man in space. Architecture and the human body).
Invited by the curator Jérôme Delaplanche, he gave a talk in a conference organized in Villa Medici by the French Academy in Rome, called Créer violemment. L’impulsion créatrice entre dextérité et violence (2nd-6th July 2005). It was on this occasion that he explained his reflections on Michelangelo's The Last Judgement: Marco Bussagli (Academy of Fine Artsin Rome) Il Giudizio di Michelangelo come rappresentazione del dies irae. Quando Dio sovverte l’ordine delle cose; M. Bussagli, Michelangelo. Il volto nascosto nel “Giudizio”. Nuove ipotesi sull’affresco della Cappella Sistina, Medusa, Milan 2004, id est: Michelangelo. The face hidden in the "Judgment". New hypotheses on the fresco of the Sistine Chapel.
In 2006, the President of the Italian Republic appointed him "Cavaliere della Repubblica" (Knight of the Italian Republic) for his artistic and scientific merits.
His research sparked a series of reflections on Michelangelo's work which just a year later brought about the discovery of the iconographic use of a dental anomaly known as mesiodens, involving the presence of a fifth incisor in the upper or lower jaw (or in both), published for the first time in: M. Bussagli, Novità sul Giudizio universale di Michelangelo. Il segno del peccato, in Art e Dossier, No. 209, March 2005, pp. 6-11. The study was carried out in a book entirely dedicated to Michelangelo's iconography, I denti di Michelangelo. Un caso iconografico, Medusa, Milan 2014, namely: Michelangelo's teeth. An iconographic case.
Between 2006 and 2008, Marco Bussagli directed the publishing of the great collection "I grandi temi della pittura" (The great themes of painting) in 60 volumes (including a dozen written by him), published by De Agostini. The same is true for his compilation of the section Il senso nascosto (The hidden meaning) which he conceived and wrote for Art e Dossier, from 2009 to 2016.
Bussagli addresses issues directly related to Artistic Anatomy, such as "Deformity and diversity" and "Physiognomy" (Bosch. Tavole diverse bizzarrie, Giunti, Florence 2016, pp. 79-84), or the study on Walt Disney e l’arte («Dossier Art, 349» 2017) where a chapter (pp. 40-41) is devoted to the relationship between Disney, art and anatomy. He is often invited to take part in special cultural initiatives, such as the great publishing enterprise dedicated to beauty, commissioned by L'Oréal and published in 5 volumes by Gallimard in 2009, for which Bussagli wrote The Physiology of Beauty (in G. Vigorello, edited by, 100,000 Years of Beauty.) Antiquity / Civilizations, II, Gallimard, Paris 2009, pp. 11-13).
In 17th March 2017, he held the inaugural lecture of the XVIII International Congress of Paradontology and Implantology in Rimini on the topic of the fifth incisor: "I denti di Michelangelo. Un caso iconografico" ("Michelangelo's Teeth. An Iconographic Case"). In october 2018, Belgian Academy in Rome, invited him to held a Conference about Maurtis Cornelis Escher and his Italian engravings.
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