Daniel Savoy

Professor, Art History and Digital Media Art

Daniel Savoy is a specialist in the architecture and urbanism of early modern Italy, with particular interests in the orchestration of architectural experience; architectural theory; the interdependency of buildings, science, and technology; intercultural exchange; and digital architectural history (architectureofthesoul.org, virtualvenice.org).  He is the author of the award-winning monograph,Venice from the Water: Architecture and Myth in an Early Modern City (Yale University Press, 2012), and the editor of The Globalization of Renaissance Art: A Critical Review (Brill, 2017).  His recent article in Renaissance Quarterly, which received honorable mention for the RSA's Nelson Prize, introduced the subject of his upcoming monograph, Architecture of the Soul: Buildings, Cities, and the Construction of Life in Early Modern Italy (under contract with Yale University Press).  Having previously received fellowships from the Villa I Tatti, the Clark Art Institute, and the Delmas Foundation among other organizations, he will be a Senior Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., for the 2026-2027 academic year. 

Education

Ph.D. 2008, The Institute of Fine Arts, New York University

Courses Taught

ART 150: Roots of the Modern World: Art

ART 150: First-Year Seminar: Roots of the Modern World: Art

ART 321: Medieval Art and Architecture

ART 322: Renaissance Art and Architecture

ART 326: Baroque Art and Architecture

ART 402; URBN 301: Venice: Architecture of a Floating City

ART 402-01; URBN 301: Virtual Venice

ART 412: Senior Seminar: Theory and Methods of Art History

ART 090: Study Abroad, Venice, Italy: Venice and the Other

ART 090: Study Abroad, Venice, Italy: Preserving Venice 

ART 090: Study Abroad, Florence, Italy: The Geography of Urbanism in Early Modern Italy

  • Publications and Scholarly Activities

    Monographs:

    Venice after Dark: The Architectural Nightlife of an Early Modern City, in progress. 

    Architecture of the Soul: Buildings, Cities, and the Construction of Life in Early Modern Italy (under contract with Yale University Press). 

    Venice from the Water: Architecture and Myth in an Early Modern City (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2012); Winner of the 2012 PROSE Award in Art History and Criticism, the Association of American Publishers; Top Ten Architecture Books of 2012, ArchNewsNow. 

    Edited Volumes:

    Digital Art and Architectural History: Notes from the Early Modern Frontier, ed. Daniel Savoy (Leiden and Boston: Brill, forthcoming 2026). 

    The Globalization of Renaissance Art: A Critical Review, ed. Daniel Savoy (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2017). 

    Articles and Book Chapters:

    "Introduction," in Digital Art and Architectural History: Notes from the Early Modern Frontier, ed. Daniel Savoy (Leiden and Boston: Brill, forthcoming 2026). 

    "Cleansing the Soul: Filarete and the Sewers of the Ospedale Maggiore in Milan," Renaissance Quarterly 77, 3 (2024): 735-88; Honorable Mention, Nelson Prize.

    "Virtual Venice: Immersive Media and the Preservation of Historical Experience," International Journal for Digital Art History 6 (2021-2022). 

    "Toward an Inclusive Art History," World Art 10, 2 (online 2020; print 2021), 1-16. 

    "Introduction," "Epilogue," in The Globalization of Renaissance Art: A Critical Review, ed. Daniel Savoy (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2017), 1-14, 314, 334-35.

    "Keeping the Myth Alive: Andrea Dandolo and the Preservation of Justice at the Palazzo Ducale in Venice," Artibus et Historiae 71 (2015), 9-29.

    “Palladio and the Water-oriented Scenography of Venice,” Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 71, 2 (June, 2012), 204-25.

    “Le iscrizioni sulla facciata di San Michele in Isola,” Arte Veneta 65 (2008), 132-37.

    "A Ladder of Camaldolite Salvation: The Facade of San Michele in Isola," Athanor XX (2002), 33-41.

    Reviews:

    Review of Lillian Ray Martin, “The Art and Archaeology of Venetian Ships and Boats,” Comitatus 33 (2002), 213-15.