Research Highlights
Dr. Janice Neri
Art professor
When Dr. Janice Neri views the intricate illustrations of insects that date back to the 16th and 17th centuries, she sees more than pretty pictures. Dr. Neri, who teaches art history courses at Boise State, says the illustrations also offer insights into how artists and scientists defined the natural world during the period of the Scientific Revolution, when the foundation of modern science was being laid.
An expert on these illustrations from early modern Europe, Dr. Neri is currently completing a book on the subject, titled The Insect and the Image: Visualizing Nature in Early Modern Europe, 1500-1700.
Beginning this month, she’ll have the opportunity to delve deeply into her research after receiving prestigious fellowships from two of the world’s top research libraries, as well as a faculty research grant from Boise State.
Dr. Neri received fellowships from The Huntington Library in San Marino, Calif., and from the John Carter Brown Library in Providence, R.I., to pursue her research. The fellowships, each four months in duration, will enable Dr. Neri to examine original images of insects from the 1500s and 1600s that are housed in each of the library’s extensive collections. She also have access to supplemental materials about the images -- and, just as critical, the time to focus on her scholarly work.
“I am really looking forward to this opportunity, and I greatly appreciate Boise State’s support,” Dr. Neri said.
Dr. Neri joined Boise State’s faculty in 2004. She has a Ph.D. in Visual Studies from the University of California, Irvine, and her primary teaching focus is Renaissance and Baroque art history, and 18th century art history. Neri’s research has been published, or accepted for publication, by the Natural History Museum in London, the Yale Center for British Art, the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., and by other organizations.