Smithsonian Journeys Experts

Ashley Elston is an art historian who specializes in religious art and architecture of the pre-and early modern Mediterranean, particularly Italy. She is Associate Professor of Art History and Director of Visual Arts at Berea College, where she teaches a variety of courses on European art from the ancient world to the 19th century. She discovered her love of Italian art and culture as an undergraduate working on a degree in history and medieval studies at St. Olaf College when she participated in a study abroad course in Rome. She went on to complete an M.A. and Ph.D. in art history at the University of Kansas. A Fulbright grant allowed her to live in Italy while conducting her doctoral research in churches, archives, and museums, and her work has also been supported by competitive grants from the Renaissance Society of America and the Southeastern College Art Conference. Ashley’s research interests focus on the history of ritual and religious art, the theological meanings and optical effects of different artistic materials, and American exhibitions of early modern art. She co-edited a book titled Hybridity in Early Modern Art and has published in Gesta (the journal of the International Center of Medieval Art) and a volume from Cambridge University Press on fifteenth-century Italian sculpture.