Smithsonian Journeys Experts
Ross King
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Dr. Ross King is the best-selling author of books on Italian, French and Canadian art and history. Among his books are Brunelleschi’s Dome (2000), Michelangelo and the Pope’s Ceiling (2002), and Leonardo and The Last Supper (2012). His study of the origins of French Impressionism, The Judgement of Paris, was published in 2006. He has also published a biography of Niccolò Machiavelli and edited a collection of Leonardo da Vinci’s fables, jokes, and riddles. He is the co-author with Anja Grebe of Florence: The Paintings & Frescoes, 1250-1743 (2015), the most comprehensive (and probably the heaviest) book ever undertaken on the art of Florence.
His current project is a two-volume history of Italy, The Shortest History of Ancient Rome and The Shortest History of Italy, covering some 3,000 years of history from Romulus and Remus to the present.
Ross serves on the Council of Academic Advisors for Friends of Florence, the fund-raising charity ensuring the survival of Florence’s art and architectural treasures. He has participated in numerous Friends of Florence study tours throughout Italy, including in Rome, Assisi, and Milan. He is a regular participant in the Italian Renaissance seminars at the Aspen Institute, including programmes on Giotto, St. Francis, and Dante. He has appeared in a number of television documentaries, such as The Medici: Godfathers of the Renaissance (PBS, 2003), Raphael: A Mortal God (BBC, 2004), The Great Cathedral Mystery (Nova, 2014), and Florence’s Invisible City (BBC, 2016).
He has lectured in many American museums, including the Smithsonian, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Frick Collection, and the National Gallery of Art. When not traveling for work or pleasure, he lives near Oxford, in England, with his wife Melanie.
What Our Travelers Say
- Christine, B.I think we’re all a little in love with Ross! His knowledge went above and beyond and he’s just genuinely a great person to be around. He was gracious and generous with his time. No question went unanswered. I think everyone felt like they had the opportunity to spend time with him.
- David, T.Ross is so full of knowledge and clearly loves teaching others. He is very personable and always open to questions and comments. He is a very companionable fellow traveler!
Upcoming Tours
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Italy's Amalfi Coast: A One-Week Stay in Vietri sul Mare
9 days
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Starting at: $5,290
Sep 11, 2024 - Sep 19, 2024
May 7, 2025 - May 15, 2025
Tour Details ››
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Italy’s Apulia: A One-Week Stay in Polignano a Mare
9 days
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Starting at: $4,690
Sep 10, 2025 - Sep 18, 2025
Tour Details ››
Q. How do you infuse your Smithsonian Journeys tours to Italy and France with your expertise?
A. I try to combine my expertise with enthusiasm. It’s one thing to know something intellectually, or to see it on the page, but quite another to experience it firsthand. I want to help give people a kind of time-travel experience, where we move in time as well as space. I want them to appreciate what it was like to live in a different culture and in a different time. In the end I want people to know and feel—if not necessarily all of my knowledge, then at least some of my passion and joy.
Q. What prompted you to move from writing novels to non-fiction works of art history and biography? A. History is far more fascinating and downright stranger than anything I can invent. In my novels I wanted to bring
history alive through storytelling, but I hope I can do that every bit as entertainingly in non-fiction. In Brunelleschi’s Dome and Mad Enchantment I try to make use of all those things that, in my opinion, make novels readable—a quick pace, intrigue, colorful characters, and interesting locations. Luckily, history is full of such things. All that said, however, I’d love to do another novel sometime.
Q. What do you feel is the best part of your role as a Smithsonian Journeys Expert?
A. Traveling through beautiful landscapes, looking at paintings and historic buildings with like-minded people, then sitting down with them in the sunshine to enjoy an espresso or gelato to discuss the experience . . . what more could a person ask for?
Q. Considering 2019 marks the 500-year anniver- sary of Leonardo da Vinci’s death, what do you feel will be the most surprising aspects for Smithsonian Journeys travelers?
A. Leonardo da Vinci is always worth celebrating, but 2019 gives us one more great excuse. Leonardo is going to be everywhere. Bill Gates is loaning one of Leonardo’s notebooks, the Codex Leicester, to the Uffizi Gallery for an exhibition in Florence. The Museo Galileo, also in Florence, is planning an exhibition called Leonardo and His Books. There are also going to be major showings of his work in Paris, London, and Madrid (an exhibition on which I’ve been privileged to work). Fittingly, the Museo Leonardiano in Vinci, Leonardo’s hometown, is planning a show linking his work to the beautiful Tuscan landscape. And the house in which Leonardo died, at Amboise in the Loire Valley, will display a tapestry of The Last Supper loaned by the Vatican.
