Dr Rachel Healy

Research Ireland Postdoctoral Fellow

My research resolves long-standing scholarly confusion over the identity, patronage, and authorship of prominent painted and sculpted portraits of the Cornaro ‘della Regina’ family, specifically Giorgio Cornaro (1452-1527) and his immediate heirs. The individuals concerned were members of one of Venice’s most important and influential aristocratic families during the later Renaissance. This research synthesized and built upon a range of secondary early and modern sources—biographies, monographs, and general histories relevant to the Cornaro family.

My PhD thesis, entitled, ‘Portraits of Giorgio Cornaro and his Heirs: Resolving issues of Identity, Authorship and Patronage in Renaissance Venice and Beyond' (University College Dublin, 2024) presented a connoisseurial analysis and comparison of Cornaro portraits in relation to the under-utilized seventeenth-century painted ‘Cornaro Family Tree’. The research demonstrated how the artist of the Family Tree, Antonio Zanchi, sought out reliable portraits of the Cornaro to accurately represent the family members in the painting. The thesis aimed to highlight errors in the literature and recommend alternative titles for relevant portraits. Archival evidence was also presented to suggest new provenances for Cornaro likenesses. New evidence aimed to prove that paintings did, in fact, survive the 1530s fires at the Cornaro palaces at San Maurizio and San Polo in Venice.

This thesis was innovative in reviewing this material within an art-historical context and in a manner that gauged the significance of the Cornaro family as art patrons. The research was subjected to a case study structure and aimed to present the Cornaro era as an important episode in the art patronage of Renaissance Venice. It revealed the dynastic ambitions of the Cornaro family and traced how individual members were continually responsible for projecting their power and wealth through images. Individual Cornaro careers and their associations with artists were addressed in what is now the first extensive survey of portraits of major members of the Cornaro family from the first half of the sixteenth century.

Publications:

‘Giorgio Cornaro and the Cloth of Gold’, Source: Notes in the History of Art, Fall 2025, Vol. 45, No.1 (6-16). https://doi.org/10.1086/738123

'Three Men and an Abbey: The Cornaro Triple Portrait’, Renaissance Studies, 2025 – this article led to the renaming of the painting in the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC to Giacomo and Cardinal Marco investing Andrea, abbot of San Zeno, with his benefice. https://doi.org/10.1111/rest.12989

'Portrait of two Venetian Gentlemen: A Question of Identity', Artefact: Journal of the Irish Association of Art Historians, Issue 8, 2016, pp. 35-43 – this publication ultimately led to the renaming of the painting in the National Gallery of Ireland from Portrait of two Venetian Gentlemen to Portrait of Giorgio Cornaro and his son, Francesco.

‘Portraits of Power: Myth and Truth in the Cornaro Family Tree’ Studi Veneziani, 2025 (forthcoming).

‘Identity & Authorship in the Wilton Head of a Cardinal’, Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte, 2026 (forthcoming).

‘Recasting the Man with a Falcon: from Zorzone to Girolamo’, 2026 (forthcoming).

Presentations

2026: ‘The Cornaro Family Portraits’, Venice, Italy, 14-16 January 2026.
2025: ‘Resolving Issues of Identity in Cornaro Family Portraits’, Department of History of Art & Architecture Research Seminar, Trinity College Dublin, 25 September 2025.
2025: ‘Resolving Issues of Identity in Cornaro Family Portraits’, Butler Gallery, Kilkenny, 3 July 2025.
2024: ‘Resolving Issues of Identity in Cornaro Family Portraits’, Irish Association of Art Historians, Trinity College Dublin, 16 November 2024.
2023: ‘A New Portrait of Giorgio Cornaro (1454-1527)?’, New Research on Venetian Art: A Study Day for Doctoral and Post-Doctoral Students, Venetian Art History Research Group, 28 October 2023.
2022: ‘The Double Portrait of Giorgio and Francesco Cornaro: Projecting Power through Portraiture’, National Gallery of Ireland, 22 October 2022.
2022: Raphael’s Wilton Head of a Cardinal and the Attila fresco in the Stanza di Eliodoro, 2022 Virtual Meeting of the Renaissance Society of America, 30 November 2022.
2022: Conference paper: ‘Titian’s Omaha Man with a Falcon – Resolving Identity and Chronology’ for a panel on Portraiture in Its Many Modes in Sixteenth-Century Italy - The 68th Annual Meeting of the Renaissance Society of America, 2 April 2022.
2022: Presentation: ‘Resolving issues of identity in Titian’s Cornaro Portraits’ – The National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, 22 February 2022
2021: Conference paper: ‘Resolving issues of identity in Titian’s Cornaro Portraits’ - The 67th Annual Meeting of the Renaissance Society of America, 22 April 2021.
2017: Presentation: ‘Reidentifying Giorgio Cornaro and his son, Francesco, in the National Gallery of Ireland’ – Dublin Culture Night, 22 September 2017.
2015: Presentation: ‘Portrait of two Venetian Gentlemen in the National Gallery of Ireland: A Question of Identity’Association of Art Historians Study Day, National Gallery of Ireland, 21 March 2015.

Awards and Grants

2025-2026: Research Ireland Postdoctoral Fellowship, Trinity College Dublin
2020-2022: Irish Research Council Scholar Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholarship
2022-2024: Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation Venetian Research Program
2023: Thomas Dammann Junior Memorial Trust Award
2023: University College Dublin College of Arts and Humanities Research Enhancement Funding
2022: Why Research Matters Video Competition Finalist
2022: University College Dublin School of Art History and Cultural Policy Travel Awards for Postgraduate Research
2022: Winner of University College Dublin Visual Your Thesis Competition and finalist in the International Visualise Your Thesis Competition at Melbourne
2022: University College Dublin College of Arts and Humanities Research Enhancement Funding
2022: University College Dublin School of Art History and Cultural Policy Alumni Research Support Award 2022
2021: University College Dublin Student’s Union PhD Conference Fund
2021: University College Dublin College of Arts and Humanities Research Enhancement Funding
2021: Renaissance Society of America 2021 Conference Grant
2020: University College Dublin College of Arts and Humanities Graduate School Board Travel Grant
2020: Thomas Dammann Junior Memorial Trust Award
2019: UCD College of Arts and Humanities Graduate School Board Travel Grant

Teaching

I have experience lecturing in Trinity College Dublin, University College Dublin, University College Cork and The Red Door Gallery. My teaching approach encompasses using technological resources which allows students to participate with their phones and laptops through wordclouds, polls, surveys and quizzes. This is in order to offer multiple means of communication, representation and assessment to facilitate students with diverse needs, in align with the ‘Universal Design for Teaching and Learning’. I have taught on a number of modules, some of which include The Idea of Painting; Study Skills; Cultural Intersections; Introduction to Art History; Dublin’s Museums & Collections; The Age of Titian; The Art of the Renaissance; and Baroque to Romanticism.