Darrelyn Gunzburg

Tutor
Headshot of Darrelyn Gunzburg

Background

Dr Darrelyn Gunzburg obtained her PhD in History of Art from the University of Bristol in 2014 and BA (Hons) in History of Art from the Open University in 2007. Her PhD focused on the study of a fresco scheme, originally under the hand of Giotto, in the old law courts in Padua. She taught History of Art at the University of Bristol 2010-2014 and since 2009 has taught for the Sophia Centre for the Study of Cosmology in Culture at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David where she contributes the visual art historical expression of the sky in culture.  

In September 2024 Darrelyn began studying for her MA in Fine Art (online) through Falmouth University. 

Specialist Subjects

  • Medieval fresco schemes in Italy
  • The orientation of Cistercian abbey churches and Welsh abbey churches in the UK and their theological relationship to landscapeThe orientation of Cistercian abbey churches and Welsh abbey churches in the UK and their theological relationship to landscape
  • How meaning is derived from natal horoscopes in contemporary western astrology
  • How places become thinking spaces for the lifeworld of landscapes inside a face

Professional and/or Research Experience

Darrelyn Gunzburg has over 16 years’ experience teaching in the field of cultural astronomy. Prior to entering academia, she spent 30 years working in the arts, including circus skills, filmmaking, play-writing, and art history, as well as writing and consulting about grief. Her practical experience underpins a research agenda centred in understanding the representation of the sky in two-dimensional art forms such as paintings, stained glass, murals, films, and photographs, as well as in three-dimensional structures like buildings and land art.

She has co-convened numerous academic conferences and published widely in the field of art history. Her publications are included in the Journal of Religion Nature and Culture, Cîteaux – Commentarii cistercienses, and (forthcoming) The Medieval Journal. She is the editor of The Imagined Sky: Cultural Perspectives (Equinox Publishing Ltd, 2016), and co-editor of Space, Place and Religious Landscapes, Living Mountains (Bloomsbury, 2021).

Qualifications

  • History of Art, PhD, University of Bristol
  • History of Art, BA (Hons), Open University
  • Diploma in Directing, NIDA (National Institute of Dramatic Art)

Languages Spoken

Darrelyn is a first language English speaker, and also speaks Italian and French.

Professional Membership or Roles

The Association for Art History
Italian Art Society
National Portrait Gallery
The Astrological Association of Great Britain

Academic Teaching

External Recognition or Rewards

Writing for Performance Grants, South Australian Department for the Arts (1986-1994)
Residency: Keesing Studio, Paris, Literature Board of the Australia Council, 1992
Writers' Fellowships, Literary Arts Board, Australia Council (1988, 1990)

Link to Orcid Profile

ORCID Research profile

Professional Publications

  • Space, Place and Religious Landscapes: Living Mountains, edited by Darrelyn Gunzburg and Bernadette Brady, London: Bloomsbury Academic. 2021
  • The Imagined Sky: Cultural Perspectives. Sheffield: Equinox Publishing. 2016
  • Guest Editor: ‘Special Issue: Inside the World of Contemporary Astrology.' Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture 13, no. 1. 2019
  • Guest Editor: 'Special Issue: The Imagined Sky, Cultural Perspectives’, Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture 7, no. 4. 2013
  • Brady, Bernadette, Fabio Silva, and Darrelyn Gunzburg. ‘The Orientation of the Medieval Churches of Gwynedd – a Landscape of Sacred Time.’ In Cultural Astronomies in Medieval and Early Modern Europe, edited by Josefina Rodriguez Arriba, 2025 (forthcoming)
  • ‘The Horoscope as Primary Source Evidence for Understanding Local Calendar Practice in Late Fifteenth-Century England: Revisiting Richard Fitjzames’ Stained Glass Window Horoscope of Merton College, Oxford.’ The Medieval Journal, 2025 (forthcoming).
  • 'Make and Create: The Craftswomen in the Salone Frescoes of the Palazzo Della Ragione, Padua’ in Medieval Clothing and Textiles.18: 99-128, edited by Cordelia Warr. Martlesham: Boydell & Brewer Ltd. 2024.
  • 'The Sun’s Light at Michaelmas and the Cistercians of Britain and Ireland.' Cîteaux – Commentarii cistercienses 72, no. 1-4: 47-65. Co-authored with B. Brady and F. Silva. 2021.
  • 'The Summer Triangle and the Stymphalian Birds.' Culture and Cosmos: The Talking Sky 24, no. 1 and 2: 37-53, 2020.
  • 'Time Pursued by a Bear: Ursa Major and Stellar Time-Telling in the Paduan Salone.' In Visualising Skyscapes: Material Forms of Cultural Engagement with the Heavens, edited by Liz Henty and Daniel Brown, 158-176. London and New York: Routledge. 2020
  • Reflecting on Mary: the Splendor of the Madonna in the Lower Church of Assisi.' In Medieval Franciscan Approaches to the Virgin Mary: Mater Sanctissima, Misericordia, Et Dolorosa, edited by S. J. McMichael and K. W. Shelby. The Medieval Franciscans, 2019
  • 'The Horoscopic Place: The Encounter between Astrologer and Client.' Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature & Culture 13, no. 1 (2019): 44-60. 2019.
  • 'Al-Qabisi.' In Astrology through History: Interpreting the Stars from Ancient Mesopotamia to the Present, edited by William E. Burns, 17-19. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO. 2018.
  • 'Art.' In Astrology through History: Interpreting the Stars from Ancient Mesopotamia to the Present, edited by William E. Burns, 27-33. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO. 2018.
  • ‘The Reception of Islamic Astrology in the Images of the Palazzo della Ragione, Padua, Italy’ in Religious Offerings and Sacrifices in the Ancient near East; Astrology in the Ancient near East; the River Jordan, edited by Shafiq Abouzayd, 177-194. Oxford:
  • ‘The Orientation of Cistercian Churches in Wales: A Cultural Astronomy Case Study.’ Cîteaux – Commentarii cistercienses 67, no. 3-4 (2016): 275-302. Co-authored with B. Brady and F. Silva. 2016.
  • ‘Giotto’s Sky: The Fresco Paintings of the First Floor Salone of the Palazzo Della Ragione, Padua, Italy.’ In The Imagined Sky: Cultural Perspectives, edited by Darrelyn Gunzburg. 87-113. Sheffield: Equinox Publishing. 2016.
  • ‘Giotto's Sky: The fresco paintings of the first floor Salone of the Palazzo della Ragione, Padua, Italy.’ Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture 7, no. 4 (2013): 407-433. 2013.
  • ‘The Perugia Fountain: An Encyclopaedia of Sky, Culture and Society’. In Sky and Symbol, edited by Nicholas Campion and Liz Greene, 103-118. Ceredigion: Sophia Centre Press, University of Wales Trinity Saint David. 2013.
  • ‘How Do Astrologers Read Charts?’ In Astrologies: Plurality and Diversity, edited by Nicholas Campion and Liz Greene, 181-200. Ceredigion: Sophia Centre Press, University of Wales, Trinity Saint David. 2011.
  • ‘Looking Back: The Transgression of Social Codes Explored through the Direct Gaze in Fra Angelico’s San Marco Altarpiece When Compared with Madonna and Child with Eight Saints’. St Andrews Journal of Art History and Museum Studies 14 (2010), 31-44. 2010.
  • ‘Ben Uri – from Chagall to Soutine’, Cassone, May. 2012.
  • ‘Nine Warhols Waiting...’ Cassone, October. 2011.
  • ‘Chagall's 'Lost' Masterpiece’. The Art Book, 17:4, pp.43-44. 2010.
  • ‘Philip Jackson—the Body Language of Sculpture’. The Art Book, 17:3, pp.15-17. 2010.
  • ‘J.W.Waterhouse - the Modern Pre-Raphaelite’. The Art Book, 17:2, pp.70-72. 2010.
  • ‘Banking on Art in Istanbul’. The Art Book, 16:4, pp. 70-71. 2009.
  • ‘Collecting a Vision: Henry Clay Frick and the Frick Collection, New York’. The Art Book, 16:3, pp.19-21. 2009.
  • ‘Niki De Saint Phalle’s Magic Circle’. The Art Book, 16:3, pp.16-18. 2009.
  • ‘Le Violon Bleu: A Tune of a Different Colour’. The Art Book, 16:1, pp.83-84. 2009.
  • ‘Ben Uri: Hidden and Homeless’. The Art Book, 15:4, pp.30-31. 2008.
  • ‘Going Dutch in New York’. The Art Book, 15:3, pp.61-62. 2008.
  • ‘Two Saints - Home at Last’. The Art Book, 15:1, pp.27-28. 2008.
  • ‘Jewish Artists and The Bible in Twentieth-Century America’ by Samantha Baskind. Cassone, September.
  • ‘An Art Lover’s Guide to Florence’ by Judith Testa. Cassone, June. 2015.
  • ‘A Laboratory for Art: Harvard’s Fog Museum and the Emergence of Conservation in America 1900-1950’ by Francesca G. Bewer. Cassone, May. 2013.
  • ‘The Art of Life’ by Sabin Howard and Traci L. Slatton. Cassone, May. 2012.
  • Courts and Courtly Arts in Renaissance Italy: Art, Culture and Politics, 1395-1530’ by Marco Folin (ed.). Cassone, June. 2011.
  • ‘Art and Artifact: The Museum as Medium, Rev. Edition by James Puttnam.’ The Art Book, Vol. 17:4, pp.56-57. 2010.
  • ‘Dialogues in Art History, from Mesopotamian to Modern’ by Elizabeth Cropper (ed.).’ The Art Book, Vol.17:4, pp. 35-36. 2010.
  • ‘Duccio to Leonardo: Italian Painting 1250 -1500’ by Simona De Nepi.’ The Art Book, Vol.17:4, pp. 27-28. 2010.
  • ‘Duccio and the Origins of Western Painting’ by Keith Christiansen.’ The Art Book, Vol, 17:3, pp. 38-39. 2010.
  • Uri: Migrating from Chaos to London’, Somerset House, London, Cassone, September. 2015.
  • ‘Clean Slate’, Royal West of England Academy, Bristol, UK. Cassone, September. 2012.
  • ‘The wandering artist – a Polish exile in Britain: Josef Herman: Warsaw, Brussels. Glasgow, London, 1938–1944’, Royal West of England Academy, Bristol, UK. Cassone, June. 2012.
  • The Refurbished Renaissance Galleries at the Welsh National Museum of Art, Bulletin of the Society for Renaissance Studies, Vol. XXIX:1, pp. 3-5, April. 2012.
  • ‘Andy Warhol: The execution of a dream’, Os Mistérios Da Arte Exhibition: Andy Warhol and Pietro Psaier, Evora, Portugal. Cassone, December. 2011.
  • ‘Andy Warhol’s Jewish Minyan’ - Ten Portraits of Jews of the Twentieth Century Exhibition: The Coach House at Waddesdon Manor, Buckinghamshire, UK. Cassone, October. 2011.

Available to Supervise Doctoral Students

Yes