Lisa C. Pieraccini works on the art and archaeology of the first millennium BCE in Italy, with special emphasis on the Etruscans and early Romans. She lived in Italy for many years where she taught and conducted research in Rome and southern Etruria. Her interests include Etruscan craft connectivity, international trade, funerary art and ritual, and issues of identity. Dr. Pieraccini has published a variety of articles and chapters on aspects of Etruscan tomb painting, the Etruscan contextualization of Greek myth, the use, decor, and agency of cylinder stamped ware as well as the reception of Etruscan art from the 17th to 20th century.
Dr. Pieraccini is an elected member of the Istituto di Studi Etruschi ed Italici in Florence. She has co-organized a number of international conferences in the US and Italy. She is author of Around the Hearth: Cylinder Stamped Braziers (2003, L’Erma di Bretschneider), editor of Pithoi Stampigliati: Una Classe Originale di Ceramica Etrusca (2010, L’Erma di Bretschneider), co-editor of the series Cities of the Etruscans (with Nancy de Grummond) published by Texas University Press and consulting editor of the journal Etruscan and Italic Studies. Before joining the History of Art Department, Dr. Pieraccini taught for the Classics Department and Italian Studies at UC Berkeley, Stanford University as well as Temple University in Rome.
Current projects include a co-edited volume on Material Connections, Artistic Exchange: The Case of Etruria and Anatolia (with Elizabeth Baughan) as well as a comprehensive study of the Etruscan collection at the Phoebe Hearst Museum at UC Berkeley. She is particularly interested in exploring the tomb biographies from the many intact tomb groups in the Hearst. These artifacts, which date from roughly 900 BCE all the way to the 2nd century BCE form an essential component of her UC Berkeley Collegium Grant research. Dr. Pieraccini is currently teaching a new course on this material in the Hearst Museum – shedding light on this understudied collection.
