About
Ursula is an artist and iconographer, art historian and teacher based in Naarm (Melbourne), Australia. She works in a range of historical materials and methods including egg tempera painting and gilding on wood, parchment and glass, exploring ways in which these traditions might transcend time and resonate spiritual meanings.
Ursula integrates her practice with the teaching and writing of art history by examining the function and context of sacred art and architecture for the participating user. Her work also highlights certain streams of iconographic and theological thought that are inseparable from the inner language of contemplation. Her recent publication through Hardie Grant (Dec. 2024) is entitled Techniques of Painting and Gilding in late Medieval and early Renaissance Italy. Egg tempera and gold leaf on wood panel.
As the co-group leader of ‘Sanctuary Tours’ from 1998 to 2015, Ursula travelled extensively and often throughout Italy, France, England, Ireland, Turkey, Greece, Syria and Jordan. Her travel writing and illustrated talks are a deep and searching journey into the art, architecture, history and archaeology of places - revealing the beauty, continuity and connectedness of peoples and their cultural heritage.
Artist’s CV
Related education: art history and practice
1974. H.D.T (Art and Design) Melbourne State College
1984. B. Ed (Hons) (Photography). Melbourne College of Advanced Education
1990. BA (Hons) (Art History Pure Stream), University of Melbourne
2001. Ph.D. (Italian Art History), University of Melbourne
Milestones and influences
2001+. Founded the Elesmere School of Sacred Art: Iconography; Tempera painting & gilding on wood panel; Illuminated manuscripts; Glass painting and gilding.
1995-2006. Lecturer & tutor in Art History, University of Melbourne: Medieval Europe; Early Christian & Byzantine Art; Siena & its Environs; Art & Society in Medieval Italy.
2007-2014. Lecturer in Art History, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Melbourne.
1994-2015. Co-founder & tour leader of Sanctuary Tours: Tours included Historical Syria and Jordan; Etruscan & Medieval Italy; Historical Turkey, Crete and Sicily; Ancient and Medieval Greece.
1999-2014. Teacher of Studio Practice, CAE Melbourne: Italian Painting & Gilding in Early Renaissance; Greek Byzantine Icons; Illuminated Manuscripts.
Exhibitions - solo
2017. Icons & Sanctuary (for asylum seekers in Vic.). Mary MacKillop Heritage Centre, East Melbourne VIC.
Exhibitions - group
2024. Madonna – Wisdom, Grace and Compassion, Kinross Arts Centre, Kew VIC
2024. Iconography and Devotional Art, St Frances Church, Melbourne City, VIC
2019. Sacred Art & Sanctuary (for Syrian Refugees), curator and exhibitor with the Elesmere School, MMHC, Melbourne VIC.
2015. Visions of Beauty. Experience of the Sacred. ACU, Fitzroy, Melbourne VIC.
2014. Icons of Christmas, Boom Galleries, Newtown, Geelong VIC.
2012. Sacred Art in the Crypt. Curator. Paintings in tempera with 4 participants, St Mary Star of the Sea, West Melbourne VIC.
2011. Illuminate 11. Paintings in tempera and gold with 4 participants, Kingston Arts Centre, Moorabbin, Melbourne VIC.
2011. A Window into Heaven, Icons, Monash University Clayton Rel. Centre, Melbourne VIC.
2010. Icons. St Matthew’s Anglican church, Cheltenham, Melbourne VIC.
2009. Icons and Devotional Images. Curator and participant with members of the Elesmere School. St Mary Star of the Sea Crypt, West Melbourne VIC
Public Commissions of Icons on wood
2025. St Marcellin Builder. Marist Provincial, Sydney NSW
2024. St James the Greater, Pilgrim. Church of St James, Gardenvale VIC
2022. Mary, Star of the Sea, Marist Star of the Sea Province, Sydney NSW
2022. The Sedes Sapientiae with the Four Marist Founder Saints, Aquinas College chapel, N. Adelaide, SA
2021. St Marcellin Champagnet, Marist Provincial, Sydney NSW
2019-2020. The Holy Family, Marist Brother’s Chapel, Fitzroy North, Melbourne VIC
2018. Australian and International Christmas stamp series. Paintings on wood. Australia Post, Australia.
2017-2022. St Joseph with Eight storied panels. St Joseph’s Melchite church, Fairfield, VIC
2012. St Mary of the Cross MacKillop, Mary MacKillop Heritage Centre Chapel, East Melbourne VIC.
Collections
Numerous private collections in Australia and worldwide.
2019. Australian Catholic University (ACU) Art Collection of Australia VIC
2018. Australia Post, Melbourne VIC
Publications: Art history and practice
Books and E-learning platforms
2024. Techniques of Painting and Gilding in late Medieval and early Renaissance Italy: egg tempera on wood (Hardie Grant Books, Melbourne VIC Dec.2024)
2022. Byzantine Iconography: Method and history – E-learning Platform (https://maisondecourses.com/.../iconography-online-course/)
2006. Editorial committee: Byzantine Narrative. Papers in Honour of Roger Scott, Eds. J. Burke, with U. Betka, P. Buckley, K. Hay, A. Stevenson & R. Scott, AABS, Byzantina Australiensia 16 (Melbourne 2006). (Editor of Art History papers)
2002. Marian Images and Laudesi Devotion in Late Medieval Italy, ca.1260-1350. Ph.D dissertation, The University of Melbourne, 2001, (UMI Michigan, 2002).
Chapters in books. Catalogue entries
2021 . ‘Laudari: Hymnbooks for Lay People’ in The Art of Praise. Italian Illuminated Choir Books 1300-1450. Introduction by Margaret Manion (Jenny Zimmer Books Melbourne 2021), pp.153-189.
2020-26. Columban Catholic Art Calendar - Art Guide (online https://www.columban.org.au/catholic-mission)
2020. ‘St Anne with the Virgin Mary and Christ Child’ and ‘Les Petites Fleurs de St Francois Woodcut Prints’, Catalogue entries in Caroline Field (Managing Ed.), ACU Art Collection. A new perspective, ACU, 2020
2018. ‘The Dormition of the Virgin altarpiece from the Kerry Stokes Collection. Origins and Meaning’ in Anne Dunlop (ed), Antipodean Early Modern. European Art in Australian Collections c.1200-1600, Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam. 2018)
2010. ‘Medieval Art and Legend and the Arthur Boyd ‘St Francis’ Tapestries’ (with Margaret Pont), in Constant J Mews & C. Renkin (eds.) Interpreting Francis and Clare of Assisi. From the Middle Ages to the Present (Broughton Publishing, Melbourne 2010), 368- 391.
2009. ‘The Laudario of Sant’Agnese in Florence: Compagnia, Carmelites and the Community of Saints’, in Imagination, Books and Community in Medieval Europe, proceedings from the Exhibition Conference, SLV 29-31 May 2008 (Macmillan, Melbourne, 2009), 163-171.
2009. ‘Illuminating a Medieval Manuscripts’, in Bernard J. Muir (ed), Inside the Scriptorium 1. Inks, Paints & Quills, Ductus Evellum Scriptorium Series vol. 3 (The University of Melbourne, 2009)
2008. Catalogue entries with S. Panayatova: 'Three Miniatures from a Laudario’ in B. Stocks & N. Morgan (eds.), The Medieval Imagination. Illuminated Manuscripts from Cambridge, Australasia and New Zealand (Macmillan, Melbourne, 2008), 110-113.
2006. ‘Icon and Narrative. Commemorating Saint Francis in Assisi’ in Byzantine Narrative. Papers in Honour of Roger Scott, Eds. J. Burke, with U. Betka, P. Buckley, K. Hay, A. Stevenson & R. Scott, AABS, Byzantina Australiensia 16 (Melbourne 2006), 303-319.
2005. Catalogue entry: 'The Laudario of Sant'Agnese nel Carmine, Florence, c.1340', Catalogues of the Illuminated Manuscripts in the Collections of Cambridge (Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge 2005), ed. Stella Panayotova.
2003. 'Photographing Images in Gold', in R. Saddington, How to Photograph Artwork (Macmillan, 2003)
1995. ‘Cluny, Benedictine Monasticism and Romanesque Artistic Enterprise’, Medieval France & Spain: The Pilgrim Routes to Santiago de Compostella (ASA, Melbourne, 1995), 21-26.
1995. ‘French Romanesque Churches: Devotional Places for Pilgrims’, Medieval France & Spain: The Pilgrim Routes to Santiago de Compostella (ASA, Melbourne, 1995), 27-32.
1995. ‘Gothic Art and Architecture: Questions of Evolution, Meaning and Intent’, Medieval France & Spain: The Pilgrim Routes to Santiago de Compostella, (ASA, Melbourne 1995), 33-8.
Journal Articles
2010 . ‘Icons and Devotional Images’, The MUSEUM, Issue 7, March (2010)
2005. 'A Medieval Art for Modern Calligraphers - Historiating the Gothic initial', Rivista dell’Incipit. Calligrafia Italiana, Dec. (2005)
2005. 'The 2005 Australian Christmas Stamps - Images of the Sacred', Aurora, Dec. (2005)
2003 . ‘Convegno – La Città e il Libro. Il Manoscritto – la Miniature – Il Laudario’, Rivista dell’Incipit. Calligrafia Italiana, Oct. (2003)
2002. ‘The Florentine Laudari and Marian Devotion’ in The City and the Book, II:The Manuscript, the Miniature. International Congress, La Certosa, Florence (3-6 September 2002). (Online publication: https://www.florin.ms/beth2.html#lauda)