Kelley Helmstutler Di Dio
Executive Director, School of the Arts
Rush C. Hawkins Professor of Art History
BIO
Kelley Helmstutler Di Dio is Executive Director of the School of the Arts, Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, and Rush C. Hawkins Professor of Art.
Professor Helmstutler Di Dio is a specialist of Italian and Spanish early modern sculpture. In addition to over two dozen essays and articles in international publications on the history of collecting, the representation of women, art and diplomacy, and the making and moving of sculptures across Europe.
She has published Leone Leoni and the Status of the Artist at the End of the Renaissance (2011); Leone and Pompeo Leoni: Art and Fame, co-author with Rosario Coppel and Margarita Estella (2013); Sculpture Collections in Early Modern Spain with Rosario Coppel Aréizaga (2013, paperback 2024); editor, Making and Moving Sculpture in Early Modern Italy (2015 and paperback 2021); Co-editor, with Tommaso Mozzati, Artistic Circulations between Early Modern Spain and Italy (2020); and, most recently, Shipping Sculptures from Early Modern Italy (Brepols, 2025). She has three book projects underway: Friends with Benefits: Artists and Friendship in the Early Modern Period, co-edited with Ilaria Andreoli (2025, in press); co-editor, with Lisandra Estevez and Cristina Gonzalez, Artistic Interactions Between, Among, and Across Early Modern America, Italy, and Spain; and a monograph, Pompeo Leoni’s Notebooks.
She has given lectures across Europe and North America at institutions like the National Gallery of Art in Washington; the École de France in Paris; the Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid; and the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Wallace Collection in London; Harvard University; Rutgers University; Rhodes College; Fairfield University; and Syracuse University; among others.
She is in the research group: Portrait Medals and Female Power in Renaissance Europe: The Women of the Spanish Monarchy, funded by the Ministerio de Ciencia y Innovación of the Spanish government, and a scientific committee of the Institut national d’histoire d’art, Paris. She is also on the advisory board of the Fairfield University Arts Institute.
Professor Helmstutler Di Dio teaches a variety of courses on Renaissance and Baroque Art, a course on Art and Its Destruction, and two courses that bolster the professional development of arts students: How to Get a Job in the Arts and Campus Art Projects.
In service to the profession, Professor Di Dio and a colleague from the Institut national d’histoire d’art have for six years organized conference sessions at the major conference in the field, the international conference of the Renaissance Society of America. The sessions specifically provide mentorship and support for emerging scholars in the field. Over 50 junior scholars have benefited from these efforts to date.
Courses
ARTH 3000
Publications
Awards and Achievements
Prof. Helmstutler Di Dio was the 2023 recipient of the George Kidder Outstanding Faculty Award and she won the Kroepsch-Maurice Excellence in Teaching Award in 2016. She has received research fellowships and grants from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, the Medici Archive Project, Harvard’s Villa I Tatti, and the Ministero de Cultura y Deportes.
Bio
Kelley Helmstutler Di Dio is Executive Director of the School of the Arts, Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, and Rush C. Hawkins Professor of Art.
Professor Helmstutler Di Dio is a specialist of Italian and Spanish early modern sculpture. In addition to over two dozen essays and articles in international publications on the history of collecting, the representation of women, art and diplomacy, and the making and moving of sculptures across Europe.
She has published Leone Leoni and the Status of the Artist at the End of the Renaissance (2011); Leone and Pompeo Leoni: Art and Fame, co-author with Rosario Coppel and Margarita Estella (2013); Sculpture Collections in Early Modern Spain with Rosario Coppel Aréizaga (2013, paperback 2024); editor, Making and Moving Sculpture in Early Modern Italy (2015 and paperback 2021); Co-editor, with Tommaso Mozzati, Artistic Circulations between Early Modern Spain and Italy (2020); and, most recently, Shipping Sculptures from Early Modern Italy (Brepols, 2025). She has three book projects underway: Friends with Benefits: Artists and Friendship in the Early Modern Period, co-edited with Ilaria Andreoli (2025, in press); co-editor, with Lisandra Estevez and Cristina Gonzalez, Artistic Interactions Between, Among, and Across Early Modern America, Italy, and Spain; and a monograph, Pompeo Leoni’s Notebooks.
She has given lectures across Europe and North America at institutions like the National Gallery of Art in Washington; the École de France in Paris; the Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid; and the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Wallace Collection in London; Harvard University; Rutgers University; Rhodes College; Fairfield University; and Syracuse University; among others.
She is in the research group: Portrait Medals and Female Power in Renaissance Europe: The Women of the Spanish Monarchy, funded by the Ministerio de Ciencia y Innovación of the Spanish government, and a scientific committee of the Institut national d’histoire d’art, Paris. She is also on the advisory board of the Fairfield University Arts Institute.
Professor Helmstutler Di Dio teaches a variety of courses on Renaissance and Baroque Art, a course on Art and Its Destruction, and two courses that bolster the professional development of arts students: How to Get a Job in the Arts and Campus Art Projects.
In service to the profession, Professor Di Dio and a colleague from the Institut national d’histoire d’art have for six years organized conference sessions at the major conference in the field, the international conference of the Renaissance Society of America. The sessions specifically provide mentorship and support for emerging scholars in the field. Over 50 junior scholars have benefited from these efforts to date.
Courses
ARTH 3000
Publications
Awards and Achievements
Prof. Helmstutler Di Dio was the 2023 recipient of the George Kidder Outstanding Faculty Award and she won the Kroepsch-Maurice Excellence in Teaching Award in 2016. She has received research fellowships and grants from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, the Medici Archive Project, Harvard’s Villa I Tatti, and the Ministero de Cultura y Deportes.