Dr Francesca Bologna
Teaching and Research Fellow in Classical Art and Archaeology
Contact details
- Email: francesca.bologna@ed.ac.uk
Address
- Street
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Room 00M22, William Robertson Wing, Old Medical School, Teviot Place
- City
- Post code
Availability
Drop-in hours: Tuesdays 11:00-13:00
Background
Before starting at Edinburgh, I was a Research Fellow at the University of Verona, working as part of the ERC-funded project RESP (The Roman Emperor Seen from the Provinces). I completed my PhD at King’s College London, with a thesis focusing on Roman wall painters and their working practices in the city of Pompeii. I have been working in the heritage sector since 2019, first as Project Curator for the exhibition 'Nero: the man behind the myth' at the British Museum, then as Communications Officer for MOLA (Museum of London Archaeology), and as curator at the Dorset Museum & Art Gallery. I also taught Roman archaeology at King’s College London and at Royal Holloway.
Undergraduate teaching
Roman Art and Archaeology
Roman Archaeology Seminar 1 (The Emperor and the Provinces)
Roman Architecture
Open to PhD supervision enquiries?
No
Research summary
My research focuses on ancient craft production, particularly its economics, workforce organisation, and the social status and mobility of craftspeople in antiquity.
BOOKS
Bologna, F. 2024. Painting Pompeii. Painters, Practices, and Organization, Turnhout: Brepols.
Opper, T. & Bologna. F. 2021. Nero: the man behind the myth – exhibition highlights, London: British Museum Press.
ARTICLES AND BOOK CHAPTERS
Bologna, F. (expected 2026) ‘Introduction’, in Calomino, D., Bologna, F. (eds.) The Imperial Image Between Rome and the Provinces: Impact, Reception, Dissemination and Diversification, Leiden-Boston: Brill.
Bologna, F. (expected 2026) ‘Faces of crisis: spread and reception of the images of short-lived Emperors’, in Calomino, D., Bologna, F. (eds.) The Imperial Image Between Rome and the Provinces: Impact, Reception, Dissemination and Diversification, Leiden-Boston: Brill.
N. Lordoğlu & F. Bologna (expected 2026) ‘Marble sculpture vs. coins in the provincial capital of Asia. A case study of Geta’, in Calomino, D., Bologna, F. (eds.) The Imperial Image Between Rome and the Provinces: Impact, Reception, Dissemination and Diversification, Leiden-Boston: Brill.
Bologna, F. & Bucolo, R. 2025. ‘Quantifying Recarved Roman Imperial Portraits: from Augustus to Carinus’, Journal of Roman Archaeology 38(2).
Calomino, D., Bologna, F., Wilson, P.F., Donnelly, M., Williams, M.A. 2023. ‘Imaging Hadrian in Britain between Coinage and Sculpture: A New Digital Approach to the Study of Roman Imperial Portraiture’, Britannia 54, 251-274.
Bologna, F. 2023. ‘Pompeian wall painting in figures: labour and materials’, in Barker, S.J., Courault, C., Domingo, J.Á., Maschek, D. (eds.) From Concept to Monument: Time and Costs of Construction in the Ancient World. Papers in Honour of Janet DeLaine, Oxford: Archaeopress, 344-356.
Bologna, F. 2022. ‘How were Roman wall paintings made? Material vs textual evidence’, in Beaulieu, M.-C., Toillon, V. (eds.) Greek and Roman Painting and the Digital Humanities, New York: Routledge, 125-143.
Bologna, F. 2020. ‘Funzione, contesto ed agentività: come caratterizzare il rapporto tra dominus e pittore nella casa romana’, in Donati, F., Benetti, I. (eds.) Sistemi decorativi della pittura antica: funzione e contesto. Atti del II colloquio AIRPA, Pisa 14-15 giugno 2018, Pavia: Edizioni Quasar, 261-270.
Bologna, F. 2020. ‘Il quadro come somma di addizioni: quantificare la produzione pittorica romana’, in Giulierini, P., Coralini, A., Sampaolo, V. (eds.) Picta fragmenta. La pittura vesuviana. Una rilettura, Milan: Silvana Editoriale, 407-420.
Bologna, F. 2019. ‘Water and stone: the economics of wall painting in Pompeii (A.D. 62-79)’, Journal of Roman Archaeology 32, 97-128.
Bologna, F. 2016. ‘Painters and workshops in Pompeii: identifying craftspeople to understand their working practices’, SHARE: Studies in History, Archaeology, Religion and Conservation 3(1)
REVIEWS
Bologna, F. 2023. ‘Review: Julia Steding, Carvers and Customers in Roman Palmyra: The Production Economy of Limestone Loculus Reliefs’, Journal of Roman Studies 113, 224-225.
Bologna, F. 2019. ‘Book review: Luigi Quattrocchi, Mosaici funerari tardoantichi in Italia’, Mosaic 46, 37-38.
Bologna, F. 2019. ‘A comparative analysis of Pompeian plasters - Agneta Freccero, Wall Painting In Pompeii: Plaster, Stucco, Paint’, Journal of Roman Archaeology 32, 733-736.