Welcome to Paola’s Studiolo — a cultural salon I created in 2020 for curious minds, armchair travelers, dreamers, and anyone who has ever found themselves lingering in front of a painting just a little longer than expected.
Inspired by the Renaissance architectural concept of a “studiolo” (a private room for art, books, ideas, collecting, and contemplation), Paola’s Studiolo is my own modern-day salon: an intimate virtual gathering place where together, we can step inside the world of Italian Renaissance art and culture.
One of the things I love most about my Studiolo is that it gives you a front-row seat to the art world. We don’t just talk about the Renaissance as something in the past. We meet the curators, scholars, museum directors, conservators, and collectors who are looking at these works now — researching them, restoring them, exhibiting them, and finding new ways to tell their stories.
These are not formal lectures. They are conversations filled with stories, discoveries, unexpected details, favorite works of art, hidden corners of Italy, and the kind of knowledge that makes you want to return to a painting, a church, a museum, or a city and see it with entirely new eyes.
Who is Paola's Studiolo for?
It is a place …
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For those who are endlessly curious – for the armchair traveler dreaming of Florence, Venice, Rome, Mantua, Ferrara, or other magical cities full of Renaissance art and culture.
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For the museum wanderer.
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For the reader with a pile of art books beside the bed.
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For the person who wants to understand why a painting moves them.
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…And for anyone who believes that some of life’s greatest pleasures begin with looking closely and asking questions.
In Paola’s Studiolo, you do not need to be an art historian. You simply need to be curious.
So if this sounds like your kind of place, and if you’d like to start something new and inspirational this Fall, I would love to welcome you into my private Studiolo!
And because the Studiolo is virtual, you can join us from anywhere in the world — from your favorite armchair, your kitchen table, or wherever you happen to be. And if you can’t join a conversation live, I will send you the recording so you can watch whenever it suits your schedule.
I love how Swedish-Hungarian multidisciplinary artist and writer Marta von Poroszlay recently described Paola’s Studiolo: “My interest in Florence did not arise from a touristic impulse, but from a slower, almost artisanal process. For two years I have been part of the Studiolo of Paola Vojnovic, an art historian of the Italian Renaissance specializing in northern Italy. In that space—half intellectual workshop, half refuge for those of us who love history—I have discovered a different way of looking at the past: closer, tactile, and human."
I am excited to welcome you to my cultural salon!
I can't wait to see you there,
All the upcoming events are listed here: