“To Speak Across Time”: Gabriele Finaldi on Museums

In this episode of In the Foreground, Caro Fowler (Starr Director of the Research and Academic Program at the Clark Art Institute) speaks with art historian Gabriele Finaldi, who since 2015 has been Director of the National Gallery in London. A specialist of Renaissance and Baroque art, Gabriele previously served as Deputy Director of the Prado for over a decade. In this conversation he describes his early interest in the discipline and his graduate studies at the Courtauld, why he was moved to work on Jusepe de Ribera, and the particular power of drawing as a medium. More broadly, Gabriele and Caro discuss the evolving roles of education and the science of conservation within modern museums, and reflect on new directions for historical and collections-based museums today.