Research Bio

James Grantham Turner's recent books examine eroticism in Renaissance art and aesthetic theory, and the integration of Eros, architecture, poetry and landscape in the Villa Farnesina, Rome. His book on that villa, from Cambridge University press, won the PROSE award from the American Association of Publishers for the best art history book of 2023.  Current research involves the afterlife and influence of the Farnesina, studying its impact both on future artists and on English writers visiting Rome, including John Milton. Works in progress include books provisionally titled "Under Milton's Skin" and "Farnesina Rediviva: Memories and Recreations of Agostino Chigi’s Roman Villa."  Previous publications (1972-2024) have explored Milton, Marvell, Lucretius, Behn and Rochester, libertine literature in Europe, sexuality in the early novel, erotic education in the French Enlightenment, the gender politics of Adam and Eve, landscape, ecology and the representation of rural life, and "visual realism" in education.

Research Expertise and Interest

gender, sexuality, English, 16th-18th century English, Italian and French literature, art and literature, 17th century political writing, landscape and the city, Enlightenment materialism, sexuality in Renaissance Italian art and Antiquity, ecocriticism in literature and art