Peta Motture

North Italian Renaissance Bronzes – a two-part project

I am currently collaborating with Andrew Lacey to investigate the techniques of the Paduan-based sculptor Andrea Riccio (1470-1532), to shed further light on his practice and its significance within his artistic and cultural context. Alongside, I am contributing research into a selection of North Italian functional bronzes in the V&A collections.

Formerly Senior Curator of Sculpture at the V&A, and Chief Curator of the Medieval & Renaissance Galleries (opened 2009), I retired in 2022, becoming Honorary Senior Research Fellow in VARI until 2024. For over ten years, I was responsible for the Robert H. Smith Renaissance Sculpture Programme of lectures, conferences, symposia, other events and publications, and have co-curated several exhibitions, most recently Donatello: Sculpting the Renaissance (2023). I have benefitted from involvement in a number of international collaborative research projects, as well as from fellowships and scholarships related to the study of bronzes.

Selected publications

• ‘Renaissance bronzes: making, context and collecting’ in Caterina Badan (ed.), A Renaissance Treasure: The Schroder Collection and the Holburne Museum, London: Paul Holberton, 2025, pp.135-45
• Guidelines for the Technical Examination of Bronze Sculpture. David Bourgarit, Jane Bassett, Francesca G. Bewer, Arlen Heginbotham, Andrew Lacey and Peta Motture (eds), Los Angeles: Getty Publications, 2025.
• Co-curator, with Whitney Kerr-Lewis, Donatello: Sculpting the Renaissance. Peta Motture (ed.), [exh. cat.], London: V&A Publishing, 2023.
• The Culture of Bronze: Making and Meaning in Italian Renaissance Sculpture, London: V&A Publishing, 2019
• Co-curator, with Denis Allen, Andrea Riccio: Renaissance Master of Bronze, [exh. cat. The Frick Collection, New York, 2008-9], New York & London: The Frick Collection in association with Philip Wilson Publishers, 2008