After earning a bachelor’s degree in Art History and Archaeology from the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, I continued my studies with a master’s in Art History with a “research track” at the same institution. I specialized in Dutch art from the modern period (16th-17th centuries), focusing specifically on landscapes. I dedicated my first thesis to the symbolism of ruins in the works of Jacob van Ruisdael. These ruins captured my attention as embodiments of a new understanding of the present and history during the modern era. It was also in the context of this thesis that I developed the notion of “vegetal ruins.” This term refers to plants that have deteriorated either due to the inevitable passage of time or through violent human or climatic interventions. This initial observation of the significant power of the tree as a vegetal ruin led me to further explore this motif in the Flemish landscape of the 16th century, culminating in a second thesis on the tree of life in the “Weltlandschaft” (world landscape).
My research investigates how landscapes convey nationalist, religious, and moralistic discourses in a changing society marked by wars, the Reformation, and extraordinary economic growth. Additionally, it aligns with an eco-critical approach.
As part of the Synergia project, “Capturing the Present in Northwestern Europe (1348–1648): A Cultural History of Present Before the Age of Presentism“, I am pursuing a doctoral thesis dedicated to the literary and artistic representations of fires caused by natural disasters in France and the Netherlands from the 15th to the 17th centuries.