Professor Murdo Macdonald on Ossian and Italy

Italy and the Response to Ossian in Visual Art

by Murdo Macdonald, Professor of History of Scottish Art, University of Dundee

Krafft_Ossian_und_MalvinaThis paper was made possible by an invitation to conduct research in 2013 as part of the Cesarotti project led by Professor Guido Baldessarri at the University of Padua. My warmest thanks must go to Professor Baldessarri, and also to Dr Valentina Gallo, whose guidance was invaluable; also to Howard Gaskill for commenting on an early draft. Thanks are also due to the staff of the following libraries: Biblioteca Civica di Padova; Biblioteca Universitaria, Università delgi Studi di Padova; Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, Venice; British Library, London; National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh.

The paper appears now on the project’s new ‘Ossianet‘ website. Nothing could better exemplify the continuing international importance of James Macpherson’s work, than this website created by an Italian university.