Marlene Schwemer

Marlene Schwemer works on early modern architecture and visual culture in Italy, with a particular interest in the intersections between the study of antiquity and architectural design practices in 16th century Italy. Focusing on medial and material dynamics between architecture, texts, and images, she explores how the interweaving of fact and fiction shapes historical narratives and antiquarian knowledge during the Renaissance.

Marlene holds a BA and MA in History of Art and Architecture as well as a BA in Romance Studies (Italian major, Portuguese minor) from the University of Vienna. Through ERASMUS scholarships, she spent two semesters abroad at the Università Ca’ Foscari in Venice and the Università Roma Tre in Rome. Her Master’s thesis explored the relationship between Andrea Palladio’s engagement with antiquity and his design for the Villa Pisani in Montagnana. It was awarded the 2025 Sir Ernst Gombrich-Nachwuchspreis for young scholars by the Austrian Society for Art Historians (Österreichische Gesellschaft für Kunstgeschichte), and parts of this research will appear in her forthcoming article “Sulle tracce del metodo progettuale del Palladio: Il disegno per la villa Pisani a Montagnana in riferimento con i suoi studi dell’antico foro di Nerva“ in Annali di architettura. Her work on Palladio’s architecture and especially his drawings also led her to become a lecturer for the annual study course on Palladian Architecture, organized by the Centro Internazionale di Studi di Architettura Andrea Palladio in Vicenza.

Her research has been supported by fellowships at the Centro Tedesco di Studi Veneziani (German Center for Venetian Studies) in Venice, the Centro Internazionale di Studi di Architettura Andrea Palladio in Vicenza, Italy, and the Stiftung Bibliothek Werner Oechslin in Einsiedeln, Switzerland.