He was born in
Florence and there attended the liceo classico Dante, before graduating from the
University of Pisa and studying alongside
Paola Barocchi at the
Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa. He became ordinary professor of Modern Art History at the
Università per Stranieri di Siena after teaching at the
Università della Tuscia, the
Università degli Studi di Roma Tor Vergata and the
Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II. He is notable as one of the most authoritative authors on western Baroque art, on which he has written over one hundred essays in scholarly reviews and for noted publishers. He is president of the Comitato tecnico scientifico per le Belle Arti (technical scientific committee for fine arts) in Italy's
Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities, and is thus also
ex officio a member of the
Consiglio Universitario Nazionale. He is also a member of the
Uffizi's scientific committee, the editorial panel of the review
Prospettiva and the jury for the Premio Sila. He writes for the
Il Fatto Quotidiano and the "Ora d'Arte" column for the
Il Venerdì di Repubblica. He considers himself a "radical Catholic", influenced by the ideas of
Lorenzo Milani. == Journalism ==