John Ruskin’s Painting Materials A Quest for Durable Colour between Industry and Nature

Tea Ghigo is a Lecturer in the History of Art, Materials and Technology at University College London and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London. She holds a joint PhD in Archaeometry from the University of Rome La Sapienza and the University of Hamburg, and previously worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford. Her research sits at the intersection of Heritage Science and Technical Art History, focusing on the material culture of Europe and the Mediterranean from Antiquity through the nineteenth century. Grounded in an evidence-based approach inspired by antiquarian traditions, her work combines close material investigation of artefacts with the study of historical texts to interpret the past. Passionate about museum communication, she is committed to expanding the visibility of materials and making techniques in museum narratives—both through her research and in her teaching—ultimately contributing to more inclusive and materially informed histories of art.