Join Us in Welcoming Amy Marie Zucca, Resident Art Historian
Cheshire CT, September 2023:
We are pleased to announce that Amy Marie Zucca, Ph.D., has joined the Canning Team as its resident Art Historian.
She will bring her expertise to bear as sacred and historic sites are evaluated and provide context for the architectural styles and symbolism that these spaces reveal. She will collaborate with our clients and in-house artists on commissioned artwork. Additionally, she will be writing feature blogs and articles on the connections between art and architecture, as well as the work that Canning does today and the history behind our decisions, techniques and imagery that are inspired by the Old Masters.
Maintaining these high standards in every aspect of these commissions is what led David Riccio, President, to bring Amy on board, “Every historic project was originally constructed with very specific intentions, symbolism and purposes in mind. It is always our goal to let those details guide our designs and work. With deep respect for and the keen ability to interpret historic, period interiors with complex finish systems, we continue to lead the industry with Truth and Beauty as our guides.”
Amy’s path to Canning is marked by a life of teaching and learning, especially in the field of art history. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Art History with honors at New York University, graduating Phi Beta Kappa. Her undergraduate honors thesis was written under the mentorship of the Florentine Renaissance expert, A. Richard Turner. Off campus, Amy worked at The Frick Collection, NY, and was awarded a summer internship at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, Italy, during the 45th Venice Biennale.
Amy went on to earn her Master of Arts in Art History at the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University. Her graduate studies included research projects on the choir screen of Bamberg Cathedral in Germany; the Byzantine chalices in the treasury of Saint Mark’s Basilica in Venice; conservation of nineteenth-century tintype photography; and J.M.W. Turner’s early-nineteenth-century paintings of the Grand Canal in Venice. Awarded a scholarship to study abroad, she traveled to London and Venice and then throughout Germany, seeking out many of the works she had only encountered in books. Back in New York, Amy took up teaching the History of Western Art course in NYU’s undergraduate department, cultivating the dynamic, image-driven teaching style that would be the hallmark of her career in the classroom.
At the invitation of the Italian Renaissance scholar, Paul Hills, Amy went on to earn her Ph.D. at the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom. Her doctoral dissertation Images of Moses and Sixteenth-Century Venice focuses on the pioneering work of the painter, Jacopo Tintoretto in the age of the Counter Reformation. During her time in the UK, Amy held teaching positions at the University of Warwick, the University of Nottingham, Richmond, the American International University in London, and St. Mary’s School, Shaftesbury. She led countless student trips to London museums and provincial cathedrals as well as extended study trips to Rome and Paris, always emphasizing the unmatched impact of encountering works of art and architecture in life.
About joining Canning, Amy says, “I’m excited to work with the talented staff here and collaborate with clients to communicate the meanings, contexts and artistic value at the heart of their sacred and civic projects and programs.” With her education, experience, and passion for the art and architecture of the past, Amy hopes to help restore and preserve beauty for the future.
Beginning in September, Amy will pen a series of newsletter articles about Canning Liturgical Arts’ recently completed Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus project in Hanover, PA during which the team completed a massive conservation and preservation project encompassing tens of thousands of square feet of the church’s interior surfaces. The scale of the project exceeds anything the preservation industry has seen in more than 50 years.
ABOUT CANNING LITURGICAL ARTS
A branch of the John Canning Company, Canning Liturgical Arts has been the leader in new commissioned artwork and designs for both civic and sacred spaces across the United States for over 45 years.
Specializing in ecclesiastical art and design, as well as a range of services that include historic preservation, conservation, restoration, and beautification of interiors. The Canning craftsmanship spans the trade of architectural arts and finishes with expertise in ornamental plaster restoration, plaster stabilization, decorative finishes, gilding, historic woodwork, and stone as well as exterior services of architectural gilding and selective decorative finishes. Canning offers preconstruction and planning services such as budgeting and specification support as well as consultation services that include historic paint analysis, plaster surveys, design services and mockups.
Our principals are professional associates of the American Institute for the Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (AIC). We are guided by the principle “do no harm” and advance that principle by providing treatments that are reversible and supplying owners with thorough documentation of research, conditions, actions taken, and materials used.