ABOUT ROMANA
Romana Mastrella is an art historian and advisor specializing in Decorative Arts, holding a Ph.D. in History of Art from Sapienza University of Rome.
She has collaborated with leading institutions including the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Hallwyl Museum and the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm, and the Ducal Palace of Urbania (Italy). Her research has been presented at international conferences hosted by the Italian Ministry of Culture in Rome and The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
From 2018 to 2022, she worked at a prominent antique gallery in Rome, gaining extensive experience in the art market and contributing to major international art fairs such as TEFAF Maastricht and New York, Frieze London, and the Florence Biennale. During this period, she identified and published several previously unknown works, including two historiated amphorae now housed in The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Alongside her academic and curatorial research, Romana advises private collectors, institutions, and companies worldwide, offering bespoke services in acquisition, cataloguing, and collection management. Her work is guided by a connoisseur’s eye for quality and by a vision that connects artworks across centuries, from the Renaissance to the contemporary.
ACADEMIC WORKS
R. MASTRELLA, Two Monumental Maiolica Amphorae from the Papi Workshop: New Insights and Contexts, in The Burlington Magazine, London, August 2025, vol. 167, no. 1469, pp. 800 - 805
R. MASTRELLA, The Fashion of Zoomorphic Tableware at the Court of Francesco Maria II Della Rovere, in Comida, Memoria y Sociedad. La Configuración del Quehacer Gastronómico. Proceeding Book Simposio FHD 2024, Barcelona, 2024, pp. 1-22.
R. MASTRELLA, Tra moda antiquaria e gusto neoclassico: modelli, forme e stili dei camini prodottia Roma nel Settecento, in "FONTES. Rivista di Iconografia e Storia della Critica d’Arte”, Volume V, 2024, pp. 127–148.
R. MASTRELLA, A. WILLIAMS, Curating Elegance with Maiolica and Porcelain at the Turn of the 20th Century Wilhelmina von Hallwyl’s Collecting Practices and Visionary Museology, in "The French Porcelain Society Journal", Volume X, 2024, pp. 1–26.
R. MASTRELLA, Diomede Durante e la fortuna del decoro “a foglia di prezzemolo” nella maiolica romana dal Cinquecento al Settecento, in “Accademia Raffaello. Atti e studi”, n. 23, 2023, pp. 37-58.
R. MASTRELLA, La collezione di vasi da farmacia del Nobile Collegio Chimico Farmaceutico prodotti a Roma dal XVI al XVIII secolo, in "Atti e studi", Rome 2023, pp. 13-23.
R. MASTRELLA, Novità dal restauro delle due anfore istoriate nella bottega di Pietro Papi (Urbania 1670), in “Storia dell’arte” in tempo reale, March 2022, pp. 83-86.
R. MASTRELLA, Due anfore inedite di Pietro Papi (Urbania 1670) con scene della Gerusalemme Liberata del Tempesta, in “Storia dell’arte” in tempo reale, August 2021, pp. 75-82.
Publications
R. MASTRELLA, Il bianco e il blu: incontri tra Oriente e Occidente nella maiolica italiana del Cinquecento. Paper presented at Orizzonti e Memorie, «Tracce, riflessi e segni: dinamiche della trasmissione», Università degli Studi della Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli,” Naples, September 24–26, 2025.
R. MASTRELLA, Giuditta nella tradizione ebraica: decapitazione, salvezza e rappresentazione nell’arte cerimoniale (XVII-XVIII secolo). Paper presented at Perdere la testa. Riti e rappresentazioni della decollazione, XV–XIX secolo, curated di Raffaella Morselli e Lisa Roscioni, Rome, Sapienza Università di Roma, 23 May 2025.
R. MASTRELLA, Giovanni Battista Piranesi and His Collectors. Paper presented at Annual PhD Symposium, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 3 April 2025.
R. MASTRELLA, The Fashion of Zoomorphic Tableware at the Court of Francesco Maria II Della Rovere. Paper presented at Comida, Memoria y sociedad - EINA Centro Universitario de Diseño y Arte, Barcelona, Spain, 27-28 November 2024.
R. MASTRELLA, Caterina e Maria Maddalena Della Riviera: Maestre Arazziere a Casa Barberini nella Roma di Urbano VIII. Paper presented at Maestranze artistiche nella Roma di Urbano VIII dai fondi dell'Archivio Storico Capitolino: il Giubileo del 1625, Archivio Storico Capitolino, Rome, 29 October 2024.
R. MASTRELLA, Collecting Roman Fireplaces in the Eighteenth-Century. Paper presented at EARLY CAREER RESEARCH SYMPOSIUM: Furniture & Interiors from 1650 to 1950, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 24 January 2024.
R. MASTRELLA, La contessa Wilhelmina von Hallwyl (1844-1930) collezionista d’arte italiana a Stoccolma: rapporti e scambi con mercanti e case d’aste europee tra la fine del XIX e l’inizio del XX secolo. Paper presented at Esportare opere, plasmare uno stile. La circolazione di beni culturali dall'Italia verso l'estero (secoli XVIII-presente), Ministry of Culture, Rome, 23-24 October, 2023.
