Andrea Mantegna e le sorelle Williams. Luigi Meneghello e la Storia dell’arte

This paper endeavours to provide a concise overview of Meneghello’s engagement with art history from two distinct perspectives: first, as a student (behind the chair), and subsequently, as a scholar and educator (behind the desk). It specifically underscores the writer’s affiliations with the Warburg Institute and the ‘spirit’ of that institution, elucidating their resonance within Meneghello’s pedagogical practices. Furthermore, it seeks to propose, through Juri Lotman’s concept of ‘iconic rhetoric’, a potential interpretive framework for his literary works that accounts for the fluid transitions between verbal and visual codes in the oeuvre of the Italian writer.