Michael Grillo

Michael Grillo is a Professor at the Department of Art, University of Maine, specializing in Italian Late Medieval Painting and visual epistemology. He received his PhD in Medieval History of Art from Cornell University and authored the 1997 book Symbolic Structures: The Role of Composition in Signaling Meaning in Italian Late Medieval Painting.

His research investigates how fourteenth-century images articulate complex ideas through visual media, complemented by interdisciplinary work in Renaissance Neo-Platonism and the cultural role of the humanities. He explores the historical evolution of perspective and the influence of illuminated manuscripts on architectural practices.

Dr. Grillo offers seminars on Fourteenth-Century Epistemology, Medieval and Renaissance Phenomenology, and Documentary Film History. As a practicing photographer, he examines photography’s role as a culturally specific visual modality. He directs the Medieval and Renaissance Studies minor and the Film and Video minor, bridging academic inquiry with applied artistic practice.