Rescheduled to Autumn 2026:
The 2026 Annual Barbara A. Hanawalt Public Lecture will feature Dr. Peter Weller. He will speak on Renaissance narrative art's relationship to modern film, covering the works of Giotto, Caravaggio, and Storaro. After acting as the original "RoboCop" in the famous 1987 film, Dr. Weller went on to earn his Ph.D. in art history from UCLA. A reception will follow.
You can hear more about RoboCop and Dr. Weller's experiences playing this iconic sci-fi character the previous night, where Weller will present a screening of the movie and a Q+A at Studio 35 Cinema and Drafthouse.
Abstract
In my novice days of art appreciation, while judging Kyoto’s International Film Festival, I asked Vittorio Storaro — Oscar winning cinematographer for Apocalypse Now, Reds, and the Last Emperor — whom he favored as a painter. Storaro inquired if I had ever been to Padua. I had not. “So, you have not seen modern history’s narrative genesis of film, Giotto’s frescoes of Mary and Jesus in the Capella Scrovegni.” I had not. Whereupon Storaro whiffed, “Well, Peter, we cannot talk about art. Any discussion of Rembrandt or Max Ernst, ignorant of Giotto’s space, time, emotion or composition would be pointless.” Indeed. As the crux of visual history is social evolution, so my talk here, to substantiate Storaro, will walk you through the Renaissance to modern film, disputing academic concept that any western school, period or movement of visual art can be studied exclusive of the Renaissance. For without the genius of Giotto through Caravaggio and beyond, we can only assess contemporary art and film, be it Matisse, Rothko, Pollack, Coppola, Kubrick or Spielberg in modern myopia.
About Dr. Peter Weller
Dr. Peter Weller is an Italian Renaissance art historian, actor and director. He received his Ph.D. from UCLA in the History of Art with a specialization in Italian Renaissance Art. He is also known as the star of the films RoboCop (1987) and RoboCop 2 (1990), The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai (1984) and Naked Lunch (1991). His more recent appearances (roles and guest roles) include Star Trek Into Darkness (2013), the TV series Dexter (2010), and 24 (2006). Dr. Weller also directed numerous episodes of Sons of Anarchy (2011-2014), Longmire (2012-2017), and, most recently, Hawaii Five-O (2013-2019).
Dr. Weller recently published Leon Battista Alberti in Exile: Tracing the Path to the First Modern Book on Painting. In this volume, Peter Weller challenges the popular notion that De pictura's compendium on lines, points, mathematics, composition, narrative and portraiture is primarily the result of Alberti's return to Florence and his short exposure to its visual art. Weller argues that Rome, Padua, Bologna and northern Europe – environs where Alberti studied, worked and lived during exile – empowered his paramount intellectual-artistic gift. Scrutiny of Alberti's evolution before Florence illuminates how this original Renaissance man merged the two most conspicuous cultural developments of early modern Italy – visual art and humanism — to create De pictura, our first modern book on painting.
Dr. Weller is the author of “Donatello’s Bronze David in the Twenty-First Century,” 2012, an article on the Italian Renaissance sculptor Donatello, as well as an essay contribution on the Italian Renaissance painter Antonello da Messina (in Visualizing Sensuous Suffering and Affective Pain in Early Modern Europe and the Spanish Americas, Brill, 2018).
This event is free and open to the public. Co-hosted by the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies and the Humanities Institute.
Parking and Directions
Limited complimentary parking is available near the Faculty Club on a first‑come, first‑served basis, including a small number of pay‑and‑display (metered) spaces near Orton Hall. Anyone with an A-level or emeritus pass from CampusParc may park nearby. Attendees are strongly encouraged to use the nearby Ohio Union South Garage, located a short walk from the venue and offering hourly public parking.
The Humanities Institute and its related centers host a wide range of events, from intense discussions of works in progress to cutting-edge presentations from world-renowned scholars, artists, activists and everything in between.
We value in-person engagement at our events as we strive to amplify the energy in the room. To submit an accommodation request, please send your request to Nick Spitulski, spitulski.1@osu.edu.