University of Cagliari
Dipartimento di Pedagogia, psicologia, filosofia
LUCA VARGIU currently serves as an associate professor of Aesthetics at the University of Cagliari.
He studied at the University of Cagliari, where he graduated in Philosophy (1995) and specialized in Art History (2001). Later he studied at the University of Palermo, where he earned a PhD (“dottorato di ricerca”) in Aesthetics and Art Theories (2006).
He has worked as a tenured teacher of Philosophy and History in the Italian high schools and as a teacher in various vocational education courses and post-high school courses. At the University of Cagliari—as a professor by contract and then as a faculty member—he has taught several courses, including Aesthetics, Phenomenology of Styles, History of Art Criticism, Image Analysis, and Philosophy of Landscape and Environment.
He is a commendable member and a component of the Board and of the Scientific Committee of ISEB (Istituto “Emilio Betti” di Scienza e Teoria del Diritto nella storia e nella società). He is also a member of SIE (Società Italiana d’Estetica), ESA (The European Society for Aesthetics), and Association of Friends of CEMS (Center for Early Medieval Studies- Masarykova Univerzita, Brno). He has collaborated with the International Centre for the Study of Aesthetics (Centro Internazionale Studi di Estetica).
He is on the Scientific Board of the journal «New Theories» (J.J. Strossmayer University, Osijek). He is a member of CRPM “Espace, Déplacement, Mobilité” research group (Université Paris Nanterre).
In 2009 he won the Premio Nuova Estetica (New Aesthetics Prize).
RESEARCH INTERESTS:
Medieval and Contemporary image theories – Theories of Art History – Aesthetics and Hermeneutics – Philosophy of Landscape.
PUBLICATIONS (SELECTION):
books and long essays:
— Prima dell’età dell’arte. Hans Belting e l’immagine medievale, «Aesthetica Preprint: Supplementa», n. 20, 2007 [Open Access].
— Incroci ermeneutici. Betti, Sedlmayr e l’intepretazione dell’opera d’arte, «Aesthetica Preprint», n. 82, 2008 [Open Access].
— Storia dell’arte contemporanea in Sardegna. Introduzione allo studio, Cuec, Cagliari 2009.
— Figure e bilanci. Saggi sparsi di filosofia dell’arte, Mimesis, Milan and Udine 2016.
— Hermeneutik und Kunstwissenschaft. Ein Dialog auf Distanz – Emilio Betti und Hans Sedlmayr, Logos Verlag, Berlin 2017 [Open Access].
— Insularità. Una metafora per l’opera d’arte, Mimesis, Milan and Udine 2020.
edition of foreign books:
— Hans Belting, Il capolavoro invisibile. Il mito moderno dell’arte, Carocci, Rome 2018.
— Krešimir Purgar, Iconologia e cultura visuale. W.J.T. Mitchell, storia e metodo dei visual studies, Carocci, Rome 2019.
— Hans Belting, Immagine e culto. Una storia dell’immagine prima dell’età dell’arte, Carocci, Rome 2022.
volume chapters:
— Kant at the Maracanã, in T. Richards (ed.), Soccer and Philosophy. Beautiful Thoughts on the Beautiful Game, Open Court, Chicago and La Salle 2010, pp. 172-184.
— Frederik Adama van Scheltema and the West between Systole and Diastole, in L. Russo (ed.), Evolutions of Form, Logos Verlag, Berlin 2013, pp. 113-132.
— Identity through Landscape, Identity of Landscape, in Y. Espiña (ed.), Images of Europe. Past, Present, Future, Universidade Católica Editora, Porto 2016, pp. 981-989 [Open Access].
— Mitchell and Boehm – a Dialogue: Image Science in the European Context, in K. Purgar (ed.), W.J.T. Mitchell’s Image Theory. Living Pictures, Routledge, New York and London 2017, pp. 171-181.
— Function and Context: Funkkolleg Kunst Thirty Years Later, in F. Pau, L. Vargiu (eds.), Following Forms, Following Functions: Practices and Disciplines in Dialogue, Cambridge Scholars, Newcastle upon Tyne 2018, pp. 51-63.
— Walking through Landscapes?, in A.V. Serrão, M. Reker (eds.), Philosophy of Landscape. Think, Walk, Act, CFUL, Lisbon 2019, pp. 205-220 [Open Access].
— Hans Belting, in K. Purgar (ed.), The Palgrave Handbook of Image Studies, Palgrave Macmillan, Cham 2021, pp. 857-871.
— The Beautiful Landscape?, in D.-M. Hennrich, P. Reyes, A. Rozenstraten (eds.), Thinking Landscape, FAUUSP, São Paulo 2023, pp. 17-36 [Open Access].
papers in journals:
— «Like paired dolphins». Sincronia di alternative tra Danto e Belting, in «Rivista di Estetica», XLVII, no. 35 N.S., 2007, pp. 335-355 [Open Access].
— Hans Belting e lo sguardo dell’etnologo, in «Ricerche di Storia dell’Arte», no. 94, 2008, pp. 29-34.
— Andaht nah bildricher wise. Hans Belting e le figurazioni devozionali, in «Aesthetica preprint: Supplementa», no. 23, 2009, pp. 229-246 [Open Access].
— The Museum of Me e l’ideologia del museo contemporaneo, in «Studi di Estetica», XL fasc. I, III series, no. 45, 2012, pp. 243-258.
— La Kulturmorphologie di Frederik Adama van Scheltema, in «Aesthetica preprint», no. 96, 2012, pp. 51-56 [Open Access].
— Il metodo di Maria Accascina e gli affreschi di Saccargia, in «TeCLa. Temi di Critica e Letteratura artistica», no. 11, 2015, pp. 65-80 [Open Access].
— Hans Belting, l’estetica della compensazione e la Riforma, in «Aisthema. Philosophy Theology Aesthetics», 5, no. 1, 2018, pp. 19-35 [Open Access].
— Notes for an Aesthetic Approach to Walking, in «Antae», 6, no. 2-3, 2019, pp. 146-158 [Open Access].
— Luigi Russo e il “quadrante metateorico” di Nicea, in «Aesthetica preprint», no. 113, 2020, pp. 287-295 [Open Access].
— Emilio Betti. “A teoria geral da interpretação”, in «Philosophica», no. 55-56, 2020, pp. 239-248 [Open Access].
— Walking as an Art. Experience, Political Engagement, Image, in «New Theories», 3, no. 2, 2021, pp. 42-69 [Open Access].
— Hans Belting and Hermeneutics – Between Unease and Awareness, in «Labyrinth», 24, no. 2, 2022, pp. 134-149 [Open Access].
— Motivi estetici nella Rechtsphilosophie di Gustav Radbruch, in «LawArt», no. 6, 2025, pp. 67-98 [Open Access].
— Ana Petrović, L.V., Images always on the edge. A conversation, in «Medea», 11, no. 1, 2025 (but 2026), 31 pp. [Open Access].
edition of volumes and journal issues:
— Sguardi sul paesaggio, sguardi sul mondo. Mediterranei a confronto (with S. Aru, F. Parascandolo and M. Tanca), Franco Angeli, Milano 2012.
— Paesaggio e democrazia (with S. Aru, F. Parascandolo and M. Tanca), «Rivista Geografica Italiana», CXX, no. 4, 2013 [Open Access].
— Esplorare nel passato indagare sul contemporaneo. Dare senso al paesaggio vol. 1, Mimesis, Milan and Udine 2015.
— Crisis of Landscapes, Landscapes of the Crisis. What are the Solutions? (with S. Aru, F. Parascandolo and M. Tanca), «J-Reading. Journal of Research and Didactics in Geography», 5, no. 1, 2016 [Open Access].
— Following Forms, Following Functions: Practices and Disciplines in Dialogue (with F. Pau), Cambridge Scholars, Newcastle upon Tyne 2018.
— Abitare. Approcci interdisciplinari e nuove prospettive (with L. Boi and A. Cannas), Unicapress, Cagliari 2019 [Open Access].
— Esperienze e interpretazioni della morte tra Medioevo e Rinascimento (with A. Virdis), affinità elettive, Ancona 2020.
— Le arti e l’esperienza estetica. Suoni, immagini e parole per Maria Barbara Ponti (with F. Pau), affinità elettive, Ancona 2022.
— Studiare le immagini. Teorie, concetti, metodi (with K. Purgar), Carocci, Rome 2023.
— Georg Simmel. Variazioni estetiche (with F. Pau), Meltemi, Milan 2024.
LATEST UPDATE May 6, 2026
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1931-2090
https://www.cienciavitae.pt/911A-4861-410E
LUCA VARGIU docet aestheticam in Universitate Studiorum calaritana. Campi investigationum eius sunt: theoriae imaginum medii aevi atque aetatis nostrae, elementa theorica historiae artis, nexus inter aestheticam et hermeneuticam, philosophia prospectus.
ULTIMUM COMPLEMENTUM Kal. Iul. MMXXIII
LUCA VARGIU é professor associado na Universidade de Cagliari, onde ensina Estética. Formado em Filosofia, com especialização em História da Arte na Universidade de Cagliari, e doutorado em Estética e Teoria das Artes na Universidade de Palermo. As suas áreas de especialização são: as teorias medievais e contemporâneas da imagem, a reflexão teórica sobre a historia da arte, as relações entre estética e hermenêutica e a filosofia da paisagem. Escreveu numerosos textos sobre estes temas e, em 2009, ganhou o prémio Nuova Estetica, da Sociedade Italiana de Estética.
ÚLTIMA ATUALIZAÇÃO 4 de Janeiro de 2022
LUCA VARGIU ist derzeit assoziierter Professor für Ästhetik an der Universität Cagliari. Zu seinen Forschungsschwerpunkten zählen mittelalterliche und zeitgenössische Bildtheorien, theoretische Reflexionen zur Kunstgeschichte, das Verhältnis zwischen Ästhetik und Hermeneutik sowie die Philosophie der Landschaft. Er ist Autor zahlreicher Publikationen zu verschiedenen Autoren, darunter Emilio Betti, Hans Sedlmayr, Hans Belting, Adolf Loos, Georg Simmel und Gustav Radbruch. Zu seinen jüngsten Veröffentlichungen zählt die Monografie Insularità. Una metafora per l’opera d’arte (2020) sowie die Sammelbände Studiare le immagini (in Zusammenarbeit mit Krešimir Purgar, 2023) und Georg Simmel. Variazioni estetiche (in Zusammenarbeit mit Federica Pau, 2024). Er hat Hans Beltings Bücher Das unsichtbare Meisterwerk (zusammen mit Domenico Spinosa, 2018) und Bild und Kult (2022) ins Italienische übersetzt.
LETZTE AKTUALISIERUNG: 20. April 2026