Paola Pallottino, the scholar who invented art history of illustration, awarded Svoboda Prize

Paola Pallottino (Rome, 1939), a pioneering scholar and illustrator, has been awarded the Premio Svoboda al Talento Artistico e Creativo 2023 and named "Accademico Onorario" of the Accademia di Belle Arti di Macerata. The academy also dedicated to her the exhibition "Quasi per Gioco. Le arti di Paola Pallottino" (curated by Maria Letizia Paiato) and a catalog. Pallottino is credited with establishing illustration as an art form through her studies, including the first publication of the series "Cento Anni di Illustratori" for Cappelli Editore starting in 1979, and the formalization of her research in the 1988 book "Storia dell'Illustrazione". She founded the Museo dell'Illustrazione in Ferrara in 1992, which operated for fourteen years. Her career spans scientific illustrations, children's books, and even lyrics for Lucio Dalla. She contributed to numerous encyclopedias, including the Dictionnaire des Illustrateurs, the Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (Treccani), and the Garzantina. For the 1970 edition of the Nuovo Dizionario Zingarelli, she illustrated six hundred animals. Her father was an Etruscologist and director of the Enciclopedia Universale dell'Arte.