Historian of art, educator, and curator who specialized in art of the Caribbean.

First art historian of Impressionism; coiner of the term avant garde for art. Duret was raised in a privileged Charente family whose fortune derived from the cognac firm Duret et De Brie; the private means allowed him to pursue interests without concern of support. As early as 1855-1856 while in London he encountered Pre-Raphaelite painting. His encounter with the works of his countrymen, Courbet and Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot in the collection of his cousin, Etienne Baudry in 1862 brought him to a serious interest in art.

Writer, art critic, curator, professor. While Volpi was born in Macerata to Dante and Matilde Andreani and spent almost her entire life living in Rome. She attended the Guilio Cesare high school in Rome while taking courses at the Accademia d’Arte drammatica Silvio d’Amico (Silvio d’Amico Academy of Dramatic Arts) where she became interested in the Italian Communist Party. In 1952, she graduated from the Università “La Sapienza” di Roma writing her M.A. in Philosophy entitled Il pensiero politico di Pellegrino Rossi (The political thought of Pellegrino Rossi).