Martina Pippal, a well-travelled artist and art historian based in Vienna, is the daughter of painter Hans Robert Pippal (1915–1998) and architect Eugenie Pippal-Kottnig (1921–1998). Helping out in her father’s studio gave her practical experience of artistic techniques at a young age, but she decided instead to pursue a degree in art history, classical archaeology, history and theology at the University of Vienna (1975–1981). From 1978 to 1991 she was the assistant to Hermann Fillitz at the University of Vienna’s Institute of Art History, where she herself has taught in the fields of early and high medieval art, as well as modern and contemporary art, since becoming a professor in 1991. In academia and teaching, she is especially interested in the role of visual media in creating new systems of thought and perception.