Born in Sicily with Italian his mother tongue, Rick studied Classics and Art History at Cambridge for his first degree, followed by an MPhil, and a PhD at the Warburg Institute, University of London (1987). Based in London, he has lectured and published continuously since then as an independent Renaissance scholar. His doctoral subject was Vincenzo Borghini in his role as iconographic adviser to Cosimo I de Medici and as collaborator with Giorgio Vasari and his studio. Rick’s interest broadened from there to encompass the work of Florentine artists of the 16th Century, with a particular focus on artistic programmes and drawings of the period.
In 2012 he spent half a year at the Morgan Library & Museum, New York, as the inaugural Senior Thaw Research Fellow at the Drawing Institute, and from Autumn 2014 to the following Spring was their Adjunct Scholar. Having been a committee member since 2009, in April 2018 Rick was elected President of the British Museum’s British Art Medal Society. In 2002 he contributed the section on drawing and iconography to the Borghini exhibition at the Biblioteca Nazionale in Florence, serving on the Comitato scientifico, based at the Università Ca’ Foscari di Venezia. He has also contributed to exhibitions in the UK, the USA and Canada. Rick is currently working on two books.
In October 2015, 452 years after Borghini's nomination as its first Director, Rick was elected member and Accademico Onorevole of the Accademia del Disegno, Florence.
