Students studying Spanish Painting and course leader Professor Lorenzo Pericolo recently visited Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, for a dedicated tour of the collection. Curator Bernadette Petti guided the group through the Spanish paintings, including access to the store where more works are housed. She also explained the newly established Auckland Project (Auckland Bishop) and its importance for the study of Spanish painting and culture.

Professor Michael Hatt has chaired a session with Martina Droth (Yale Center for British Art) at the CAA conference in Los Angeles: The Image of the American Indian in Nineteenth-Century Britain: New Critical Perspectives.

This interdisciplinary session seeks to explore the various ways in which native peoples from the United States and Canada, and the artifacts of their cultures, were being represented, portrayed, studied, and collected in Britain in the long nineteenth century.

An article written by Fabio Franz has been published in the latest issue of Brill's journal Experiment.

An Inspirational Milieu: St. Petersburg Cosmopolitan Collections of Old Masters focuses on the provenance, conservation history, and critical fortuna of some selected Western European paintings that were placed in Saint Petersburg between 1850 and 1917. It includes: a comparison between the visits to Russia made by the German expert Gustav Friedrich Waagen and the Italian connoisseur Giovanni Battista Cavalcaselle; an investigation of Cavalcaselle’s alleged meeting with the Russian expert Fedor Antonovich Bruni regarding the paintings Saint Sebastian Barbarigo by Titian, Apollo and Marsyas Litta by Bronzino, and Virgin and Child with the Infant Saint John, now attributed to Pontormo; and an exploration of the extent to which Russian galleries and private collections were accessible to Western scholars.

Experiment, Volume 23, Issue 1, pages 81 – 92

History of Art Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellow Amanda Sciampacone will be presenting a paper entitled 'The Aesthetics of the Diagram in Victorian Medical Climatology' in a session on 'Art on the Nature of Data about Nature' at the College Art Association annual conference in Los Angeles on 23 February 2018.

Tomorrow evening, Karen Lang (Reader in History of Art) and Clare Woods will be discussing the artist’s new series of paintings in a special event at the Mead Gallery. A panel of University of Warwick academics including Clément Dessy, Johannes Roessler and Jonathan Skinner will comment on Woods’ work and the discussion will then open up to involve the audience.

Clare Woods’ work is held in many major international collections including those of the University of Warwick, Arts Council England, the Arken Museum of Modern Art in Denmark, and the Albright-Knox Gallery in Buffalo, USA.

The event is organised by the Centre for Research in Philosophy, Literature and the Arts.

Don't miss Canaletto & the Art of Venice, which opened the major ITV series Great Art.

Damien Hirst's exhibition Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable has attracted a great deal of critical attention, and Warwick History of Art students studying in Venice had a rare opportunity to meet with the artist and discuss the work. Dr Karen Lang, lead tutor on our module Exhibiting the Contemporary, has been holding regular seminars at exhibition sites during the Venice term, including installations at the Venice Biennale.

Warwick students in Venice have recently had the opportunity to discuss the Venice Biennale installation Janus Code with with its creator Michele Ciacciofera in an exclusive interview. The Venice Biennale is a key element of the Exhibiting the Contemporary module which examines the importance of exhibition for the interpretation of contemporary art, with seminars taking place on-site with the works of art.

The National Portrait Gallery's new exhibition Cézanne Portraits, which opened on October 26th, is getting 5-star reviews for its wonderful collection of paintings brought together from galleries and collections around the world, some of which haven't been seen in the UK before. The exhibition draws on the expertise of Paul Smith, a leading authority on Cézanne, both for his lecture 'Sit like an apple': painting people as if they were things (in the Late Shift Talks and Lectures series, 30th November, tickets from NPG), and also for an innovative new idea that allows you to take an expert with you around the exhibition.

Visitors to the exhibition can pick up an app for their smartphone that goes far beyond the usual audio guide. This app bridges the gap between the expert and the gallery visitor and lets Prof Smith share his expertise about the paintings. He shows visitors how to experience the artist's vision, and use of colour, and how to understand Cézanne as the painter he was.

Paul Cézanne, Boy in a Red Waistcoat, 1888-90. National Gallery of Art, Washington DC.

A Taste of History of Art at Warwick

We will be offering a rare opportunity for prospective students to hear from the Head of Department, other members of the History of Art team and Alumni. This event will be hosted at our London premises in King’s Cross. You will find out more about what Art History is all about, the degree and admissions criteria for Warwick, graduate opportunities and find out more about the exciting semester spent in beautiful Venice at Warwick’s own Venetian Palazzo.

Time: 4.30pm - 6.30pm, Monday 13 November 2017
Location: Stanley Building, 7 Pancras Square, London N1C 4AG

Light refreshments will be provided. Parents and teachers are most welcome.

Please register online as places are limited.

We hope to see you there.

Canaletto and the Art of Venice is a feature film about the Queen's Gallery exhibition of the same name.

On Wednesday 20th September 2017 Art History PhD student and lutenist Adam Busiakiewicz presented a public talk on Hans Holbein's The Ambassadors.

The talk focused in on the symbolism and significance of the lute featured within Holbein's enigmatic double portrait. Aside from the broken string which emphasised the growing political discord due to the protestant reformation, Holbein's brilliantly detailed depiction of the instrument provides a thrilling insight into the status of the lute at the court of Henry VIII. The talk was researched in association with London luthiers Sandi Harris and Stephen Barber, who loaned a closely corresponding instrument for the presentation.

Several pieces of contemporary sixteenth century music were performed in front of the painting, including a printed Lutheran hymn which appears within the painting itself.