Applications are invited for a full-time PhD (via MPhil route) studentship on the following topic: The Responses to the Medieval in art, architecture and heritage from the early- to mid-twentieth centuries in the interpretation of medieval heritage in Coventry, c. 1900-c.1960.

The deadline for applications is December 13, 2019.

FIND OUT MORE about this studentship.

Applications are invited for a full-time PhD (via MPhil route) studentship on the following topic: College, City and Beyond: the History and Contribution of Coventry School of Art & Design from 1843 onwards.

FIND OUT MORE about this studentship.

PhD research student Delia Moldovan has published an article entitled ‘Astrology and Agriculture in the Calendar of the Offiziolo of Charles VIII (Fondazione Giorgio Cini, inv. 2502/4)’, in the periodical Rivista di storia della miniatura (22 2018). The article is an interdisciplinary approach to the miniatures of the calendar opening the Officium parvum Beatae Mariae Virginis per annum, held in the Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Venice. The study sheds new light on the zodiac signs and the occupations of the months depicted in the calendar, particularly investigating two key features characterising the Milanese court of the late fifteenth century: the interest in astrology and the importance given to agriculture.

An article written by History of Art research student Fabio Franz has been published in the Ca' Foscari University of Venice journal MDCCC 1800.

Disvelando pale, effigi e panneggi. Le ricognizioni danesi di Crowe e Cavalcaselle presents new research on a number of works housed in Danish collections, including celebrated portraits assigned to Titian and Parmigianino and altarpieces by Ortolano and Filippino Lippi. A comparison of the drapery and landscape painting in works by Mantegna, Leonardo, Giovanni Bellini and Jan van Eyck may to be of particular interest to those visiting Mantegna and Bellini, the exhibition currently on show at the National Gallery, London.

Recent doctoral graduate Stefano Columbo will be presenting a paper of his research at this year's Association for Art Historians Summer Symposium (being held 26-27 June). His paper is entitled Baldassarre Longhena’s Funerary Monument to Doge Giovanni Pesaro and the Rhetoric of the Living Sculpture and the theme of the Symposium is (Re-)Forming Sculpture.

PROGRAMME of the Symposium.

A few days ago, third-year PhD student Benedetta Pacini visited the Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice where Vittore Carpaccio’s Legend of Saint Ursula cycle, a group of nine large-scale canvases, is being restored. In connection with her research, she interviewed chief restorer Egidio Arlango (seen with Benedetta in the photograph), who is working alongside CBC (Conservazione Beni Culturali) on the project. The work, scheduled for completion by 2019, is being carried out with the support of Save Venice Inc.

Benedetta’s doctoral thesis is entitled Navigating the Canals. Making and Moving Venetian Renaissance Paintings, and is a joint research project between the University of Warwick and the National Gallery in London. Her research focuses on the making and transportation of large-scale paintings in sixteenth-century Venice, with particular attention to those in the National Gallery.

History of Art PhD research student Delia Moldovan has presented a paper at this year's Newbery Graduate Student Conference entitled The Calendar of a Printed Book of Hours and Its Impact on Sixteenth-Century Italian Illumination. In the paper, the iconographic impact of incunabula on the production of illuminated Italian calendars is considered using the 'Officium beate Marie virginis: ad usum Romane ecclesie' as a case study. The Officum was printed in Lyon in four editions between 1499 and 1501 by Spanish and Piedmont printers, and edited by Bonino de Boninis. It is demonstrated that the woodcuts were used as iconographic models for two luxury manuscripts created in Ferrarese and Florentine, respectively.

Her REPORT can be viewed online.

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

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.

Nicola Viviani has published the book Mail Art Stories: the mail artist tells his own story, in collaboration with the mail artist Lancilotto Bellini. The book records a project conceived by Bellini in the mid-1990s, which collected work from mail artists around the world. This is the first time the project and the works it generated have been published.

Nicola will be joining the department as a PhD student in 2017-18, and will be writing his thesis on collector, patron, publisher and collaborator Francesco Conz, one of the most influential figures in the late-twentieth century neo-avant-garde art world.

Dr. Alice Eden has begun the Enchanted Community collaborative art project in Coventry and Leamington! The project kicked off with a well-received talk at Leamington Spa Art Gallery on Friday 12th May followed by a family workshop on Saturday 27th May. This series of public engagement workshops, outreach sessions and talks will culminate in an art exhibition in Coventry created by local residents, school children, local artist Holly Dawes and Alice Eden. Please see the project website for more details. This work is supported by Professor Michael Hatt, History of Art and the Institute of Advanced Study, Warwick.