History of Art Associate Professor Lorenzo Pericolo joined members of the Royal Shakespeare Company this week at their rehearsal of a new play The Seven Acts of Mercy. The play tracks the creation of Caravaggio’s famous work of the same name which shows seven acts of kindness in a single scene, and which was painted after the artist had killed a man and fled from Rome. Dr Pericolo, author of two books on Caravaggio, answered questions about the artist's approach to painting, his life and reputation, and how he created The Seven Acts of Mercy. The Company included the play’s writer Anders Lustgarten, director Erica Whyman and Patrick O’Kane, who is playing Caravaggio. Find out more on the RSC news page.

The Seven Acts of Mercy opens in the Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon on 24 November.

There is a coach trip for students at the University of Warwick on 24 November.

Professor Tracy E. Cooper (Temple University, Philadelphia) to deliver lecture on The Last Dogaressa: Material Presence, Gender, and Elite Identity in Early Modern Venice.

Alumni, friends and former staff are gathering in Venice this weekend to celebrate 40 years of teaching History of Art in Venice. Special events include tours and talks led by current and former staff, a careers session led by our alumni for current students, and an evening reception for all at the Warwick Palazzo. Our alumni can see more about this event on the Facebook group page: Warwick History of Art Alumni.

Dr Claire FitzGerald will give a talk today on the early twentieth-century stained-glass artist Margaret Rope. It will take place at Shrewsbury RC Cathedral at 2pm in front of some of Margaret's greatest works. The lecture is one of the activities complementing the Margaret Rope ‘Untold Story’ exhibtion at the Shrewsbury Art Gallery.

Jenny Alexander appeared this week in the first episode of Phil Spencer's Stately Homes. With Phil she looks at the masons' marks on the Roman Stair and at original documents from the archive. The programme, first shown on 9th August, is available for viewing for a limited time on the Channel 4 website: Episode 1 - Burghley House.

What happens when fine artists engage with architecture and urban space? What forms can such engagements take? What political issues arise at the junctures between these disciplines?

During the modern period, when artists and critics have often complained that fine art is overly remote from everyday life, one common way of overcoming this gap has been to draw on the greater social efficacy that architecture can seem to provide. However, in other instances artists have used their relatively autonomous position to criticise or interrupt the relationship between architecture, urbanisation and power.

This conference will explore these issues as they arise in practices spanning the period from the 1960s to the present, exploring intersections between art, architecture and urbanism both within and outside Europe and North America.

Organised by Bill Roberts, Teaching Fellow, History of Art.

Artists' Critical Interventions into Architecture and Urbanism,

Emeritus Professor Louise Campbell has worked with Leamington Spa Art Gallery and Museum to research the subject of the forthcoming exhibition, Concealment and Deception: The Art of the Camoufleurs of Leamington Spa 1939-45. The exhibition tells the story of the camouflage establishment based in Royal Leamington Spa during World War 2. The Civil Defence Camouflage Establishment was founded at the start of the war with Nazi Germany to develop camouflage for strategically important installations like factories, power stations and airfields. Later, in 1941, the CDCE was expanded to include a Naval Camouflage Section and renamed the Camouflage Directorate. The exhibition presents the work of the camouflage staff - often known as 'camoufleurs' - against the backdrop of life on the 'Home Front', and will display an important group of paintings, watercolours and drawings by artists such as Mary Adshead, Dorothy Annan, Stephen Bone, Louis Duffy, Evelyn Dunbar, Eric Hall, Cedric Kennedy, Edwin La Dell, Colin Moss and James Yunge-Bateman.

Concealment and Deception: The Art of the Camoufleurs of Leamington Spa 1939 - 1945

Leamington Spa Art Gallery & Museum, 22 July – 16 October 2016

Congratulations to History of Art visiting lecturer Jo Bannister who has had a picture accepted for this year's Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. Her work is a large scale intaglio print entitled I Thought I Saw an Angel. Jo teaches Practical Art and has recently restructured the module following the purchase of the Department's own printing press.

Royal Academy of Arts

Summer Exhibition 2016

13 June — 21 August 2016

The Guardian University Guide 2017 has placed History of Art at Warwick in the UK top 10. The rankings are based on official data collected by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (Hesa) and on the National Student Survey published by Hefce.

The Department is rated as one of the top ten departments teaching History of Art in this year's Complete University Guide. Moving up one position, the Department is placed 10th in the latest league table, which ranks departments by "measures important to students", including student satisfaction, graduate prospects, and research quality.

History of Art Research Fellow Amanda Sciampacone will be convening an academic session in Edinburgh this Saturday. Air and the Visual seeks to investigate the relationship between air and representation, and to address issues of the visible in the invisible and the material in the immaterial. Find out MORE.