On the 26th of April 2017, Art History PhD student and lutenist Adam Busiakiewicz presented a public talk on Ter Brugghen's Lute Player at the National Gallery in London.

The lute was used by painters to express various ideas in their works, apart from the obvious allusions to harmony and discord. The musical associations with Orpheus, the melter-of-hearts, would not have been lost on the contemporary audience of this painting. Various symbolic links to notions of youth, flippancy and the transience of life and worldly pleasures are also all associated with the mythology of the instrument and its music. Paintings such as Ter Brugghen’s Lutenist allow us to open up a world of understanding how music was appreciated and consumed in the past.

The talk was accompanied by several live performances of lute music relevant to the period and themes of the painting.

Louise Campbell has been awarded a Leverhulme Emeritus Fellowship for 2017-19 to prepare a book for publication called Studio lives: artists at home and at work in twentieth-century Britain.

Rosie Dias has contributed to the British Library’s research project, Picturing Places, recently published as a web-based resource exploring the Library’s vast topographical collections. Her two articles, “Recording and Representing India: The East India Company’s Landscape Practices” and “A Map of Kolkata in 1785” draw upon her current research on the East India Company and visual culture, and focus upon works in the British Library’s India Office Collection and King’s Topographical Collection.

Amanda Sciampacone will be presenting a paper on '"Animalized Atmospheres": Climatology and Disease in Victorian Britain' tomorrow at the Midlands Interdisciplinary Victorian Studies Seminar (MIVSS) on Victorians and the Environment to be held at Birmingham City University. The MIVSS is a group for scholars working on any aspect of nineteenth-century culture in the Midlands. MIVSS meets twice a year to have a day of themed discussion and to share research.

History of Art Associate Tutor, Dr. Ann Haughton, has been nominated for a University Staff Award for her 'Outstanding Contribution'. This award category celebrates individuals who have made an exceptional contribution to Warwick’s overall performance and reputation. The winners will be announced at an evening event in the Butterworth Hall on Friday 12 May.

Dr.Jenny Alexander (Warwick) and project partner Professor Terryl Kinder (Pontigny) have taken a break from their fieldwork at Pontigny Abbey church to give an interview to local radio station France Bleu Auxerre. The team are continuing their study of masons' marks at this Cistercian building, a project which is providing valuable information about the history of the building as well as exploring a significant new method of research.

Amanda will be presenting a paper entitled "Dirty Father Thames" and the Microscopic Grotesque: Cholera and Water after John Snow at the Northern Nineteenth-Century Network's Water Conference at Leeds Trinity University next month.

We are pleased to announce that Carlo Avilio has passed his viva voce examination for his dissertation on the subject of Naturalism and the Picaresque in Jusepe de Ribera's Work supervised by Dr Lorenzo Pericolo. The photograph shows Carlo with internal examiner Professor Michael Hatt.

Is this the world's most macabre art gallery?

History of Art Department research student Carlo Avilio is quoted in an online article about the series of frescoes in the catacombs of San Gaudioso in Naples. The article concerns in particular the costumed skeletons which were painted around the skulls of interred nobles embedded in the walls.

Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellow Amanda Sciampacone was invited to speak about applying for the Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship in a workshop on Research Grants held at the School of Arts, Birkbeck, University of London. The event took place on March 1st.

Splendour! Art in Living Craftsmanship.

This exhibition celebrated the eightieth anniversary of the Georgian Group. Founded in 1937, the Group is a national charity dedicated to preserving Georgian buildings, gardens and landscapes between 1700-1840 in England and Wales. The exhibition featured over forty artists, craftsmen and architects who work in the Georgian classical tradition. Works on display included examples of pietra dure, scagliola, coade stone, stucco work, wood and stone carving, painted wallpapers and architects drawings.

The catalogue was edited by History of Art PhD student Adam Busiakiewicz, who wrote all of the catalogue entries and contributed an essay to the publication.

Adam is especially interested in the history and former collection of the Earls of Warwick and their ancestral home Warwick Castle. His research focuses on the life of Anne Greville, 4^th Countess of Warwick, who presided over the restoration of the castle in the late nineteenth century.

History of Art PhD student Carlo Avilio recently delivered his paper Portents of Nature: Jusepe de Ribera and the Bearded Woman at the conference Laboratorium Neapel. Plurale Stilbildung, Künstlerkonkurrenz und Wirkungsästhetik in der neapolitanischen Barockmalerei. The conference was held at Museum Wiesbaden to coincide with the major exhibition Caravaggio’s Heirs. Baroque in Naples.

The photograph shows Carlo with Elisabeth Oy-Marra, professor in history of art at Mainz University, co-organizer of the exhibition and conference.