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.

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.

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.

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.

Emeritus Professor Louise Campbell will be giving a paper on Sussex University on 15 June at the Oxford Brookes conference 'Architecture Citizenship Space: British Architecture from the 1920s to the 1970s'. The paper is entiltled "'A background sympathetic to young and energetic minds': forming modern citizens at the University of Sussex".

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.