Menu
Menu
In January 1511 an unusual event occurred on the small island of Murano. The ‘snowball revolt’, involved the small community of fishermen and glassmakers who rose up to challenge the patrician ruler of the island. This story from Renaissance Venice is the starting point for an exploration of one of the lesser-known areas of the history of the Serenissima, one that tells us about the thousands of workers, artisans, officers, servants, men and women, who contributed to the shaping of politics and the institutions of the celebrated Republic.
Claire Judde de Larivière is senior lecturer at the University of Toulouse and honorary research fellow at Birkbeck, University of London. She studies the social and political history of Renaissance Venice. She has recently published The Revolt of Snowballs. Murano confronts Venice, 1511 (transl. Thomas V. Cohen, Routledge, 2018)
Illustration: Gabriele Bella, La laguna gelata nel 1708 a Venezia, Fondation Querini Stampalia Venezia
PLEASE NOTE:
We may occasionally take photographs and audio/video footage at the Society’s events. We may use these images/recordings for publicity in the Society’s publications, on its website or in social media or other communications. If you have any concerns about this, please let the Events Secretary know.
An introduction to the seminal works of Lina Wertmüller, the first woman nominated for a Best Director Academy Award. Through the films The Seduction of Mimi (1972), Love and Anarchy (1973), Swept Away (1974) and Seven Beauties (1975), it is possible to paint a picture of a changing Italy from Fascism to the liberal movements and female emancipation. Themes woven into the cultural landscape of traditional gender roles and the incessant fight against the mafia are presented with incendiary humour.
Dr Valentina Signorelli is a Senior Lecturer in Media and Communication at the University of East London (UEL). Her research interests include transmedia storytelling, celebrity politics, film adaptation and censorship. She is also a professional screenwriter, director and producer and one of the three co-founders of Daitona production.
Dr Silvia Angeli is a Visiting Lecturer at the University of Westminster, London. Her research focuses on the relationship between religion and film, Italian cinema, American cinema, films’ reception and practices of censorship. She has published journal articles on the cinema of Liliana Cavani, Kenneth Lonergan, and Marco Bellocchio.
Cecilia Zoppelletto, born in Padua (Italy), living in London since 1994, has worked as a news producer for the Italian national broadcasting company RAI and as TV host and writer for the Italian network Antenna Tre Nordest. Cecilia is a Visiting Lecturer and PhD researcher at the University of Westminster. Her research explores the archives of the Democratic Republic of Congo and the country’s national film image of post-independence. She is a documentary filmmaker, director and producer of La Belle At The Movies (2015), the short experimental film Falling (2017) and is currently working on the film Jews of Congo (working title).
PLEASE NOTE:
We may occasionally take photographs and audio/video footage at the Society’s events. We may use these images/recordings for publicity in the Society’s publications, on its website or in social media or other communications. If you have any concerns about this, please let the Events Secretary know.
Come and celebrate the festive season with friends and fellow members of The British-Italian Society at Radici restaurant in Islington, the latest creation of the renowned chef Francesco Mazzei!
The evening will begin with a welcoming glass of prosecco, followed by a three-course dinner with wine and Christmas crackers.
In Spring 2017 Francesco Mazzei opened Radici, an authentic Italian trattoria, in Islington, the area of London he has made his home. Radici reflects the Calabrian and southern Italian cuisine of Francesco’s heritage served in a relaxed and welcoming environment. The kitchen is run by Head Chef Giuseppe Cafaro, who has been one of Francesco’s right-hand men for many years.
Places are limited and booking will close a week before the event.
Please note, we may occasionally take photographs and audio/video footage at the Society’s events. We may use these images/recordings for publicity in the Society’s publications, on its website or in social media or other communications. If you have any concerns about this, please let the Events Secretary know.
Italy emerged from the Second World War in ruins. Divided, invaded and economically broken, it was a nation that some claimed had ceased to exist. By the 1960s, Italy could boast the fastest-growing economy in the world, as rural society disappeared almost overnight. In The Archipelago, acclaimed historian John Foot chronicles Italy’s tumultuous history from post-war to the present. From the assimilation of fascists into society after 1945 to the troubling reign of Silvio Berlusconi, and from the artistic peak of neo-realist cinema to the celebration of Italy’s 150th birthday in 2011, he examines both the corrupt and celebrated sides of the country. Updated with new material, this history tells the fascinating story of a country marked by scandal but with the constant ability to reinvent itself.
John Foot is Professor of Modern Italian History at the University of Bristol. He is the author of numerous books on Italian history and culture, including Calcio: A History of Italian Football (2006); Italy’s Divided Memory (2009); The Man Who Closed the Asylums; Franco Basaglia and the Revolution in Mental Health Care (2015); and The Archipelago: Italy since 1945 (2018). He is currently working on a history of Italian fascism to be published by Bloomsbury and Laterza and funded as a Major Research Fellowship by the Leverhulme Trust.
By the time Orazio Gentileschi came to London, he already had an international career. Unlike Guercino, who was reluctant to come to England on account of heretics and bad weather, Orazio saw the opportunity for enhancing his reputation and giving his family solid financial support. Things did not turn out quite as he planned, however. The King lost interest in him quite quickly; but he did find a place in the entourage of Queen Henrietta Maria, for whom he produced some of his finest works. Artemisia joined him in the late 1630s, shortly before he died, and may have assisted him in completing the ceiling of the Queen’s House in Greenwich. As we look forward to a major exhibition of Artemisia in London in Spring 2020, Gabriele Finaldi explores the extraordinary lives and art of Orazio and his daughter.
Gabriele Finaldi has been Director of the National Gallery since August 2015. He was previously Deputy Director for Collections and Research at the Museo Nacional del Prado in Madrid, a position he took up in 2002. Prior to that, he was a curator at the National Gallery between 1992 and 2002, where he was responsible for the later Italian paintings in the collection (Caravaggio to Canaletto) and the Spanish collection (Bermejo to Goya). Finaldi studied art history at the Courtauld Institute of Art, where he completed his doctorate in 1995 on the 17th-century Spanish painter who worked in Italy, Jusepe de Ribera. He has curated exhibitions in Britain, Spain, Italy, Belgium and the US. He has written catalogues and scholarly articles on Velázquez and Zurbarán, Italian Baroque painting and religious iconography.
A glass of wine will be served after the talk
=========================================================
This event will be very popular and EARLY BOOKING IS RECOMMENDED
Should the event be fully booked, we will open a waiting list and we will give priority to BIS Members over guests.
Since it was founded in 1941, the British-Italian Society has worked to promote knowledge and understanding in the UK of Italian culture, including Italy’s history, institutions, way of life, language and wider contribution to civilisation.
The British-Italian Society
86-90 Paul Street
London EC2A 4NE