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In recent years the development of new methods of archaeological survey have transformed our understanding on Roman towns in Italy. This talk will discuss the methods used and illustrate some of the new discoveries, discussing their importance for our understanding of Italy’s rich cultural heritage.

Martin Millett is Emeritus Professor of Classical Archaeology at the University of Cambridge and President of the Society of Antiquaries of London. His work focues both on the impact of Roman imperialism on indigenous societies and on the application of survey methods in archaeology. He has led fieldwork and excavation projects in Britain, Spain, Portugual and Italy. In Italy he has led projects at a variety of Roman town sites as well as at Portus, the harbour of Imperial Rome. He is currently working on a new synthesis of Roman Britain for Princeton University Press.

Since the 16th century British monarchs and their families have collected and commissioned works by some of the greatest Italian artists. Michael Hall, author of the 2017 book Art, Passion and Power: The Story of the Royal Collection, delves into this enduring royal fascination with Italy. He highlights the diverse collecting styles and artistic passions of three key figures: Charles I, George III and Prince Albert. Through their differing approaches, Hall reveals how each contributed to a legacy that celebrates the splendour of Italian artistry.

Micheal Hall is an architectural historian and former architectural editor of Country Life. He was editor of Apollo (2004–10) and The Burlington Magazine (2017–24). His book Art, Passion and Power: The Story of the Royal Collection was published by Penguin in 2017.

Following the succes of the exhibtion at Palazzo Pitti (Florence) in 2023/2024, heading to NY in 2025.

The Ghetto of Florence has been for more than two centuries the architectural-material baricentre of Florentine Jewry, being established by Grand Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici in 1570-71, and being then demolished at the end of the 19th century as part of a major urban renewal plan known as “Risanamento” (lit. “the healing”) aiming to change the physiognomy of the old town and turn it into a modern and fully “Italianised” city. The making of the ghetto in Florence represented a major diversion from the “old” Medici’s tolerant standing on the Jewish minority, the implementation of canon laws aiming to mark a physical, material border between the two communities. While officially conceived to marginalise the Jews, the ghetto in fact served as a geographical barycentre, segregating but also protecting its inhabitants, offering them a “physical/material” dimension and point of reference that in the pre-ghetto time the Jews of Tuscany, like those of Italy and of the Diaspora on the whole, had been aprioristically and sistematically denied.

Piergabriele Mancuso received his doctoral degree in Jewish Studies from University College London, 2009. He also studied in Oxford (Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies) as a Phd student fellow (2004) and at the Warburg Institute, London (Sophie Fellowship Programme, 2006). He has been Senior Lecturer on History of Music and Venetian History at Boston University Study Abroad and was visiting lecturer at University of Kentucky (College of Fine Arts), “Cà Foscari” University, Venice (Department of Oriental Languages), at Università dell’Insubria in Como, and University of Padua. In 2001 he graduated in music (viola) and for many years he has been a professional contemporary music performer. His research interests include Jewish music and ethnomusicology, Venetian history (that he taught for almost 20 years to American students!) and history of the Jews in Medici Florence. In June 2013 he was appointed director of the Eugene Grant Jewish History Program at the Medici Archive Project. In 2018 he launched the Ghetto Mapping Project, a major research program aiming to reconstruct, on the basis of archival documents, the architectural, demographic and nonetheless artistic-cultural features of the ghetto of Florence. His book on the making of the Florentine ghetto – Before the Ghetto – Cosimo I de’ Medici, the Grand Duchy and the Jews – 1569-1570, will soon be published by Brepols.

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Photo credit: Telemaco Signori, a Florentine painter (1835-1910) showing a portion of the ghetto a few years before its demolition. The work is now at the Gallery of Modern Art in Rome.

There are few places in the world where art and national identity are as intertwined as at the Venice Biennale. It remains unique, not only because it is the oldest international art exhibition and takes place in such an extraordinary setting, but because its collection of national pavilions encourages pluralism, diversity, and the surprising. Set within the beautiful Giardini, the pavilions proclaim their origins with an exaggerated air of national stereotyping. Andrea Rose shows how these distinctive buildings have lent piquancy and purpose to the art shown in them, from Mondrian in the limpid Dutch Pavilion (designed by Rietveld in 1953) to Hans Haake in the German Pavilion (built in 1938 by Ernst Haiger, one of Hitler’s favourite architects) where the artist exhibited his critique of national history by breaking up the floor. The Biennale has seen huge changes from its first edition in 1895. From its beginnings as an association of western nations to its position as a global phenomenon today, this talk looks at how the Biennale has evolved, the many struggles along the way, and its significance in an increasingly polarized world.

Andrea Rose was Director of Visual Arts and Strategic Programmes at the British Council from 1994-2014. During this period she was responsible for Britain’s representation at Venice Biennale, commissioning and curating exhibitions by Leon Kossoff, Rachel Whiteread, Gary Hume, Chris Ofili, Tracey Emin, Gilbert & George, Steve McQueen, Mark Wallinger, Jeremy Deller and Sarah Lucas among others. She is currently on the Board of Directors of the Burlington Magazine, Deputy Chair of Koestler Arts and a Trustee of Modern Art Press. Andrea has written widely on British art and most recently compiled the Catalogue Raisonné of Leon Kossoff’s Oil Paintings (Sept. 2021, Modern Art Press).

A drinks reception will follow the talk.

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