Archivi Events | Page 9 of 25 | British Italian society

We are living in a golden age for astronomy, with cutting edge new telescopes that are enabling new, fantastic discoveries. However, we should never forget that we could achieve our knowledge of the Universe by standing on the shoulder of giants, such as Galileo Galilei, who defined the scientific method and set the pillars on which astronomy and astrophysics are founded. I will provide a quick overview of our progress in understanding the Universe from the fathers of astronomy to modern observatories, including the major contribution from Italian scientists. I will illustrate how this progress has culminated in some major findings that have been achieved thanks to the latest generation telescopes, which are providing unprecedented information on the most distant galaxies, in the infant Universe, and by exploring the atmospheres of planets in other solar systems, aimed at finding signatures of life. I will conclude with the challenges that we are facing and the ambitious goals ahead of us.

Roberto Maiolino is Professor of Experimental Astrophysics at the University of Cambridge and Honorary Professor at University College London. He graduated at the University of Florence, on secondment at the University of Arizona. Before taking his chair at Cambridge he worked at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Germany, at the Arcetri Astrophysical Observatory in Florence, and at the Astronomical Observatory of Rome. From 2016 to 2021 he was Director of the Kavli Institute for Cosmology, Cambridge. In 2019 he was knighted in the Order of the Star of Italy. In 2022 he was elected Fellow of the Royal Society. By using some of the largest telescopes, Roberto Maiolino explores the early formation of galaxies and black holes and their evolution across the cosmic epochs. He has a leading role in various major projects, such as the Extremely Large Telescope and the James Webb Space Telescope, for which he received the NASA Group Achievement Award. Roberto Maiolino is also a novelist who has published a thriller, ’Stars and Waves’, in the world of astronomy.

A drinks reception will follow the talk

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Please note, we do not issue physical tickets. Your name will be added to our Event Guest List.

DISCLAIMER: By participating in a BIS webinar or live event you automatically agree to authorise recording of audio and visual content during the event and consent to subsequent use of the recording in the public domain. This recording may include questions, comments and poll responses provided by you during the event in addition to your name, voice, image or likeness. This recording will be made available after the conclusion of the live event as part of the BIS webinar archives, and will remain available indefinitely. If you do not wish to consent to the recording, please do not join the event or contact us to discuss your concerns

Photo Credit: NASA

Founded in 734 BCE by the Corinthian Greeks, capital of the Byzantine Empire in 663CE, today a popular film location (the latest Indiana Jones), subject to the mass tourism of morde e fugge, I first discovered Syracuse through Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors and a Rogers and Hart musical. 52 years on I know better. There will be tales of monuments, myths, and miracles but also of Plato, St Paul, Nelson and Churchill, the eccentricities of the old Bourbon aristocracy, a WWII secret, and stories of village life with its rivalries and passions: where a murder in Avola caused a change to Italian law. There is also modern Syracuse, a microcosm of Southern Italian life with all its challenges. Above all, this is la mia Siracusa and, in a way, the story of six “theatres”.

Susan Kikoler was born in London of Russian/Polish ancestry and fell in love with Italy visiting Florence as a teenager. After studying English Language and Literature at St Hugh’s College, Oxford, she taught English for five years in Syracuse, Sicily, before moving to Canada and finally the UK. Her portfolio career has been based on her interest in and knowledge of Italy whether as lecturer, (Canada, Brazil, Italy and the UK), writer, interpreter, or consultant. Since 2004 she has been the Honorary Director of the British-Italian Society and was awarded the title of Commendatore dell’Ordine della Stella D’Italia in 2005 for promoting Italian culture. Her other great passion is theatre. She was a Drama Assessor for the London Arts Board and has served three times on the panel of the Laurence Olivier Theatre Awards.

Her latest lecture The History of the Jews of Lombardy: Mantua, Milan and Mantegna is available on YouTube.

Please note, we do not issue physical tickets. Your name will be added to our Event Guest List.

On the occasion of Art in Mayfair, the Italian Ambassador in the UK, Inigo Lambertini, has the pleasure of inviting BIS members to a unique experience: visiting the Embassy’s premises and getting to know its art collection, in an exclusive tour lead by Dr Jennifer Sliwka, King’s College London.

Robertaebasta was established in Milan in 1967 by Roberta Tagliavini, a creative and talented woman with an endless love for objets d’art and timeless design pieces. Her passion and eclectic taste are what defines Robertaebasta’s reputation as a point of reference for the Decorative Arts and Design of the 20th Century.

Located in a beautiful Georgian building on Pimlico Road, London’s Design mecca, Robertaebasta London was established in September 2017. The gallery sits in a unique context, where design and antiques blend in together. Nicknamed by Sotheby’s “the new kids on the block”, the gallery’s ethos perfectly embraces the cosmopolitan nature of the city.

The view includes a talk by the General Manager Mattia Martinelli followed by a drinks reception

TO REGISTER (please read carefully since the procedure is different than usual)

To participate to this event we are not asking for a formal charge but a kind donation instead.

Although donations are at your discretion, we strongly encourage to give £10 or above. To register you do not need to click the BOOK NOW button, please fill in the “DONATE” form only whether you wish to donate or not (insert £0 in the “Amount” field if you do not wish to donate).

DISCLAIMER: By participating in a BIS webinar or live event you automatically agree to authorise recording of audio and visual content during the event and consent to subsequent use of the recording in the public domain. This recording may include questions, comments and poll responses provided by you during the event in addition to your name, voice, image or likeness. This recording will be made available after the conclusion of the live event as part of the BIS webinar archives, and will remain available indefinitely. If you do not wish to consent to the recording, please do not join the event or contact us to discuss your concerns.

Registration Details (read carefully, please)

For Members: Traditionally, we offer our members free attendance at the Leconfield Lecture, but we would be grateful if you can consider making a donation by clicking HERE. If you choose not to donate, registration is still required; please send us an email to notify your attendance or fill in the “Book Now” form at the bottom of the page.
For Non-Members: we kindly request to register by making a minimum donation of £15. To register as a non-member, please fill in the Registration/Donation form below (not the Book Now, please).

The Salvator is intensely subject to the “Mona Lisa Effect”. That is to say, the image is so hedged around by stories, legends and misconceptions that it is almost impossible to look at it for what it actually is as a functioning visual image in its cultural context. It took Mona Lisa five centuries to reach this impasse. The Salvator has achieved this state in about a decade, courtesy of modern media, the internet, a hunger for sensation, the self-promotional bombast of the art market, and the politics of big finance and collecting. My purpose will be to reinstate a measured analysis of how the painting works as a devotional image in overall effect and in incredibly subtle details that rework how the genre of the image of a frontal Christ makes it effect, formally, iconographically and theologically (yes, theologically). This will take us on a journey from painting technique and Islamic optics to mediaeval cosmology and what Leonardo called the “sacred books” . Unless something momentous happens, I will not be reporting where it is.

Martin Kemp is Emeritus Professor in the History of Art at Trinity College. Oxford University. He was trained in Natural Sciences and Art History at Cambridge University and the Courtauld Institute, London. His books include, The Science of Art: Optical Themes in Western Art from Brunelleschi to Seurat (Yale), and The Human Animal in Western Art and Science (Chicago). He has published and broadcast extensively on Leonardo da Vinci, including the prize-winning Leonardo da Vinci. The marvellous works of nature and man, and Leonardo (both Oxford). His Christ to Coke: How Image Becomes Icon (Oxford) looks at 11 representatives of types of icons across a wide range of public imagery. He wrote regularly for Nature, his essays for which have been published as Visualizations and developed in Seen and Unseen(both Oxford) in which his concept of “structural intuitions” is explored. More recently he has published Art in History(Profile Books and Structural Intuitions: Seeing Shapes in Art and Science (Virginia). New books are Heavenly Visions: Dante and the Art of Divine Light’, and Hockney’s Eye, a volume of essays for the 2022 exhibition in Cambridge. He has been a Trustee of the National Galleries of Scotland, The Victoria and Albert Museum and British Museum. He has curated and co-curated a series of exhibitions on Leonardo and other themes, including Spectacular Bodies at the Hayward Gallery in London, Leonardo da Vinci: Experience, Experiment, Design at the Victoria and Albert Museum in 2006 and Seduced: Sex and Art from Antiquity to Now, Barbican Art Gallery London, 2007. He is now full-time speaking, writing and broadcasting.

DISCLAIMER:
By participating in a BIS webinar or live event you automatically agree to authorise photo and/or recording of audio and visual content during the event and consent to subsequent use of the images, recordings in the public domain. The recording may include questions, comments and poll responses provided by you during the event in addition to your name, voice, image or likeness. The recording as well as images will be made available after the conclusion of the live event as part of the BIS webinar archives, and will remain available indefinitely. If you do not wish to consent to the recording or photo shooting, please do not join the live event or contact us to discuss your concerns.

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