Annual Report 2007-8 - The British School at Rome

H UMANITIES A CTIVITIESThis has been a special year for collaborations andcrossovers between Humanities and Fine Arts awardholders,and a dynamic one for events and activities, bothacademic and social. Katrina Grant (our first MelbourneRome Scholar), Rachel King, Victoria Leitch, JayeMcKenzie-Clark, Sarah Morgan, Sue Russell and severalFine Arts award-holders and residents, sang in the choirorganised by Cian Donnelly (Arts Council of NorthernIreland Fellow) to perform at the Fine Arts exhibitions.Sarah also sang in a choir that performs regularly inRome’s churches. In this musical year a notable event wasthe concert by Stefan Cassomenos, his considerabletalents as pianist and composer superbly demonstratedbefore a responsive audience that included HE AmandaVanstone, Australian Ambassador to Italy, and BSR’s newChairman, Sir Ivor Roberts. Several scholars gave papersat international conferences: Matthew Dal Santo inToronto, Rachel King in Poland, Jaye Mackenzie-Clark inSheffield, Sarah Morgan in Lyon, Ben Russell in Toulouse,Annelies Cazemier at the Symposium Cumanum, and PaulJohnson in Amsterdam. Paul, Ben, Annelies and VictoriaLeitch also contributed papers to Associazione Internazionaledi Archeologia Classica (AIAC) meetings in Rome.Paul successfully defended his PhD in January.Congratulations to the following on securing posts:Roberto Cobianchi (Rome Scholar 2003–4) at Messina,Emma-Jayne Graham (2005–6) at St Andrews, JessicaHughes (2003–4) at the Open University, and CasparPearson (BSR Research Fellow) at Essex. Lucy Davis(2007–8) will return to the BSR in 2008–9 as Sue Russell’sResearch Assistant.A highlight of the Humanities events programme wasthe exhibition and conference held to celebrate the 500 thanniversary of the birth of the architect Andrea Palladio.The exhibition had as its focus a digitally animated mapconstructed by Alan Day (Bath) of itineraries fromPalladio’s Roman guidebooks, published as Palladio’s Rome(Yale University Press, 2006) by the two other organisers,Award-holders on a trip to the Villa PamphiljVaughan Hart (Bath) and Peter Hicks (FondationNapoléon). Rare antiquarian books and maps from theBSR Library and Archive were also exhibited. The eventopened with a lecture on the Pantheon and its receptionby Mark Wilson Jones (Bath) to a crowded lecture theatre.The interdisciplinary, one-day conference onantiquarianism that Sue Russell organised for the followingday was a great success, with scholars from Australia,France, Germany, Italy, Norway and the UK givingstimulating papers.The lecture programme included accomplishedpresentations by this year’s fellowship-holders.Unfortunately Maureen Carroll broke her arm at the endof her stay and was unable to deliver the year’s finallecture, which will be rescheduled. Three guest lecturersfocused on artists who were the subject of major Italianexhibitions during the year: James Hamilton(Birmingham) on Turner in Rome, Ann Sutherland Harris(Pittsburgh) on Bernini as painter, and Piers Baker-Bates(2002–3) on Sebastiano del Piombo. Piers was the firstRubinstein Fellow from the Society for RenaissanceStudies, speaking on the occasion of what will be anannual event sponsored by the Society. Other speakersincluded Cordelia Warr (Manchester) on Italian images ofstigmata in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, AndrewLeach (Queensland) on Manfredo Tafuri’s writings aboutBorromini, Dana Arnold (Southampton) on the reception16