We will look at Dante Alighieri’s portrayal of divine light (optical and spiritual) and the legacy of his Paradiso. This involves the direct impact of his extraordinary vision, and also the general diffusion of his literary portrayal of the extra-terrestrial realm of spiritual light. We will see Dante and the painters mutually striving to meet one of the greatest of all visual challenges. That challenge was how to describe extremities of divine light that were beyond the scope of our earth-bound sense of sight. The artists include Giotto, Piero della Francesca, Michelangelo, Raphael, Titian and the Baroque painters of luminous domes and vaults.
Martin Kemp is an 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 30+ 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, the 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. Recent books include: Art in History (Profile Books), Mona Lisa with Giuseppe Pallanti (Oxford), Living with Leonardo (Thames and Hudson). In 2019 he published five books on Leonardo including a co-authored book on Leonardo’s Salvator Mundi and an edition of the Codex Leicester with Domenico Laurenza. He has been a Trustee of the National Galleries of Scotland, The Victoria and Albert Museum and the British Museum. He has curated and co-curated a series of exhibitions on Leonardo and other themes, at the Hayward Gallery in London, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the Barbican Art Gallery London.
He now devotes its time to speaking, writing and broadcasting.
If you wish to buy the book “Visions of Heaven: Dante and the Art of Divine Light Painting”, please click HERE
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The British Italian Society
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Professor Martin Kemp
Credits: Marie Boyle
The Medici Bank lasted for 97 years. It would become one of the biggest counting houses in Europe. But, as ever in life, it proved not to be plain sailing for the members of the Medici household. Jealous rivalries, serious health issues, murder and a forever changing economic situation proved that wealth and privilege can be taken away just as easily as it can be created. The talk is the true story of the rise and fall of the Medici Bank.
Ian Morgan is a private client solicitor and ex-banker. A member of the Arts Society and a frequent visitor to Italy, he is an avid reader of anything Medici related. Having completed 6 marathons (2 in Venice) he lives in rural Sussex with his wife, 2 children and 3 potted olive trees.
If you wish to attend this event, please register by clicking the book now button. You will be redirected to our Zoom registration page. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar. Space is limited, please register well in advance.
Carla Gambescia is a graduate of University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton School of Finance. Prior to her years in restaurant and retail operations (Ciao Bella Gelato Company, Via Vanti! Restaurant & Gelateria in New York), she founded and managed a new products consultancy and qualitative research firm specializing in the food & beverage and food service industries. She contributed to new product successes such a Frappuccino and Sun Chips and personally conducted hundreds of focus groups and facilitated dozens of ideation sessions for such companies as Pepsi, McDonalds, Starbucks, Frito-Lay, Kraft and ConAgra. Before the call of entrepreneurship, Carla was a New York advertising executive (Ogilvy & Mather, Young & Rubicam, DDB&B), rising to the position of Executive Vice President, Worldwide Account Director. Carla is also curator of the popular photoblog Postcards for the Boot and author of the Silver prize-winner book “La Dolce Vita University – An Unconventional Guide to Italian Culture”.
If you wish to attend this event, please register by clicking the “book now” button. You will be redirected to our Zoom registration page. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.
British Italian Society
Annual General Meeting
The AGM is addressed to all members to discuss and review the activity of the year, deal with issues such as the election of committee/board members and reviewing the annual accounts.
Registration is required.
The AGM will be followed by the lecture “How we Fell in Love with Italian Food” by Diego Zancani.
To register for the talk please see details and register by heading to the relevant event page.
– THE ANNUAL CHARLES DE CHASSIRON MEMORIAL LECTURE –
HOW WE FELL IN LOVE WITH ITALIAN FOOD
a talk by Diego Zancani
Pizza, pasta, pesto and olive oil: today, it’s hard to imagine any supermarket without these items. But how did these foods – and many more Italian ingredients – become so widespread and popular?
This book maps the extraordinary progress of Italian food from the legacy of the Roman invasion to its current, ever-increasing popularity. Using medieval manuscripts, it traces Italian recipes in Britain back as early as the thirteenth century, and, through travel diaries, it explores encounters with Italian food and its influence back home.
The book also shows how Italian immigrants – from ice-cream sellers and grocers to chefs and restaurateurs – had a transformative influence on our cuisine, and how Italian food was championed at pivotal moments by pioneering cooks, such as Elizabeth David, Anna Del Conte, Rose Gray, Ruth Rogers and Jamie Oliver. With mouth-watering illustrations from the archives of the Bodleian Library and elsewhere, this book also includes Italian regional recipes that have come down to us through the centuries. It celebrates the enduring international appeal of Italian restaurants and the increasingly popular British take on Italian cooking and the Mediterranean diet.
Diego Zancani is Emeritus Professor of Medieval and Modern Languages at Oxford University and an Emeritus Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford.
He has taught in numerous British Universities, including the University of Oxford for nearly 25 years. He has been a Visiting Professor both at Harvard University and at various universities across Italy.
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Should you wish to buy the book “How We Fell in Love with Italian Food”, the Italian Bookshop kindly provided all our members and friends with a 10% discount by entering the promo code 920602 at checkout.
If you wish to attend this event, please register by clicking the “book now” button. You will be redirected to our Zoom registration page. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar
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
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