Spring has now arrived in earnest at the British School at Rome and the Director and his wife have returned refreshed and invigorated by their sabbatical in Oxford. During their absence, Sue Russell, the Assistant Director, held the fort most admirably and is best qualified to report on the past few months at the school.
She writes as follows:
“There have been many enjoyable and stimulating events in the Humanities Programme this academic year, including a Guy Fawkes’ Night notable for the quality of the buffet supper prepared by our inestimable chefs Peppino Parente and Dharma Wijesiriwardana, including roasted chestnuts from Dharma’s own tree, and a spectacular fireworks display organised by our domestic bursar, Renato Parente. A stand-out amongst our regular site visits was a freezing cold but very enjoyable and instructive day at Hadrian’s Villa and Villa d’Este at Tivoli, where the demand for places was so great a tour bus was hired. This made the day extremely stress-free for myself and Roberto Cobianchi, my faithful Research Assistant, who organised the trip. As part of the lecture programme I have had the pleasure of introducing Australian colleagues Robert Gaston, Joan Barclay Lloyd and David Marshall, the latter two in Rome to lead on-site courses for La Trobe and Melbourne universities. Non-antipodean speakers included Helen Langdon, ex-Assistant Director (Humanities), who made a very welcome return with a splendid lecture on Salvator Rosa, Clare Robertson, in Rome on a Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship, who shared some of her recent discoveries in a stimulating lecture on the Villa Aldobrandini at Frascati, John Wilton-Ely, world expert on Piranesi, who spoke on aspects of Piranesi’s dealing and restoration of antiquities and Arno Witte, from Amsterdam University, who gave a rich account of the patronage and iconography of the decorative cycle at San Martino ai Monti.”

The months covered in this edition neatly span the time from the filming of a scene from “Ocean’s Twelve” at the school last June and July, a time of great excitement when even the most dedicated scholars found difficulty concentrating on their books, up to the recent death and funeral of Pope John Paul II in early April, and the election of Pope Benedict XVI. This stirring and historic time has proved most bonding for all our scholars many of whom joined the crowds in St Peter’s Square, providing further confirmation of the wealth of enriching and contrasting experience to be had here at the British School.

J. W-H / S.R.

Award-holders at BSR this summer

Humanities

Louise Bourdua (Balsdon Fellow, Autumn 2004), Robert Coates-Stephens (Cary Fellow), Philip Kenrick (Hugh Last Fellow, Spring 2005), Edward Corp (Paul Mellon Centre Rome Fellow, Summer 2005), Phillippa Plock (Rome Fellow), Felicity Harley (Ralegh Radford Rome Fellow), Luca Baldoni (Rome Scholar), Nicholas Cullinan (Rome Scholar), Lucy Donkin (Rome Scholar), Nellie Phoca-Cosmetatou (Rome Awardee), Julien Riel-Salvatore (Rome Awardee), Kristian Chetcuti Bonavita (Rome Awardee), Caroline Anderson (Rome Awardee), Tehmina Bhote (Tim Potter Memorial Awardee)

Fine Arts

Des Lawrence (Abbey Scholar in Painting), Bernice Donszelmann (Abbey Fellow in Painting, Autumn 2004), Lee Maelzer (Abbey Fellow in Painting, Autumn 2004), Claude Temin-Vergez (Abbey Fellow in Painting, Summer 2005), Toby Glanville (Rome Scholar in the Fine Arts, Spring/Summer 2005), Mike Marshall (Rome Scholar in the Fine Arts, Spring 2005), Andrew Mania (Wingate Scholar Autumn/Winter 2004-5), Hayley Newman (ACE Helen Chadwick Fellow), Alvin Yip (Rome Scholar in Architecture), Juliet Haysom (Sainsbury Scholar in Painting and Sculpture), Steven MacIver (Sainsbury Scholar in Painting and Sculpture), Milly Thomson (Sargant Fellow, Summer 2005), Liz Williams (Australia Council Resident Artist, Autumn 2004), Kate Cotching (Australia Council Resident Artist, Spring 2005), Rosemary O’Rourke (Australia Council Resident Artist, Summer 2005), Leanne Kenneally (Youth Music Foundation of Australia Scholar, Summer 2005).

'Academici'

In January, the sculptor Kit Wise (BSR Wingate Scholar 1999), of Monash University’s Faculty of Art and Design, gave a lecture on the forthcoming ‘Academici’ exhibition, a celebration of five years of the Australia Council Rome Studio Residency at the BSR. In March, Sue Russell travelled to Melbourne to open this exhibition of 18 Australian artists resident at the BSR from 1999-2004, and reports that the show looked wonderful and was extremely well attended. Thirteen artists, including several who had travelled interstate, were able to attend the opening, and she was delighted to be able to catch up with many of the artists she had met in Rome over the years as both a resident and Assistant Director. The exhibition attracted the presence of Gerard Vaughan, no stranger to the BSR, currently Director of the National Gallery of Victoria, and Di Bresciani, who has been instrumental in providing the BSR with the Youth Music Foundation of Australia Scholar, Leanne Kenneally, whose beautiful voice currently soars through the building. Leanne and her husband Leon will give a concert in conjunction with the opening of the ‘Academici’ exhibition at the British School at Rome on May 19.

Images and memory: Rome in the photographs of Peter Paul Mackey 1890-1901

The British School at Rome’s Library and Archive reopened nearly a year ago on the completion of major building work which has transformed the BSR by providing new facilities, a Lecture Theatre and Gallery, as well as an extension to the Library.

In January an exhibition was held in the new Gallery, the first of a series on the theme of ‘Images and Memory’ illustrating Italy in the late nineteenth century through images from the historic photographic collections held in the Archive which have never been seen before.

This exhibition included a selection of photographs of Rome taken between 1890 and 1901 by the English Domenican Father Peter Paul Mackey who frequented the BSR Library and whose life’s work was dedicated to the Leonine edition of the works of St. Thomas Aquinas and whose interests included archaeology and photography.

Born in Erdington, England in 1851 he graduated in law and completed his theological studies in Louvain. In 1881 he arrived in Rome to work on the exegesis of St. Thomas Aquinas’s texts and, fascinated by Roman ruins, he began to attend the meetings and participate in the group excursions to the Roman Campagna organized by members of the British and American Archaeological Society founded by John Henry Parker.

Thomas Ashby, Director of the British School at Rome from 1906 to 1925, and the two sisters Dora and Agnes Bulwer were also members and photographers and it is thanks to their meeting through the Society that gradually their collections ended up in the British School and today form the nucleus of the Archive’s historic photographic collections. A set of the John Henry Parker collection of approximately 3300 prints was left to us through the Library of the British and American Archaeological Society.

The images, which have never been published or seen before, offer a portrait of the city of Rome at the end of the 19th century, surrounded by and immersed in the countryside, with vineyards and fields of artichokes next to the Roman ruins, a landscape that is more rural than urban with demolition and new building work in progress. Although only 100 years separates us from the world described in these photographs and that in which we live today, such profound changes have taken place that it is impossible today to appreciate the extraordinary beauty in the juxtaposition of landscape and ancient ruins.

It is hoped that the exhibition of 70 new black and white prints (30 x 40 cm) reproduced from the originals by Elio and Stefano Ciol, will be shown at various venues in the UK during 2006 and that a catalogue will be published. This event, organized and curated by the Archive and Library staff of The British School at Rome, has been made possible thanks to funding from the LINBURY TRUST of Lord and Lady Sainsbury of Preston Candover.

V.S.

Renaissance and Baroque Rome Course

The University of Melbourne’s course on “Renaissance and Baroque Rome” led by David Marshall and Lisa Beaven ran again in January with fifteen students from Australia and New Zealand. Highlights included visits to the Villa Marlia and Villa Garzoni at Collodi, the garden and collection of the Villa Torrigiani, Florence in the snow and the views of the snow-covered landscape around Pienza and Siena. Villa owners were puzzled and astonished at the sight of the mad Australians struggling about in their gardens in the snow and taking photographs of fountains encased in ice. The grand finale consisted of a “ living statues” competition followed by a memorable party organized by the students for the residents of the BSR the night before their departure for Florence.
L.B.

RECENT B.S.R.PUBLICATIONS

Archives & Excavations. Essays on the History of Archaeological Excavations in Rome and Southern Italy from the Renaissance to the Nineteenth Century, edited by Ilaria Bignamini
Full price: £49.50. Price to Subscribers: £25.00 + p&p

Bridging the Tiber. Approaches to Regional Archaeology in the Middle Tiber Valley, edited by Helen Patterson
Full price: £49.95. Price to Subscribers: £25.00 + p&p

To be published shortly:
Roman Bodies. Antiquity to the Eighteenth Century, edited by Andrew Hopkins and Maria Wyke

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION OR TO ORDER, CONTACT: The Publications Manager, The British School at Rome, at The British Academy, 10 Carlton House Terrace, London, SW1Y 5AH; E bsr@britac.ac.uk