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Los Angeles: Gardens at the Getty

Pippa Salonius • June 9, 2013

Pippa Salonius   CMRS  UCLA

The incredible thing about the Getty is its ability to consistently produce new and exciting temporary shows of outstanding quality every two or three months. I just got back from an excellent exhibition at the Getty Museum on ‘ Gardens in the Renaissance ‘, May 28 – August 11, 2013.

Jean Bourdichon, ‘Bathsheba Bathing’, Leaf from the Hours of Louis XII, Tours. 1498-1499. Los Angeles, Getty Institute, Ms. 79r.

Predominantly a display of Renaissance gardens in illuminated manuscripts, I really appreciated the variety of media curator Bryan Keene introduced his audience to. The map of the garden belonging to a private Nuremburg residence, oil paintings, prints of Florentine pageantry and the use of digital media all brought the show to life in a thoroughly enjoyable polished interactive performance. What fun! Plants are briefly described for their medical properties, their religious symbolism, and historical context, and the show ends with Hoefnagel’s exquisite botanical drawings in a very fine manuscript of calligraphy made for the Holy Roman emperors Ferdinand I and Rudolph II. Although this introduction to Renaissance gardens examines the European context in general, fabulous illustrations from Giovanni Boccaccio’s  Concerning the Fates of Illustrious Men and Women  and Francesco Colonna’s early printed book on Poliphilo among other specific Italian examples should certainly satiate any ACIS readers.

For any of you who arent completely gardened out after experiencing the exhibit, the Getty education program offers a series of demonstrations and courses on botanical drawing throughout July and an additional curatoria lecture on 27 July, 2013. I also just wanted to mention the deadlines for the 2014 RSA conference in New York 2014 (abstracts to be submitted by 11 June, 2013) and the MAA conference in LA 2014 (proposals due in 15 June, 2013). It’s late, I know, but if you have an idea already formed, it might be worth taking the time to write it up in a 250-word abstract and submit. There is always something to be learned at these conferences.

New Subjects and Stories of Baroque Art: Hamilton Gallery

March 4, 2024
Open until 14 April 2024, the exhibition Emerging From Darkness: Faith, Emotion and The Body in the Baroque is presented at Victoria's Hamilton Gallery (on the unceded lands of the Eastern Maar and Gunditjmara peoples), in partnership with the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV). Unprecedented, and monumental in scope, Emerging From Darkness brings together an exceptional group of works from public and private collections in Australia. It was curated by Associate Professor David R. Marshall , Principal Fellow in Art History at the University of Melbourne, Dr Lisa Beaven , Adjunct Senior Research at La Trobe University, and Laurie Benson , Senior Curator of International Art at the NGV. Here two curators explain some of the project’s background and aims.

In Podcast: 1873–2023, Alessandro Manzoni’s Legacy

October 27, 2023
In Italy this year there has been no shortage of Manzoni celebrations, particularly in Milan . And in Australasia? Dr Stefano Bona , Lecturer in Italian Studies at Flinders University, Adelaide, on the lands of the Kauna nation, has lately been involved in creating a ‘special miniseries’ of radio programmes about Alessandro Manzoni. Now available for listening on demand are two longform interviews with Stefano Pratola at Radio Italiana 531 AM. Here Stefano Bona shares some background to this podcast project.

Awarded: Two ACIS Prizes, Two Notable Publications

September 14, 2023
Announcing, with great pleasure, the winners of the 2023 ACIS Publication Prize for an established scholar, and the 2023 Jo-Anne Duggan Prize. ACIS awards both prizes every two years . In this case, each winning publication addresses the theme of mobility – a fast-evolving direction in Italian Studies research – and each brings forward a topic with clear contemporary significance.

Save the Date: ACIS 12th Biennial Conference, 3–6 July 2024

September 4, 2023
The 12th Biennial Conference of the Australasian Centre for Italian Studies will be held at the Australian National University (ANU), Canberra, Ngunnawal and Ngambri Country, from Wednesday 3 July to Saturday 6 July 2024. The conference theme is ‘Italian Studies for Global Challenges: Transdisciplinary Conversations’.

Announcing the 2023 ACIS Save Venice Fellow

August 24, 2023
Open to postgraduate and early career researchers, since 2018 the ACIS Save Venice Fellowship programme has been enlivening close links between Australasia and the city of Venice. Fellowship applications were suspended in 2022, for pandemic-related reasons. So it is a special pleasure to announce that Brigette De Poi has been awarded an ACIS Save Venice Fellowship for 2023. Already living in Venice to focus on her PhD project, Brigette shares some first reflections on her contact with Save Venice thus far.

Looking for Forgetting in the Archive

August 8, 2023
Which memories are allowed to circulate in a particular culture – and which are relegated or silenced? What political logic is at play when a certain way of remembering is spelt out, even imposed? Matthew Topp was awarded an ACIS Postgraduate Scholarship in 2020, to source archival records for his doctoral thesis, which has the working title ‘ Ars Oblivionalis : A Study of Cultural Forgetting in Renaissance Italy’. Now returned from fieldwork, he shares a brief account of his PhD project and travels.

Two early career scholars reflect on their time as ACIS Save Venice Fellows

By Catherine Kovesi • April 2, 2023
Two promising early career scholars – Lauren Murphy and Julia Pelosi-Thorpe – were the recipients of ACIS Save Venice Fellowships. Delayed due to COVID travel restrictions, they were finally able to access their Fellowships in 2022. Here they both reflect on their time in Venice and the benefits of the Fellowship to their respective research projects.

Announcing a new Chair and new team at the helm of ACIS

By Catherine Kovesi • March 29, 2023
ACIS is delighted to announce that Professor Andrea Rizzi has been appointed the new Chair of the Australasian Centre for Italian Studies. He leads a renewed Management Committee with several new appointees who start their terms of office this year.

ACIS Postgraduate Scholarship Winners 2023

By Catherine Kovesi • January 30, 2023
After a hiatus of three years due to travel restrictions, ACIS is delighted once again to be able to offer its Postgraduate Scholarships for Research in Italy. Two promising postgraduate students have been awarded scholarships in the current round: Brigette De Poi and Laura Di Blasi.
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