PhD in History of Art: Term 2, Year 1
Reflecting on the second term of studying at UCL
The second term of my PhD has just come to end, and so — as I did last term — I am writing down a few reflections on the last couple of months. Overall, it felt significantly more stressful and confused, with a pretty low dip in academic confidence over February. This probably had quite a lot to do with it being those final weeks of winter, when everyone is tired of the cold, dark days but spring still feels far away. Now, spring has well and truly arrived, the days are growing longer, and I’m spending my holidays preparing for my upgrade exam next term — which involves a lot of thinking about strange bronze sea monsters made in Renaissance Italy.
Lectures I’ve loved
OK, I admit — this term I’ve been to nowhere near as many lectures as I went to last term. The one I will mention here was by Dr Leah R. Clark, called Mobile Things/Mobile Motifs: Transcultural Objects Across the Mediterranean. It took place on 16 January at Oxford University, as part of the Early Modern Italian World seminar. The lecture focused on Leah’s research into the exchange and mobility of art objects between Renaissance Italy and the Islamic World — specifically between the courts of Ferrara and Naples, and the Mamluk and Ottoman courts in the 15th century. Since quite a lot of my PhD research at the moment is focused on representations of animals in Italian Renaissance objects (like candlesticks, inkwells and paperweights in the form of sea creatures), it was exciting to see such a dynamic art historical study about early modern objects.
Books I’ve read
Just like last term, this term included a huge amount of reading! Here are some of the most memorable books and essays I read which I think others may find interesting:
- The mermaids of Venice: fantastic sea creatures in Venetian Renaissance art, Alison Luchs (2010)
- Artisans, Objects and Everyday Life in Renaissance Italy: The Material Culture of the Middling Class, by Paula Hohti Erichsen (2020) — see painting above by Vicenzo Campi (1580), which you can read more about here.
- ‘Jacopo Bassano and the Flood of Feltre’ by James Pilgrim (2023). This is an ecocritical essay about the Italian painter Jacopo Bassano and his depictions of 16th-century flooding in North Eastern Italy (and how the flooding was connected to deforestation at the time)
- The scholar in his study: ownership and experience in Renaissance Italy by Dora Thornton (1997) — see portrait below of a wealthy Venetian collector and merchant
- ‘Troubled Waters: Marcantonio Raimondi and Dürer’s Nightmares on the Shore’ by Beverly Louise Brown (2016)
- The value of ecocriticism by Timothy Clark (2018). A must read for anyone interested in learning more about ecocriticism and its political power
Exhibitions I’ve seen
I took the Eurostar to Paris for a long weekend in February where I saw the major Mark Rothko exhibition, and the Marc Chagall exhibition at the Centre Pompidou — which inspired my recent blog post exploring his collages. Most recently, as an end of term treat, I visited Entangled Pasts: 1768-now at the Royal Academy, London, which I really, really recommend if you can. It seems outrageous that even the student discounted ticket is £16 (full price £22) — such an important exhibition, in particular, should be made far more accessible.
Watching the news
When I published my reflections from the end of last term on 20 December 2023, the death toll in Gaza had just surpassed 20,000 — at least 8,000 children and 6,200 women were among those killed by the Israeli state. Three months later, as I write this, the death toll has risen to at least 32,490, and these figures are certainly higher (given that so many people are still buried under rubble and missing). The horror is unfathomable, entirely preventable, and funded by Western governments.
I have learned so much about the atrocities through the sensitive, justice-centred coverage by independent news outlet Novara Media — I cannot recommend them enough for giving a tiny slither of light in these dark times.
