The Robert H. Smith Renaissance Sculpture Programme
Victoria and Albert Museum

Annual Lecture by Nicholas Penny – Wednesday 9 December, 2009
The Rediscovery of the Group in Renaissance Sculpture
Lecture Theatre, 19.00-20.00

Book now www.vam.ac.uk/tickets  / 020 7942 2211
Free, ticketed
_

This ten year programme, which is generously funded by Mr Robert H. 
Smith, comprises lectures, seminars, conferences, other events and 
publications.  For further information or to be added to the mailing 
list, please contact Caroline Bulloch at [log in to unmask]

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A Tale of Two Cities: Venice and Florence in the Renaissance

A conference in memory of Professor Michael Mallett (1932–2008)

This conference celebrates the work of the late Professor Michael 
Mallett and the long-standing expertise of Warwick’s History and History 
of Art Departments in Venetian and Florentine history. For more than 40 
years, thanks to the efforts of Professor Mallett, the University of 
Warwick has organised unique undergraduate programmes in Venice, and has 
built up an international reputation in Renaissance scholarship.

8–10 December 2009
The University of Warwick in Venice
Palazzo Pesaro Papafava
Cannaregio, Venice


Tuesday 8 December
War, government and political life

Session chair: Dr Humfrey Butters (Reader in History, University of Warwick)

15.00–15.15 Opening remarks
Welcome: Dr Humfrey Butters

Michael Mallett and Venice in Peril
Frances Clarke CBE, Hon DLitt Warwick (Trustee, Venice in Peril)

15.15–15.45 Rethinking Mars: the Duchy of Florence as a regional 
military power
Dr Maurizio Arfaioli (independent scholar)

15.45–16.15 On the banks of the Po and the papal bed: investigating the 
double diplomacy
of the later Medici regime
Professor Alison Brown (Emerita, History Department, Royal Holloway,
University of London)

16.15–16.30 Questions

16.30–17.00 Coffee

17.00–17.30 The battle of Agnadello and the impact on the Venetian 
mainland, 500 years on
Professor Michael Knapton (History Department, University of Udine)

17.30–18.00 Libertà and ‘protection’ during the Italian wars
Dr Christine Shaw (Visiting Professor, Harvard University Center for 
Italian Renaissance Studies, Villa I Tatti)


18.00–18.15 Questions

18.15 Reception: Palazzo Pesaro Papafava


Wednesday 9 December
1. Government, propaganda and culture

Chair: Dr Luca Molà (Associate Professor, History Department, University 
of Warwick)

9.30–10.00 The changing function of the Collegio in the governance of 
Trecento Venice
Professor Benjamin Kohl (Emeritus, History Department, Vassar College)

10.00–10.30 Odious comparisons: Cosimo I, the Duke of Athens and Florence
Professor Suzy Butters (Emerita, Art History and Visual Studies,
University of Manchester)

10.30–10.45 Questions

10.45–11.15 Coffee

11.15–11.45 Giulio Cesare da Varano: a failure in Venetian service
Dr John Law (Reader in History, University of Swansea)

11.45–12.15 Forms of political propaganda in late-medieval Florence
Professor Fabrizio Ricciardelli (Assistant Professor, Georgetown 
University at Villa le Balze, Florence)

12.15–12.30 Questions

2. Art, artists and visual perception in Renaissance Florence and Venice

Chair: Dr Louise Bourdua (Associate Professor, History of Art 
Department, University of Warwick)

15.00–15.30 Triumphs in art and disasters at sea: the commemoration of 
the Stato da Mar in Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari
Dr Donal Cooper (Associate Professor, History of Art Department,
University of Warwick)

15.30–16.00 Mosaics and Memory in Quattrocento Venice and Rome
Professor Julian Gardner (Founding Professor, History of Art Department,
University of Warwick)

16.00–16.15 Questions

16.15–16.45 Coffee

16.45–17.15 Brunelleschi’s failure? The altarpieces of Quattrocento San 
Lorenzo in Florence
Dr Christa Gardner von Teuffel (Associate Fellow, Centre for the
Study of the Renaissance, University of Warwick)

17.15–17.45 Sanudo’s Terraferma tour
Dr Gaby Neher (Lecturer in Art History, University of Nottingham)

17.45–18.00 Questions


Thursday 10 December
Economy, Society and Culture

Chair: Dr Jonathan Davies (Associate Professor, History Department, 
University of Warwick)

9.30–10.00 War and beatitude: the case of the fall of Venetian 
Negroponte to the Turks (1470)
Professor Reinhold Mueller (Department of History, University of Ca’ 
Foscari)

10.00–10.30 Venice and the challenge of global trade in the sixteenth 
century: a reassessment
Dr Luca Molà (Associate Professor, History Department, University of 
Warwick)

10.30–11.00 Edwin Reynolds, an Edwardian architect in Italy
Dr Stella Fletcher (independent scholar)

11.00–11.15 Questions

11.15–11.45 Coffee

11.45–12.15 Florence and Pisa, 1406–1609
Dr Jonathan Davies (Associate Professor, History Department, University 
of Warwick)

12.15–12.45 The figure of Fabrizio Colonna in Machiavelli’s ‘Arte della 
Guerra’
Professor John Najemy (History Department, Cornell University)

12.45–13.00 Questions

13.00 Concluding remarks
Dr Jonathan Davies (Associate Professor, History Department, University 
of Warwick)

Further Particulars

Full conference fee (for those not giving papers): £60
Day rate: £20

Staff and graduate students from the University of Ca’ Foscari,
Venice, may attend free of charge. Postgraduate students from
other institutions may wish to apply for one of five available
bursaries of £100 each (please apply to Dr Butters at the
address below).

Abstracts of conference papers will be available at
www.warwick.ac.uk/go/history and www.warwick.ac.uk/go/arthistory.
It is expected that a number of the papers will be published
in an edited collection following the conference.

Contacts
Dr Humfrey Butters: [log in to unmask]
Chiara Croff (Warwick administrator in Venice):
[log in to unmask]