Venice in Peril

Monday 17 February 2025, 6:30-8pm –  Society of Antiquaries, London – Professor Deborah Howard – Discover how Venice’s maritime spirit shaped centuries of art and culture, from mosaics to music, in this captivating exploration of the city’s unique relationship with the sea.                                                                                                                                                     

                                                         

 

Venice in Peril Lecture Series:

Venice and the Sea in Art and Culture

with
Deborah Howard

Architectural Historian and Trustee of Venice in Peril Fund

A Joint Event with the British-Italian Society

Monday 17 February 2025

Lecture and Drinks Reception 6.30-8pm

Tickets £30 to include drinks reception

At The Society of Antiquaries
Burlington House
Piccadilly
London W1J 0BE

Whereas most studies of the maritime history of Venice are devoted to commerce, crusades and naval conflict, in this talk Professor Deborah Howard addresses the visceral impact of the sea on the Venetian consciousness. The waters of the Adriatic flow through the canals of Venice like blood circulating around a body, just as the daily rhythm of the tides choreographs each day.   The lecture will show how mosaicists, painters, engravers, musicians and stage designers alike drew inspiration from the maritime environment throughout the duration of the Venetian Republic.

Deborah Howard is Professor Emerita of Architectural History in the Faculty of Architecture and History of Art, a Fellow of St John’s College, Cambridge and Trustee of Venice in Peril Fund. More recently she was elected a Foreign Fellow of the Istituto Veneto in 2024.

Her principal research interests are the art and architecture of Venice and the Veneto; the relationship between Italy and the Eastern Mediterranean, and music and architecture in the Renaissance. In addition to her posts in leading universities throughout the world, she has published widely in academic journals and is author of numerous books including The Architectural History of Venice, Yale University Press 2002; Sound and Space in Renaissance Venice: Architecture, Music, Acoustics (with Laura Moretti), Yale University Press  2009 and The Sacred Home in Renaissance Italy (with Abigail Brundin and Mary Laven), Oxford University Press, 2018.  In 2023 she was awarded the European Heritage Awards/Europa Nostra Awards for her study into the architectural heritage of industrial development of the Veneto, Italy, in the 16th-century.

All proceeds from this event will go directly towards the vital conservation work of Venice in Peril