Conference: A Window on Antiquity: the Topham Collection at Eton College Library (17 May)
This conference, jointly hosted by Eton College, The Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art and The University of Buckingham, will be held in London at The Paul Mellon Centre on 17 May 2013. The conference coincides with the opening of Paper Palaces: The Topham Drawings as a Source for British Neo-Classicism, an exhibition organised at Eton College Library, Verey Gallery, 9 May–1 November 2013.
Consisting of 37 volumes and more than 3,000 items, the collection amassed by Richard Topham (1671-1730) is one of the most significant resources for the history of antiquarianism and for the culture and industry of the Grand Tour in Europe. This collection of drawings, watercolours and prints after antique sculptures and paintings in Rome and Italy is the largest of its kind assembled in England, surpassing in both scale and breadth those collected by other celebrated antiquarians such as John Talman, Dr Richard Mead or Thomas Coke, 1st Earl of Leicester.
Appointment of Dr Barbara Lasic
The Art History Department are very pleased to announce the appointment of Dr Barbara Lasic as our new lecturer in French Decorative Arts and Historic Interiors. Dr Lasic, who will teach the French modules on the collaborative MA in Decorative Arts and Historic Interiors at the Wallace Collection, will join us in September, replacing Dr Helen Jacobsen, who was appointed Curator of Eighteenth-Century Decorative Arts at the Wallace Collection in April. Dr Lasic is an Assistant Curator in the Furniture, Textiles and Fashion Department at the Victoria and Albert Museum and has published widely on aspects of nineteenth-century collecting of the French Decorative Arts including the formation of the Wallace Collection. With her extensive curatorial experience and her impressive research and publications record, Dr Lasic will be a very welcome addition to the Department. Read more about Dr Lasic.
Dr Joanna Walker joins Department
We are pleased to announce that Dr Joanna Walker will be joining the Department as a temporary lecturer to teach a course in the Autumn Term on “Critical Concepts” in Art. Dr Walker’s specialist area of expertise is feminist art practice and theory and methodologies in the History of Art. An art historian with a background in literature, she holds an MA in Women’s Studies from the University of Oxford and a PhD from University College London. She is the author of Nancy Spero: Encounters (2011), has taught at University College London, and has worked on exhibition projects at Tate Modern. She is currently involved with a publishing project at Waddesdon Manor. With her extensive museum and publishing experience, and her interest in Contemporary Art and Critical Theory, Dr Walker will make a valuable contribution to the work of the Department.
Student to work at the Royal Collection
Congratulations to Tom Smith, one of our current students on the MA in Decorative Arts and Historic Interiors, who will be joining the Royal Collection on a nine-month internship contract to work on projects in the Decorative Arts. The Royal Collection boasts one of the greatest collections of French and British Decorative Arts in the world and these internship positions are extremely sought after. We wish him every success in his new role.
Exciting new role for Dr Helen Jacobsen
Dr Helen Jacobsen, Tutor for the French courses on the MA in Decorative Arts and Historic Interiors will be leaving us at the end of this term to concentrate on her new role as Curator of French 18th-century Decorative Arts at the Wallace Collection, one of the finest collections of French fine and decorative arts in the world. Helen played a key role in helping to set up the MA in 2009 and will be greatly missed by students and colleagues, however, she will continue to be closely involved in the French decorative arts teaching at the Wallace Collection and will work closely with Jeremy Howard, the Programme Director, as the Wallace Collection’s curator responsible for academic liaison with the University. We congratulate her most warmly on her recent appointment and wish her all the very best in her exciting new role.
New Lecturer in Art History (December 2011)
The Department is very pleased to welcome Dr Adriano Aymonino, who will be joining the University to head the new BA in Art History and Heritage Management. Dr Aymonino recently held postdoctoral fellowships at the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art of Yale University in London and at the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles. He was also head of research for the Commission for Looted Art in Europe. More about Dr Aymonino.
Country house visits (October 2011)
This year’s MA Decorative Arts Students spent the last week of October on campus exploring local country houses and enjoying the unseasonally balmy Indian summer. Among the highlights were a visit to the Chinese Dairy at Woburn (right) and a tour of the house and gardens at Stowe, where they were shown 
the recent restoration work that has been carried out on the interiors by the Stowe House Preservation Trust and paid homage to Venus in the Vanbrugh Rotonda (left).
Art History students in Florence (29 October 2011)
Buckingham’s first students on the new Art History and Heritage Management BA having been spending their initial term in Florence. The photo shows them with Michael Liversidge, Florence Programme Director, enjoying a typical Florentine autumn sunset.
Public lecture by Dr Nicola Smith (6 September 2011)
In “Breaking the rules: Michelangelo as architect”, Nichola Smith showed how Michelangelo departed from classical reliance on the square and the circle, using the oval and the trapezium as the basis of architectural designs in Rome and Florence. Non-functioning columns, blank walls and overlapping pediments were among the ways in which his buildings surprised the viewer by breaking traditional rules. His influence spread so quickly that Kirby Hall in Northamptonshire, begun c.1570, was closely modeled on his new design for the Capitoline in Rome.
