| Image

Exploring the Eternal City: students prep for study in Rome

This month, MA students from the Rome School of Classical and Renaissance Studies were led on a three-day university-funded visit to Italy’s capital, their future destination of study.

The purpose of this annual taster trip, a fundamental part of the School’s specialist programmes and the unique student experience they propose, is simple; prepare students as fully as possible for their term in Rome. Knowing what to expect from the outset means students are ready to embrace life and study abroad in all its fullness, making for an enriching academic chapter ahead.

As in previous cycles, the trip’s colourful itinerary saw students (accompanied by school teaching and administrative staff) visit monuments, tour the study facilities on offer to them through the American University of Rome and the American Academy, and enjoy a hearty Roman meal together – quite literally giving a taste of ‘la dolce vita’ to come.

This year’s guided tours of Castel Sant Angelo and the Capitoline Museums given by the department’s lecturers and in the latter instance, somewhat exceptionally, also by the curator herself of the ‘Luca Signorelli and Rome: Oblivion and Rediscovery’ exhibition, resembled the hands-on teaching to be expected from term two.

In keeping with the rest of Kent’s European centres, the Rome School prides itself on its matchless education model that transforms the city into the classroom. While a continuum from the teaching (delivered in English) experienced in Canterbury, this embellished spring term framework tangibly takes advantage of Rome’s ancient heritage and abounding history.

Uprooting cities and countries and heading somewhere unfamiliar for study purposes can sometimes seem a big step. Given that more than half of this year’s MA cohort had never visited Rome before, the chance to trial the capital’s transport, explore its neighbourhoods, witness its rich culture and set up accommodation viewings in advance of moving made the November trip a precious preparatory tool.

Much more than a simple study perk, this induction to life in Rome is another means through which Kent supports its students’ transition abroad and helps them feel at ease as, individually and collectively, they enter into new and exciting academic terrain.

Louvre visit: seeing Leonardo da Vinci like never before

Director of the Rome School of Classical and Renaissance Studies, Prof. Tom Henry, led some lucky Kent students on a trip to the Musée du Louvre earlier this week to visit the largest ever Leonardo da Vinci exhibition with its co-curator, M. Vincent Delieuvin.

On Tuesday, when the museum was closed to the general public, Kent students entered the iconic glass pyramid to make their way to the Leonardo exhibition. They then had the privilege of receiving a guided tour through the exhibition, which marks the 500th anniversary of the artist’s death in France in 1519.

Their visit – rendered possible thanks to funding from the School of Arts – was immeasurably enhanced by the generosity of the exhibition’s curator. Delieuvin was on hand to answer every question, to elucidate the decisions taken in mounting the exhibition and to communicate the many new directions in Leonardo research that his ten-year devotion to this project has set in motion.

With these profound insights that only the curator could provide, Kent students were in a prime position to appreciate Leonardo’s art. Given the exhibition’s breath-taking popularity and the scarceness of available tickets, sadly many will not be so fortunate.

Indeed, as Henry argued the evening before the trip in a brief lecture given at the Paris School of Arts and Culture (the Rome School’s sister European centre) Leonardo da Vinci can be considered the founder of the ‘blockbuster.’ Centuries ago, Florentines queued around the block to catch a glimpse of his masterpieces as they were unveiled.

Leonardo runs at the Louvre until late February 2020. It is whipping up a storm in Paris with ripples across the currents of the art world, prompting intense intellectual debate among scholars and art lovers (a conversation in which our students were able to participate).

Given its centrality to our society, History of Art is an exciting and vibrant area of study, upheld by the University of Kent at both undergraduate and postgraduate level. For those eager to gain a master’s in this discipline, our programmes offer students the chance to study in either Rome or Paris as well as Canterbury, drawing heavily upon the artistic wealth of these great cultural capitals.​