Symposia at the Villa Medici

The French Academy in Rome supports scholarly research in the art history field by organizing symposia and seminars. The first of these events was held at the Academy in May 1976, under the direction of the first art history department director, Georges Brunel. The subject was Piranesi and the French.
Since that initial symposium the Department of Art History has been pursuing its work of bringing together researchers from all intellectual and geographical backgrounds to consider a range of issues regarding artistic relations between France and Italy from the Renaissance up to the present day. Thus the Villa Medici affirms its role by ensuring intellectual and academic interchange in a context of receptivity to the world at large.
In parallel with these prestigious encounters, the department emphasizes the dissemination of symposia proceedings in published form via the Collection d’histoire de l’art de l’Académie de France à Rome, created in 2002 by Olivier Bonfait, the then art history department director. The collection currently includes the proceedings of over fifteen events.
In addition the Department of Art History lends its support to the publication of the proceedings of symposia organized in association with other art history research bodies.