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Rome: Power and Art 1480 - 1660
Online course
+44 (0)20 7942 2000
Our courses are built using the latest Microsoft software. Tune in to expert lectures live or catch up on demand. Join discussions and continue your learning with downloadable handouts and presentations. Find out more >>
Uncover the Rome of the Borgias and Borghesi, of Raphael and Bernini. Learn how bloody ambition and poison-laced rivalry shaped the rise of the Eternal City from haunted ruin to centre of art and culture.
Learn from our world-class experts wherever you are, whenever suits you: watch lectures live or view the recording later in your own time. You can experience the full breadth and depth of the V&A's collections with 12 hours of study over 6 weeks. Learn at your own pace: lecture recordings and study materials, lecture notes, copies of the presentations, and additional study materials are available in our secure Microsoft Teams environment for 6 weeks after the course ends, so you'll never miss a thing. And finally, join the conversation: share your perspective with your fellow students, and support each other in your further enquiries outside of class time.
Learn from our world-class experts wherever you are, whenever suits you: watch lectures live or view the recording later in your own time. You can experience the full breadth and depth of the V&A's collections with 12 hours of study over 6 weeks. Learn at your own pace: lecture recordings and study materials, lecture notes, copies of the presentations, and additional study materials are available in our secure Microsoft Teams environment for 6 weeks after the course ends, so you'll never miss a thing. And finally, join the conversation: share your perspective with your fellow students, and support each other in your further enquiries outside of class time.
Course Leader
Kevin Childs
Kevin Childs is a freelance writer and lecturer on culture and art history in the United Kingdom and Italy, where he leads specialised tours of Rome, Venice and Florence. He has been convening and contributing to courses at the V&A for nearly ten years and has taught on the Art History and Visual Culture BA course at Exeter University.
Brilliant! Highly commend all the Academy team. Previous V&A Academy Online Course Attendee
Course overview
This art history course will explore the re-emergence of Rome as a major centre of faith, politics and art in the 16th and 17th centuries. We will follow the careers of some of Europe’s most important artists: Michelangelo, Raphael, the Carracci, Caravaggio, Bernini and the French classicists Claude Lorrain and Poussin. And we will consider why Rome was uniquely placed as the capital of a major Italian state and the Caput Mundi of the Western Christian Church to become a place of great religious piety and great decadence.
V&A Academy Online. A learning environment you can trust.
Our courses are built using the latest Microsoft software. Tune in to expert lectures live or catch up on demand. Join discussions and continue your learning with downloadable handouts and presentations. Find out more >>
Enrol now
Online course: Rome: Power and Art 1480 - 1660
12 June 2025 - 17 July 2025
£130.00
Call to book +44 (0)20 7942 2000
Need help enrolling? Talk to the admissions team:
+44 (0)20 7942 2000
Open 10.00 - 13.00, Monday to Sunday (closed 24-26 December)
