Promoting specialist training in the humanities
The statute of the Fondazione 1563 per l’Arte e la Cultura, approved in 2014, specifies promoting “research activity and advanced study in the field of the humanities” as one of the association’s responsibilities. In this way the Fondazione 1563 carries out one of the aspects of the work of the Compagnia di San Paolo, of which it is one of the associated organisations, covering the arts and cultural activities and assets in general. As part of its overall purposes, the Foundation includes the support of projects aimed at promoting the humanities, specialist training in the field, and the custody of the cultural and artistic patrimony, alongside its other institutional responsibilities for the conservation and promotion of the Historical Archives of the Compagnia di San Paolo.
Created in the mid-1980s as the Fondazione per la Cultura, la Scienza e l’Arte, part of the Istituto San Paolo, with the aim of restoring cultural edifices and other resources in Piedmont, the present-day Fondazione 1563 has widened its remit. The planning guidelines agreed for the first three-year period of the Foundation’s work (2012-2014), which were approved by the administrative Board of the Institute, singled out two priorities, which were reconfirmed in the following three-year plan:
- Managing and promoting the Historical Archives of the Compagnia di San Paolo
- Supporting a Study Programme on the Age and the Culture of Baroque
The second priority entails a plan to develop a project of advanced study on the Baroque in line with the considerable contributions made by the Compagnia di San Paolo towards the restoration of religious and civic Baroque buildings in Turin and Piedmont.
Baroque Programme: specialist study
With its Study Programme on the Age and the Culture of Baroque (‘Programma di Studi sull’Età e la Cultura del Barocco’) the Fondazione 1563 achieves one of its objectives: activating programmes of advanced study on the Baroque in its various aspects through the creation of a network in Italy and abroad of scholars and experts, critics and early-career researchers and all those with a developed interest in the subject. The Foundation’s decision to promote advanced studies in this field stems from the particular expressions of the Baroque in Turin and Piedmont, which also had a significant impact on the development of European culture more generally. Over the last few years the programme has been structured round specific objectives and methods in collaboration with universities and other cultural institutions both in Italy and around the world.
The research activities promoted by the Foundation as part of its Study Programme on the Age and the Culture of Baroque fall under several headings:
- Providing research grants and publication grants
- Organising seminars, workshops and conferences
- Publishing the results of research projects
- Building up a network of collaboration with universities and other cultural institutions
Over time these activities have involved a large number of academics, researchers and other young scholars working in the field of the humanities, who form a research community for which the Foundation is a central point of reference for the advancement of research in the Baroque period and its culture. The Baroque Programme of the Fondazione 1563 has three elements:
- Advanced research grants and fellowships (Borse di Alti Studi)
- Ancient and Modern (Antico e Moderno)
- A prize for unpublished work on the Baroque (Premio Barocco Inedito)
Applying for the programmes of advanced studies organised by the Fondazione 1563
The advanced research grants and fellowships ‘Borse di Alti Studi’ and the prize for unpublished work on the Baroque ‘Premio Barocco Inedito’ represent an opportunity for all young researchers, both Italian and non-Italian, working on the 17th and 18th centuries, who wish to pursue their studies and enhance their curriculums under the guidance of experts. Applications are welcomed from graduates as well as from those who have completed research doctorates and who are working in the field of the humanities: social, political and economic history, literature, music, visual arts, theatre and architecture. Grants for research and for publication are offered annually; information on past and current awards made since 2013 – recipients, topics, deadlines, and how to apply – can be found on the dedicated pages of the Foundation’s website.
The different topic chosen each year for the advanced research grants and fellowships gives rise to original research, the results of which are published in the Fondazione 1563 various monographic series. The ideas which emerged during the specialist seminars which brought together, as part of the 2014 programme on the theme of “Ancient and Modern: Paris, Rome, Turin 1670-1760”, curators, academics and grant-holders gave rise to a new aspect of research. Under the direction of Michela di Macco and Giuseppe Dardanello, the project “Ancient/Modern” has been set up, with the organisation of research groups, seminars and conferences, including a group based in Paris on the reception of Baroque in France, to look at artistic production in Turin, Paris and Rome between the end of the 17th and the beginning of the 18th centuries.
