Art History and Italian

Art history and Italian is a combination that takes on a particular coherence when you consider how much of the world's most significant art and architecture was produced in the Italian peninsula and in Italianate traditions more broadly. From the Renaissance masters of Florence, Venice and Rome to the Baroque architecture of Southern Italy and the modernism of the twentieth century, the Italian cultural tradition sits at the very centre of Western art history. Studying the language alongside the discipline opens that tradition in ways that English-language study alone cannot fully provide, giving you access to primary sources, scholarship and cultural contexts that are enriched by linguistic fluency.

At Manchester, this four-year full-time programme combines art history's strong interdisciplinary character with the language and literary culture of Italian. The art history department has particular strengths in Renaissance studies, Romanticism, modern and contemporary art, and the intersections of art and science, giving you a rich curriculum that spans multiple periods and methodological approaches. You will develop advanced Italian language skills alongside your critical and historical engagement with art, and the programme includes a sandwich year and a work placement, giving you structured professional experience in a relevant context.

You will develop the ability to analyse objects, images and texts from different cultures and historical periods, to construct sustained arguments about visual culture, and to engage with the primary and secondary literature of both disciplines.

Graduates move into museum and gallery work, arts administration, heritage management, auction houses and the art market, journalism, cultural diplomacy, education and academic research. The combination of language and art historical expertise is particularly valued in institutions with international collections or programmes.