The Grand Tour

The Grand Tour invites audiences into the eighteenth-century rite of passage undertaken by young British elites across the Italian Peninsula, reframed through a rich display of 500 years’ worth of artefacts, prints, books, and archival treasures from the University of Melbourne’s collections. Anchored by the Terence Lane Collection—96 historic French, British, Italian, Dutch, and Flemish prints generously donated in 2024—this exhibition weaves art, architecture, archaeology, and collecting into a layered narrative that reveals the Grand Tour’s enduring influence on European cultural ideals.