The secret of my influence has always been that it remained secret’ – Salvador Dalí. Like the Renaissance artists he admired, Salvador Dalí did not restrict his creative output to painting but was also a writer, poet, engraver, sculptor, architect, photographer, theatre designer,  and jewellery designer. As well as designing the latter, Dalí selected the materials to be used, focusing not just on the colours or the value of the material, but also on their symbolic meanings. Jewels such as ‘El cor reial’ (1953, The Royal Heart) have become iconic works and are considered to be as exceptional as his paintings.

There is a cliché of the typical artist starving in a garret, and while some did portray themselves in just this way, many take themselves out of the studio and into homes, palaces, battlefields, hospitals and even the heavenly realm. What are they doing there? What do they wish us to see? We will look at artists as witnesses, marriage brokers, businessmen, diplomats, philosophers and revolutionaries. Above all we will examine their facial expressions and body language for clues about their own personalities, aspirations, doubts and passions and how they perceived their own status in the society they lived in.

This is the gripping and sometimes hilarious story of how a band of heroic curators and eccentric custodians saved Britain’s national heritage during our Darkest Hour. As Hitler’s forces gathered on the other side of the Channel to threaten these islands, men and women from London’s national museums, galleries and archives forged extraordinary plans to evacuate their collections to safety.

At 78 years of age Abramović can truly be seen as the grandmother of Performance Art. The most prominent figure in performance and body art since the 1970s, she never gave up her quest to confront fear and vulnerability in the pursuit of artistic expression.

Best known for her work where she tested the limits of her own physical and mental endurance, she manages to transform her audiences who feel they become part of the art itself.

Bosch’s world of devils, demons and deadly sins are truly unforgettable. At the same time, his extraordinary treatment of religious themes can be deeply moving. His works are among the most mysterious in the whole of European art, yet if we examine them in the context of contemporary politics and cultural sources we find that not only are they perfectly understandable, but they also provide an amazing insight into the society in which the artist lived.   

PLEASE NOTE THAT AN EXTRAORDINARY GENERAL MEETING OF THE SOCIETY WILL TAKE PLACE BEFORE THE LECTURE AT 1.45 PM. ALL WELCOME.

Loaded with symbolism, the colour blue creates meaning, provokes emotion and ignites memory on a personal, and a cultural level, throughout the world.

From the sacred shade of Ultramarine, to the ancient roots of Indigo, to the startling alchemy of Prussian, blue has been used to venerate icons since the earliest human civilizations. Enjoy this rich history of colour via two powerful forces: Impressionism and Japanese Print. 

When Monet’s water-lilies met Hokusai’s Great Wave, the values of art changed forever.

Now a romantic ruin, Odiham Castle, in north Hampshire, was once the residence of Simon de Montfort and his wife Eleanor, sister of Henry III. Rupert draws upon both written and archaeological evidence to reconstruct the castle and the home life of the couple. He leads the audience on a room-by-room tour, describing what is known or can be surmised about its furniture and decoration. He discusses clothing, literacy and language, the Montforts’ turbulent married life and Simon’s remarkable piety, and ends with a moving description of his death in 1265, at the Battle of Evesham.

Mankind has exploited the medicinal properties of plants for thousands of years, yet the role of plants in modern medicine is still considered to be peripheral by many people. This talk attempts to put the record straight and to show that plant products are used every day by all of us to relieve pain and suffering, to heal wounds and cure diseases. This is a talk with a very wide appeal and relevance.

Through the four aspects of Feasts, Frivolity, Fantasy and Faith, this lecture explores how the Tudors celebrated Christmas.  We look at the dynasty from its first monarch, Henry VII, through to its last, Elizabeth I, using art from the period to illustrate the rich culture of the time.  The era of five hundred years ago will be brought to life through recipes, types of dancing and music, drama and devotion to recreate the evocative atmosphere of a Tudor Christmas.

Cubism can be confusing. Never truly popular, the most influential art movement of the Twentieth Century can sometimes appear difficult and strange. Is this because there is something inherently ‘unlovable’ about Cubism? Not at all! Cubism needs simply to be explained for its beauty to be appreciated. This lecture sets out clearly and succinctly the theory behind Cubism, its various phases and the different types of Cubist painting, collage and sculpture in the years c.1907-25. This is an accessible introduction to the subject, illustrated with artworks by the most famous Cubist artists - Picasso, Braque and Léger - and those lesser-known including some working in Britain.

The only one of the United States to have its very own royal residence – Iolani Palace - the former Kingdom of Hawai’i had brave kings and queens who travelled the world and attended monarchical events in the UK up until the dethroning of their last queen. This isolated island chain is closer to the UK than one may think.   

In the two centuries since they were removed from the Parthenon by Lord Elgin, the meaning and significance of the ‘Elgin marbles’ has changed dramatically. From architectural decoration to disputed cultural objects this lecture looks at the response to them over their time in Britain, from the original controversy over their purchase to the current debate surrounding the restitution of the marbles to the new Acropolis Museum in Athens. Never far from the headlines, the aim will be to inform your view: should they stay or should they go?

On March 18 1990, the ‘impossible’ happened - thirteen works of art, valued at a total of $500 million, were stolen from the great Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. Museum officials, police and security experts were completely baffled as to how this had happened.These great masterpieces have never been recovered; a devastating loss to the museum and its public. To this day, the huge spaces where these art works hung, by Vermeer, Rembrandt, Degas and Manet, remain empty - a shocking reminder of this dramatic event. This talk relates the story of the fascinating police investigation that ensued, resulting in knowledge of how, why and by whom the robbery was committed but leaving the crime officially 'unsolved'.

 A new Roman villa was discovered during lockdown in Rutland in 2020, prompting a series of archaeological investigations, carried out primarily by the University of Leicester and Historic England. This extraordinary site is famous for the widely publicised figured mosaic, which depicts scenes from the mythical Trojan War. Having completed fieldwork in September 2022, analysis of the results is now underway. This talk will describe the discovery and place the mosaic in the wider complex, based on the evidence to date. The talk will also discuss the artwork of the mosaic and its significance.  

Wallpaper is often regarded as the Cinderella of the Decorative Arts – the most ephemeral and least precious of the decorations produced for the home. Yet, the history of wallpaper is a long and fascinating subject that dates back to the 16th century and encompasses a huge range of beautiful patterns created both by anonymous hands and by some of the best-known designers of the 19th and 20th centuries. This lecture explores the history and development of this product from earliest times up to the present day.

Deborah (‘Debo’) Devonshire, the youngest of the Mitford sisters and wife of the 11th Duke of Devonshire, was hefted by marriage to one of Europe’s great treasure houses, Chatsworth. In the second half of the 20th century, in partnership with her husband, she imbued it with a spirit, elegance and sense of welcome that transformed it from being the worn-out survivor of decades of taxation, war and social change into one of the best-loved, most-emulated and heavily-visited historic houses, gardens and estates in the country. With responsibility for Lismore Castle and Bolton Abbey as well, no wonder her passport stated her profession as ‘housewife’.

Along the way, she became a best-selling author and sell-out speaker, champion of the countryside, its skills, traditions, livelihoods and food, founder of one of the first – and finest – farm shops, trustee and patron of numerous charities and good causes, devotee of Elvis Presley and the most famous poultry keeper in the country. She met Hitler and Churchill, knew Macmillan and Kennedy, was a trusted confidant of the King when Prince of Wales, played her part as the steady heart of the Mitford sisters’ melodrama and was friends with a dazzling array of artistic contemporaries, including Evelyn Waugh, John Betjeman, Lucian Freud, Tom Stoppard, Paddy Leigh Fermor, Oscar de la Renta and Alan Bennett.

Kettle’s Yard in Cambridge has been described as “one of the country’s most intimate and spellbinding museums, the collection of one man and his unerring eye; restorative, homely yet life-changing”. This man was H.S. ‘Jim’ Ede, curator, writer, collector and friend to artists. In1957, he opened his Cambridge home to university students as “a living place where works of art could be enjoyed… unhampered by the greater austerity of the museum or public art gallery.” His collection included works by Ben and Winifred Nicholson, Christopher Wood, Alfred Wallis and Henri Gaudier-Brzeska which were carefully placed alongside pieces of furniture, ceramics and natural objects. His curated home remains, by and large as he left it, characterised by its unique atmosphere, fascinating juxtapositions and personal connections. This lecture will discuss the life of Jim Ede, his collecting, his vision for Kettles Yard and its enduring legacy.

Describing herself by writing, "I am a museum", Peggy Guggenheim's life took a clear path, from setting up a commercial gallery in London, going on a single-minded shopping trip to Paris in the late 1930's even as the German tanks were rolling in to the suburbs, to escape (with her selection of European artists) to New York and the subsequent establishment of her museum (and Arts centre). We discuss the purchase of the eccentric 'unfinished palazzo' in Venice and why her collection remains one of the most iconic assemblages of Twentieth century art in the world.

STARTS 12 NOON FOLLOWED BY CANAPES AND DRINKS -PAID FOR EVENT

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There have been pictorial representations of The Magi from as early as at least the 6th century, such as depictions in Byzantine ivories with origins in places such as Constantinople. Indeed, a vast array of artists, such as Hieronymus Bosch (c.1450-1516), Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510), Pieter Bruegel the Elder (active 1550/1; died 1569), Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528), Masaccio (1401-1428/9?), and Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) to name but a few, have been clearly fascinated by story and its possibilities when it comes to visual depictions. However, these depictions over this vast period of time have been anything but consistent. All the aforementioned artists will be mentioned in this lecture.

There are no ugly women, only lazy ones, quipped cosmetics entrepreneur Helena Rubinstein, whose company made her one of the world's richest women. Business woman, art collector, and philanthropist, she was the first female millionaire. She commissioned work from avant-garde artists, Joan Miró, Picasso, Salvador Dali who was to design a powder compact for her. Her exclusive beauty salons influenced and blurred the conceptual boundaries between fashion, art galleries, and the domestic interior. 

Of all the places to be in the world at the end of the 19th century, it has to be New York. The city enjoyed unprecedented growth as new blood flooded in from all over the world. As gleaming new skyscrapers grew skyward the squalor of teeming tenements and the struggle to survive in this rapidly changing city  became rich pickings for a young group of artists seeking new inspiration. For the artists of the 'Ashcan School' nobility could be found not just in the grandiose buildings of this booming city but in the daily lives of the labourers who built it. 

The City of Bath, the 18th century Georgian city with a Roman heart. We will discover what makes this UNESCO world heritage city special. Learn more about the famed roman remains within the Roman Baths Museum including the latest archaeological excavations under the city streets and discover the source of the water from deep underground to where it is heated to 46 degrees before ascending to the surface under the medieval Baths. We will follow the development of the 18th century city, how Bath became the 2nd social city to London.

The past decade has seen the meteoric rise of this extraordinarily versatile British designer with his acclaimed Olympic cauldron, the iconic new London bus and designs for a spectacular new HQ building for Google. Over the last twenty years the Heatherwick Studio has used an intriguing combination of curiosity and experimentation to produce a vast range of solutions to design challenges around the world. This talk looks at the problems presented, and the wonderfully creative ways in which Heatherwick and his team have responded.

Immerse yourself in a world of carnations, tulips, hyacinths and roses as you discover the history of Turkey’s famous Iznik ceramics. Our exploration will begin with the much-coveted porcelain of Ming China, which inspired the earliest examples of Iznik blue and white ceramics. We will trace the longevity of Chinese motifs and the introduction of local flowers and new colours in Iznik’s 16th century heyday. Our survey will end with the decline of Iznik in the 17th century and the alternatives that took their place on the market

This lecture looks at western bookbinding, in particular during the age of the printed book. Aspects of the book trade, including bookbinding practices and materials used in bindings are shown and, as structure and decoration changed as the centuries passed, the individual binders’ fingers tell their own tale as the craft developed. The bookbinding trade has long recycled waste materials, some of which may be more valuable than the books themselves. Bookbindings also provide an insight into the owner’s wealth and station in life, as books were bought unbound and bindings were therefore generally chosen by the first owner until the 19th century.

Churchill discussed painting with Noel Coward, who was another keen amateur artist for over forty years. In Britain, Coward painted in or near his two Kentish homes: Goldenhurst, near Aldington, and his magnificent house overlooking the sea at St Margaret’s Bay. He painted in Italy, at Venice, Capri and Portofino, but also three other Mediterranean locations which have yet to be identified.  Perhaps you will be able to identify them? Many of his paintings are of Jamaica: he retired and had two homes there. Both Churchill and Coward are legendary for their wit and humour.

Physical objects have been placed behind the walls, under the thresholds and within the hearths of historic buildings for centuries. Discoveries of dried cats, witch bottles and ancient shoes have become common during building works. The explanation for these items is less common – as they were often deliberately placed to ritually protect house and occupants from evil spirits, witches and demons…

Antony Gormley’s career spans nearly 40 years, during which time he has made sculpture that explores the relationship of the human body to space, often using his own body as his starting point.  His work has been shown throughout the world, in galleries including the Tate in London and the Hermitage in St Petersburg, but is also often on open display, as public art, such as Another Place at Crosby Beach, near Liverpool. As well as works that he is well known for, like the iconic Angel of the North, this lecture will look at some of his earlier and less well-known works, to give an overall view of the development of his work across his whole career, up to the present time. 

The Roaring Twenties was a period of enormous vitality in art and design. Fashionable society was immortalised by portraitists like John Lavery and Cecil Beaton who brilliantly captured the glamour of the age. Leisure, pleasure and the excitement of jazz were portrayed in paintings by Burra and Roberts, while the speed of the city and travel were explored in work by McKnight Kauffer and Nevinson.  Furniture and decoration showed the influence of Cubism, Vorticism and other styles associated with the avant-garde, while events like the discovery of Tutankhamun’s Tomb ushered in an obsession with all things Egyptian and Oriental. This lecture aims to conjure up the energy and originality of the decade and to explore the lives of its leading figures and examples of its most innovative art and design.

Oscar Wilde was one of the great cultural figures of the late-Nineteenth Century: a playwright, novelist, poet, essayist, arbiter of taste, dandy and wit. His epigrams and paradoxes remain as fresh and funny today as they were when he minted them. As a way of examining Wilde's rich and colourful life, Matthew Sturgis (the author of a celebrated new biography of Wilde) will be taking a series of these provocative sayings and placing them in their due context.  

In the early 14th century the Popes were forced by political circumstances to desert their spiritual home in Rome for Avignon in the south of France. They remained there for almost sixty years, enduring what became known as the Babylonish Captivity. As a result Avignon swarmed with Popes, cardinals, merchants and craftsmen, who commissioned and produced some of the finest examples of 14th-century art and architecture. This lecture will focus upon the Palace of the Popes, built largely by Benedict XII and Clement VI and described by Froissart, the late 14th-century historian as “the most beautiful and strongest house in all the world”. It provides the opportunity to study paintings by Italian artists such as Simone Martini and Matteo Giovannetti, who travelled to Avignon to work for the papal court, as well as other works produced for Avignonese patrons but now dispersed amongst far flung collections. The Papacy’s sojourn in Avignon proved disastrous for the authority of the church, but it provoked a fertile exchange of visual ideas which revolutionised art north of the Alps. 

Napoleon’s Empress, Joséphine de Beauharnais, was a passionate gardener, patron and art collector. Her reputation for generosity, charm and gentleness of manner was of enormous value to Napoleon as a counterpart to the otherwise military and legalistic tenor of his regime. This talk will explain the range of her cultural activities, including her acquisition of a large and distinguished collection of paintings – among them by far the most important group of works by an entirely new school of painting – the troubadours (who painted beautifully crafted historical scenes). We’ll also look closely at Malmaison, her chateau near Paris, which she created as a home for her splendid art collection and which was famous throughout Europe for its magnificent gardens containing plants and animals gathered from all over the known world.

The international art market is today dominated by four British auctioneers, their world record prices sensationally reported by the world’s media. But what is it like behind the canvas? How do auction houses function? What goes on behind the scenes and what is required for a successful sale to take place?

With an overview of the rise of two of the main London sale rooms, Sotheby’s and Bonham's - both founded in the 18th century - this lecture, given by an auctioneer with thirty-five years experience in both houses, reveals all.

 In the ferment of the French Revolution, English women's voices are heard in enthusiastisc support or passionate condemnation.   Caught up in its events, some show great courage even as their lives are imperilled.   Others watch from the sidelines.   Among them are writers Helen Maria Williams, Fanny Burney and  Hannah More; high-class courtesan Grace Dalrymple Elliott and  women's rights pioneer Mary Wollstonecraft.   Their stories unfold with comedy and romance, as well as tragedy.

With paintings by artists including Thomas Gainsborough, George Romney, Thomas Rowlandson, Jacques-Louis David,  Elizabeth Vigee le Brun, Louis-Leopold Boilly and Jean-Baptiste Lesueur.  

Brian will take his audience on a journey beginning in Outer Mongolia in the 5th century BC, where the earliest complete rug in the world was discovered in 1947, and then following the eleventh century migrations from Turkmenistan, the cradle of weaving, into the Caucasus, Persia, Afghanistan and Turkmenistan. He will introduce the nomadic tribes of these countries with emphasis on their pre-1900 knotted and woven rugs, carpets and dowry bags. These tribal weavings illustrate the skill of these hardy women who produced exquisite works of woven art, using vegetable dyes and age-old symbolic representation whilst living and travelling in primitive conditions and hostile landscapes.

With the advent of commercialism and chemical dyes, tribal weaving began a swift decline from the 1930s when it virtually ceased to exist in its spontaneous form.

The tribal weavings of the 19th century and earlier represent the pinnacle of achievement and wonderful free expression of the art of the nomadic weaver.

Today, these weavings are highly desirable and collectable works of woven art.

Follow the struggles to clear Victorian London of its most notorious slums like the Devil’s Acre. Sitting on land mostly owned by nearby Westminster Abbey Charles Dickens fulminated that this slum ‘rolled its filthy wavelets up to the very walls’. The lecture tracks its formation, its conditions, and its people – hawkers and beggars who had been drawn to the city from the impoverished countryside. What was the solution? Smashing a road through it didn’t work, nor did vociferous campaigning or the charity of wealthy philanthropists.

The eventual demolition and rebuilding of the area in the 1880s is a fascinating story – housing built then by the Peabody Trust’s renowned architect Henry Derbyshire still stands today. But those beggars and hawkers were replaced by ‘deserving’ tenants. The reformer Octavia Hill championed an alternative approach to the poor which this talk also covers. Often criticised as ‘maternalistic’ this overlooks her prescient understanding of neighbourhood regeneration and her part in founding the National Trust.

Iran - or Persia - has a sophisticated cultural heritage frequently ignored in the headlines.

The main part of the lecture illustrates the development of the spectacular architecture in the mosques and palaces of Iran, with an emphasis on their brilliant tilework and painting, through the Islamic period until the end of the 19th century.

There are mentions of some of Persia’s classic gardens, and the art of book illustration is also included, with beautiful examples from the classic period of Persian miniature painting.

The lecture mentions the geographical and political background, explains how the Shi'a form of Islam originated and became the ruling creed in the late 20th century Iran of Ayatollah Khomeini, and thus puts the contemporary situation in the context of the country's fascinating and significant cultural history.

In 1687, Sir Hans joined the retinue of the duke of Albermarle, the new Governor of Jamaica, as his physician. Due to the duke drinking himself to death, Sloane was only in the West Indies for 16 months, however in that time he amassed a collection of objects and information that formed the basis of his Voyage to Jamaica  which was later published in two parts, once he had established himself as a physician and supporter of the sciences (most notably through his relationship with Chelsea Physic Garden and his presidency of the Royal Society). Through the Voyage to Jamaica text, illustrations and objects associated with it, discover a now largely lost world

The extraordinarily rich hoard largely of gold and garnets found at Sutton Hoo dates to the early C7th and tells us a great deal about the wealth of the country at the time, inter-action with other cultures and status within Anglo-Saxon society. What we cannot yet prove is who was buried within the ship in the mound although the popular theory is that it was King Readwald of East Anglia. This lecture uses images of the treasures found as well as Old English poetry to discuss kingship and power in Anglo-Saxon England.

Antiques Roadshow Specialist Marc Allum looks at the history, philosophy and design of chairs through the millennia, with a fascinating insight into how advances in technology, materials and cultural change have influenced an item we generally take for granted.

We take it for granted that we are free to enjoy whatever appeals to us. But this hasn’t always been the case. Before the 18th century, many of life’s pleasures had to be justified on account of their moral value. This illustrated talk will explain how it was not until the mid-18th century that it became acceptable to enjoy the pleasures of life for their own sake, in luxury goods and otherwise - sometimes to scandalous effect. It will focus on the golden age of French art and interiors, exploring how new sensibilities among the Parisian nobility required a new style of living, a development that gave rise to some of the most delicious and fanciful pieces of furniture and porcelain ever made.

By the latter half of the 1700s British artists were making their mark and if they wanted to make money then portraiture was the genre to focus on. The two most successful portrait painters of the day were Sir Joshua Reynolds and Thomas Gainsborough. Both worked in very different styles which reflected different modes of flattery as well as fashionable aspects of 18th century society and culture. The other key ‘portrait’ painter we will look at is George Stubbs, who did not paint portraits of people but animals – he was the horse painter par excellence who showed us, with scientific exactitude, that animals could be a worthy subject for art.

Covent Garden was the first great square in London: an Italianate ‘piazza’ with colonnaded arcades and a Palladian church by Inigo Jones.  Pepys visited Covent Garden in the 17th century, and in the 18th Handel, Hogarth and Garrick were celebrated here.  Voltaire lived in Covent Garden yards from where Boswell first met Dr Johnson and where J.M.W. Turner was born.  In the 19th century, the famous opera house burned down (twice!). Over the centuries, Covent Garden has embodied all that is most characteristic of British cultural life: a state of grace which - as Bernard Shaw's Eliza Doolittle might have put it - must at times have seemed ‘not bloody likely!'

The light-filled canvases of Impressionist painter Berthe Morisot capture the pleasures of modernity: fashionable ballgowns, afternoons spent boating on a lake, children playing. Yet, her contemporaries perceived a connection with the eighteenth century. Renoir declared her ‘the last elegant and ‘feminine’ artist that we have had since Fragonard.’ Surveying the 1896 posthumous retrospective of her oeuvre, Paul Girard declared ‘it is the eighteenth century modernised.’ Eighteenth-century art fell from favour following the French Revolution, but was rediscovered in the mid-nineteenth century by collectors including Louis La Caze and Hippolyte Walferdin. Morisot copied works by Boucher; she experimented with red chalk, a technique closely associated with Rococo drawings; she also admired the English painters Gainsborough, Reynolds and Romney, whose work she first encountered on honeymoon in the Isle of Wight and London. This lecture traces Morisot’s engagement with eighteenth-century art and culture, and highlights what set her work apart from that of her predecessors.

Widely known for his outlandish appearances dressed as his feminine alter ego, Claire, Grayson Perry is now a core part of the art establishment. A Turner Prize winner, Royal Academician, popular broadcaster and colourful character. He’s possibly one of the world’s best known contemporary artists. His works of ceramics, textiles, tapestries and prints are highly sought after. Often controversial, he tackles difficult subjects in a poignant yet witty way and holds a mirror up to society. This talk will examine Grayson Perry’s work, his exciting and thought-provoking exhibitions, and the unique character inside the flamboyant frocks.

Louis Comfort Tiffany was America's foremost exponent of Art Nouveau. Jeweller, painter, silver and furniture maker and interior designer he is most famous for his richly decorated stained glass windows, his iridescent 'Favrile'  glass and his sumptuous lamps including the Dragonfly and Wisteria examples which consistently reach record prices at auction. Many of the designs for the lamps and mosaics were the creations of Clara Driscoll and her team of the 'Tiffany girls' whose artistic contributions have only come to light in recent years. This talk looks at all aspects of his life and career ending with his reappraisal  following the disastrous fire at his Long Island country mansion.

London’s sumptuous Victorian and Edwardian Department stores changed the capital – and changed its women. Shoppers of every rank were lavishly wooed, seduced and often undone by the temptations laid out before them in these new ‘cathedrals of desire’. The rise of consumerism and the ‘shopping woman’ is explored through the cautionary tale of Heather Firbank, Edwardian debutante and fashion victim, whose collection of elaborately feathered hats reside today with the V&A.  

The discovery of the grave of King Richard III in Leicester in 2013 raised an army of , fascinating questions. The severe scoliosis exhibited by the last Plantagenet King’s skeleton revealed that the twisted physique of Shakespeare’s ‘Black Legend’ did have at least some basis in fact. But how could such a diminutive person, suffering from a significant spinal condition, have been skilled in the knightly fighting arts? How could he have worn full armour and fought in three major battles? More importantly for the art enthusiast, what would his armour have looked like, and how might it have been used to disguise the King’s condition and present him as a powerful warrior? And in the case of a king whose royal legitimacy was doubted by many people, how were the visual trappings of knightly kingship used to solidify his claim? Here we encounter the function of princely armour of the late medieval period as an expressive art-form, designed to radiate messages, justifications, proof in fact of the wearer’s right to rule as a king- God’s chosen representative and a wielder of divine power on Earth.    

The frescoes by Giotto covering the walls of the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua constitute one of the most important picture cycles in the history of art, and represent a major turning point in Western painting. Why was this? The lecture examines what exactly makes Giotto’s art so innovative using examples taken from the chapel and comparing them to similar scenes depicted by artists working within the previously predominant Byzantine tradition. It traces the history of the building and its patron, Enrico Scrovegni, and takes the audience through each of the three cycles contained within: The Life of Joachim and Anna, The Life of the Virgin and The Life of Christ. Each of the illustrated examples is described in detail and encourages the audience to look at familiar Biblical scenes in a new light, thanks to Giotto’s emphasis on a new humanistic approach.

For thousands of years the mystery of the Golden Section has inspired thinkers from all disciplines - artists and architects, mathematicians and musicians. Discover the secrets of its sacred geometry and beauty within creations from the classical to contemporary.

This talk combines the lives of the Astors, the Sackville Wests and the Rothschilds and their family history with the story of the gardens they have all created, despite their very different backgrounds, here in the English countryside.

American pop artist Roy Lichtenstein (1923-1997) has captivated the art world since his debut in the 1960s. His paintings, however, remain controversial: executed in a style previously reserved for advertising and comic books, Lichtenstein’s pieces can appear simplistic, tongue in cheek and imitative. And yet the meticulous and monumental works have become ubiquitous and influential. This talk discusses why Lichtenstein’s works are more complex than they appear – a perspective that Kate has gained after half a decade of working for the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation and closely examining Lichtenstein’s paintings, sculptures, tapestries and drawings.

Can a single year adequately encapsulate an artistic environment in British art history?

Set against the backdrop of the 1935 Silver Jubilee Celebrations for King George V. The Art of 1935 explores that year’s many aspects of decorative and fine art, demonstrating how these artistic forms reflected the period in a fitting and cohesive manner.  The lecture examines a range of art forms, including some work by the celebrated British portraits photographer Cecil Beaton and the Art Deco artist Tamara de Lempicka. We consider magazine, poster and Penguin paperback book design, as well as looking at that’s period architecture, fashion, jewellery, locomotive design and Silver Jubilee memorabilia.

This lecture will examine the most famous works of art that were stolen. What makes the thefts so intriguing and discuss whether the notoriety of being a stolen work of art increases or decreases the value of the work. Some examples of stolen art that we will discuss include Edvard Munch’s The Scream and the most famous artwork of all time – Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Edvard_Munch_-_The_Scream_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg

Colour, line, and a new approach to space and the picture plane are just some of the influences Japanese art had on painting in the latter half of the 19th century. The influx of Japanese prints into Europe coincided with the industrialisation of art materials. New, and often more intense colours were increasingly available at affordable prices. They came in tubes, which made painting outdoors easier as well as changing age-old studio practices. In addition, the printmakers from Japan took every day contemporary life as their subjects. Baudelaire had said that artists should take on contemporary life in their art, and the more radical artists of the day took on the challenge. We will look at many Japanese prints and tease out the influences on the principal Impressionist and Post-Impressionist painters.

It is possible to ‘read’ the passage of time, of movements, cultures and peoples in the architecture and art forms evident in many of our older English country churches. This lecture takes us from the pre-Christian era, through the arrival of the Romans and onwards to the sixteenth century and the epoch changing Tudors. Simple indicators are given how to identify churches with Roman and Saxon origins. The great flowering of Romanesque and gothic architecture that followed the invasion of the Normans in the eleventh century are explained with illustrated examples. Onwards into the high Middle Ages and the tumultuous changes of the Reformation we can see the architectural and structural evidence of a period of great change.

The Australian indigenous people possess probably the oldest continuous culture on our planet. From the extraordinary early rock and cave art to the modern oil painting, these artists are great storytellers, passing their mystic culture and sense of the sacred nature of the landscape down the generations. This talk investigates the early beginnings of this fascinating art and traces its development to the modern day where it is exhibited in international galleries and sells for high prices on the world art market.

L.S. Lowry is one of Britain’s most popular artists - yet his very familiarity has hindered a proper understanding of his extraordinary life and work. He painted not only the mill towns and cities of the industrial north-west for which he is so famous but also many soulful landscapes and masterly seascapes which are, perhaps, his most powerful works. He is one of the great painters of the human condition, and his work parallels the achievement of T.S. Eliot and Van Gogh.

Can such claims be justified? Join us to find out

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert were first cousins and born just three months apart in 1819.  Their shared enthusiasm for art and music endured throughout the twenty-two years of their marriage and they demonstrated their love through the works of art and jewellery they gave each other for birthdays, Christmases and anniversaries.

They understood and appreciated sculpture more than any of their predecessors since Charles I. They furnished and extended Buckingham Palace, made significant changes to Windsor Castle and commissioned two other royal residences, Balmoral, and Osborne – the single most important example of their shared taste. Theirs was a partnership of patronage by a monarch and her consort which is unique in the history of the British monarchy.

Gabriele d'Annunzio was a great writer -'the best Italian poet since Dante' was how he described himself. He was also a serial seducer, a spendthrift who was constantly on the run from the bailiffs and a political activist whose nationalist-militarist views foreshadowed Fascism. 

In September 1919 he marched into Fiume, a harbour-city in Croatia, at the head of three hundred deserters from the Italian army, and made himself the city's dictator, declaring that he had resolved to create art, not from words but from human lives.

Zoom lecture 2pm  - Invites will be sent by email

Please let us know if you have not received an email - more details in Oct newsletter link in the "News" section of website

https://mailchi.mp/0d5241e01009/zoom-lecture-wednesday-september-16th-at-2pm?e=7df9538940

Les Parisiennes is a story about women’s lives during the dark years of Nazi occupation and beyond. The lecture starts with a magnificent circus ball in the grounds of Versailles and ends with Christian Dior’s lavish new look in 1947.

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Tim Stimson was a professional painter and ceramicist, before returning to university to study literature and the history of art, and then training to teach adults. For the last 20 years he has been a freelance cultural and art historian, specializing in 17th and 19th Century art and society. He now lectures for the universities of Cambridge, Nottingham and Hull; the WEA, the Art Fund and NADFAS and presents residential study courses in Britain and Europe.

Jane is a freelance lecturer who runs her own art tours company, specialising in cultural visits. She speaks several foreign languages and has translated a number of works of 19th century Russian literature for Penguin Books and Oxford University Press. She has a BA in Russian Studies and an MA in Byzantine Studies.

Dr. Suzanne Fagence Cooper was educated at Merton College, Oxford, Christie's Education and the Courtald Institute before becoming the Victoria & Albert Museum Research Fellow at Buckinghamshire New University in 1999. Her involvement with the V&A dates back to 1996, when she was appointed curator, and in 2001 she co-curated the V&A's major exhibition 'The Victorian Vision.' Suzanne's published work includes the book Victorian Women (V&A Publications, 2001) and two essays for the book that supported the exhibition 'The Victorian Vision' in 2002. Her book Pre-Raphaelite Art in the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A Publications, 2003) brought together objects normally dispersed around the museum to examine the relationship between the V&A and this group of Victorian artists. Her renowned knowledge of Victorian art and culture has led to numerous broadcast opportunities. She has been interviewed for Radio 4, the BBC World Service, and the television programme Victorians Roadshow (BBC2), and has worked as a consultant for the programmes What the Victorians Did for Us, (BBC2), presented by Adam Hart-Davis, and Simon Schama's series History of Britain (BBC2). She has also given many public lectures, including regularly on Cunard's Queen Mary II, as part of the Oxford University Discovery programme (2004).