The Maya lived in Central America from approximately 1000 BC until 1528 AD, when they were conquered by the Spaniards.  The peak of their civilisation was between 300 and 900 AD, during which time they built enormous monuments, produced jade and ceramic items of great beauty, and developed a calendar that was far more advanced than anything in Europe at the time.  They had an advanced understanding of mathematics and astronomy and developed a hieroglyphic script that scholars are now beginning to decipher, allowing us to understand their achievements much more fully than hitherto.

Duncan Pring is the author of many articles on Mayan civilisation.

Image: Mayan pyramid in Palenque, Mexico.  Public domain

George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, was the favourite of King James VI & I and subsequently Chief Minister to King Charles I.  He was a beauty, and he surrounded himself with beautiful things.  He enjoyed exquisite clothes and was a superb dancer.  He was a collector of old masters, but also a patron, commissioning boldly innovative portraits of himself from Van Honthorst, Van Dyck and Peter Paul Rubens.  He was not however universally popular, and died in 1628 at the hands of an assassin.

Lucy Hughes-Hallett is an author and Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.  She won the 1925 Plutarch Award for Biography of the Year for her book The Scalegoat: The Brilliant Brief Life of the Duke of Buckingham.

Equestrian Portrait of the Duke of Buckingham (1625) by Peter Paul Rubens, public domain

In contrast to Henry Moore's popular drawings depicting Londoners sheltering from the Blitz, his drawings as a war artist of 'Britain's underground army', the miners of Wheldale colliery, are less well-known. From Moore's return to his childhood home and the challenges associated with 'drawing in the dark', to the influence of the project on the sculptor’s later work, this talk, based on Chris Owen’s book, Drawing in the Dark: Henry Moore’s Coalmining Commission’, will provide new insights into Moore’s life and artistic process. It will also reveal the back-breaking labour endured by nearly 3/4 million miners, as they made their vital contribution to Britain’s war effort.

Chris Owen is an art historian specialising in British art from 1750 onward. His book, Drawing in the Dark: Henry Moore’s Coalmining Commission was published by Lund Humphries in 2022.

Pit Boys at Pit Head (1942)) by Henry Moore.  Photo © Neil Theasby (2012), licenced for reuse under CC BY-SA 2.0.

A key element in the birth of European Expressionism is the story of an eclectic circle of friends and artistic colleagues known as The Blue Rider. In the early 20th century they rallied around artists Wassily Kandinsky and Gabriele Münter to form what they called 'a union of various countries to serve one purpose - to transform modern art.' They created bold, bright experiments in the emotional power of colour at a time of political and social upheaval. Cindy Polemis looks at these friendships that made modern art.

Cindy Polemis is an art historian, independent lecturer and an official art guide at Tate Britain and Tate Modern.

Although glass has been made for millennia, the 1960s saw a revolution in the way it was made, opening it up to artists across the world and allowing glass to be used as a medium for art.  In this lecture Mark will examine the work  of six key glass artists from the US and the UK, including Dale Chihuly, Sam Herman and Peter Layton.

Mark Hill has published over 15 books on emerging specialist subjects in decorative arts.  He frequently appears as a 'miscellaneous' expert on the BBC's 'Antiques Roadshow'.

Chandelier in the Rotunda of the V&A Museum by Dale Chihuly (2001).  Photo credit: Rod Allday (2009), licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

To mark the 250th anniversary of the American Declaration of Independence, this lecture traces the history of the USA through 25 iconic American works of art, including Grant Wood's 'American Gothic', Dorothea Lange's 'Migrant Mother' and Edward Hopper's 'Nighthawks'.

Anne-Marie Mancio is a trained artist, an exhibition curator, a writer and an Arts Society accredited lecturer.  She is also a Tour Director for ACE Cultural Tours. 

American Gothic (1930) by Grant Wood, public domain

Throughout its 300 year history, Christmas at Blenheim Palace has always been a time of celebration. The 7th Duke and Duchess followed the lead of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in making Christmas a family time and a time to give gifts to those who were in their employ. The traditions established by John and Frances the 7th Duke and Duchess are in many ways still continued to this day. 

This talk looks at how Christmas has been celebrated over the years and how each November, the Palace and its grounds are transformed into a Christmas feast for the eyes. 

Antonia Keaney

Antonia joined Blenheim Palace in 2008 as a member of the Education Team, later becoming the Palace’s Social Historian and Researcher. Both roles have involved her curating or co-curating a number of Palace exhibitions including A Passion for Fashion – 300 Years of Blenheim Style upon which her recent book is based.   Antonia’s latest project has been to produce a series of podcasts - Behind the Scenes at Blenheim Palace - available on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/18RwCp7lJVGaweiLYbG8m8 

An experienced public speaker, both virtually and in person, Antonia has delivered a ‘Conversation’ at Cumberland Lodge, Windsor, been ‘In Conversation’ with fashion editor Caroline Issa, designer Stephen Jones and TV and radio presenter, Sue Perkins, and has participated in both the Oxford Literary Festival where she presented her children’s book and more recently at Cheltenham where she chaired a discussion between authors Emma Soames and Rachel Trethewey on their respective Churchill related books.   Antonia has been a guest on Radio 4’s Saturday Live with the Reverend Richard Coles and has made various TV appearances including Channel 5’s The Cotswolds with Pam Ayres.    

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Join award winning cartoonist Harry Venning as he escorts you through the peaks and pitfalls of his profession, supported by visual and verbal contributions from such luminaries as Matt Groening, Dr.Seuss, Charles M. Schulz and Gary Larson. Entertaining and Informative in equal measure, the topics covered include rejection, procrastination, deadlines, artificial intelligence, professional envy, censorship, and the cartoon community's response to the Charlie Hebdo murders of 2015. Harry will also be drawing live on an A1 flip chart, the images filmed and projected onto screen for everyone to clearly see.

Harry Venning

Harry Venning is a cartoonist, comedy writer and performer based in Brighton. Harry’s cartoons have appeared in publications as diverse as Mathematics Today, Radio Times, Music Teacher and The Stage. For twenty five years he provided The Guardian with the weekly strip cartoon Clare In The Community, about an unaware and empathy free social worker. In 2004 he developed Clare In The Community into a successful BBC Radio 4 sitcom starring Sally Philipps which ran for twelve series. When not at a desk , Harry tours his cartoon workshop around schools, theatres, arts centres, cruise ships and festivals. He is an accredited lecturer with the UK Arts Society, an Honorary Fellow of the English/Creative Writing departments of Aberystwyth University, resident cartoonist with the Blue Hat team building organisation, UK Social Workers Union honorary ambassador, winner of a Sony Radio Award for Comedy and a former UK Strip Cartoonist Of The Year. He cannot draw hands or horses.

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Unlike the widely publicised looting of Jewish collections by the Nazis during the Second World War, the wholesale dispersal of Russia’s cultural heritage during the inter-war period is rarely discussed. This talk looks at the process by which the Russian Revolutionary authorities sold off vast quantities of their country’s valuable patrimony following the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 in order to raise valuable hard currency. Sometimes referred to as the conversion of “Treasures into Tractors,” the process effectively confiscated and sold off the contents of Russia’s churches, libraries, monasteries, museums and aristocratic private collections, thereby dispersing much of the country’s cultural treasures to the far corners of the world. Many nations took advantage of these sales between 1918 and 1938, most notably the USA where, with the help of the international art trade, many of the more important works went on to form the basis of the Washington National Gallery and the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon. What happened to all those Fabergé eggs and the imperial crown jewels, the Raphaels and Botticellis? This talk lifts the lid on the extraordinary events that unfolded after the Revolution.

Tom Flynn

Dr Tom Flynn is a UK-based art historian, writer and art consultant. He holds a First Class Honours degree in Art History from the University of Sussex, a Masters in Design History from the Royal College of Art and a doctorate from the University of Sussex. His interests include contemporary art; sculpture history; museology and the history of  museums; art crime; issues in cultural heritage; and the historical development and professional practice of the European art markets.   He is Senior Lecturer at Christie’s Education, Adjunct Professor at Richmond, the American International University in London, visiting Senior Lecturer at Kingston School of Art, and teaches at a number of other UK and European universities. He taught for many years on the summer Post-Graduate Certificate in Art Crime and Cultural Heritage Protection Studies at the Association for Research into Crimes Against Art (ARCA) in Amelia, Umbria, Italy. A former Henry Moore Foundation post-doctoral research fellow at the University of Sussex, he has written for numerous international art publications and is the author of The Body in Sculpture (Everyman Art Library, 1998), and co-editor (with Dr Tim Barringer) of Colonialism and the Object: Empire, Material Culture and the Museum (Routledge, 1997). He has written monographs on a number of British contemporary sculptors, including Sean Henry, Terence Coventry and Charlotte Meyer.

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In 1925, 16 million visitors witnessed PARIS’S EXPO - The International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts. What would we have seen in this landmark exhibition, if we had been one of those visitors? What drew the Crowds? And how did this seminal exhibition play a fundamental role in giving rise to a new international and truly GLOBAL style that we have come to know as ART DECO? 

Over a six month period, visitors were treated to 15,000 exhibits from 20+ different contributing nations INCLUDING Britain, Italy, Spain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Japan. These nations also built substantial pavilions to illustrate their ideas of modern architecture and to house the various exhibits.  We will study some of these exhibits which will include furniture by Emile-Jacques Rulhmann; glassware by René Lalique; modern period sculpture by François Pompon and paintings by the artist JEAN DUPAS. 

We will also spend some time focusing on the stately Grand Salon of the Hotel du Collectionneur that was a principal feature at this 1925 exhibition and showcased stunning examples of objets d’art, furniture, crystal and fine art. 

Why was the United States was not represented by its own Pavilion, despite embracing ART DECO for its majestic skyscrapers of the late 1920s and early 1930s? And yet, there was a Soviet Pavillion? We will have answers to these questions and many more. We will also learn about the immediate global appeal of all things ART DECO as a result of this expo. Its impact for future generations has been profound. 100 years on – the bold art deco still very much alive and around, as evident by recent hotel, club and house restorations and refurbishments. We will share some of these contemporary reburbishments in this talk. Come and join the Art Deco celebrations and learn about the 1925 PARIS EXPO.

Pamela Campbell-Johnston

MA Hons Art History, St Andrew's University. 
Over 30 years of lecturing experience to undergraduates, adult groups, and to Friends and Patrons of the Royal Academy of Arts as part of the RA’s Adult Education Department.
Also conducted numerous guided tours, residential trips and focused gallery talks on individual works of art. Specialises in British Domestic Architecture and Modern British Art - with a particular love for the 1920s and 1930s. A permanent career at Royal Academy of Arts for 12 years.

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Synthesising recent research into the nature of human creativity and current concerns about the impact of machine learning on originality, this very topical lecture focuses on how original thought and innovation are affected by the growing application of Artificial Intelligence across all academic disciplines. Justin considers how AI offers great advantages as a tool in scientific and medical research, for social scientists, and also perhaps for many working in the humanities, with exciting applications in painting, sculpture, architecture, video gaming and film. It concludes with a consideration as to whether AI and machine learning are making humans redundant in the creative process.

Justin Reay

After officer service in the Royal Navy Justin had a long career in business management. He became Chief Executive of a healthcare company and then Director of Studies for a Japanese executive college in Oxford and Washington DC. He was one of the earliest consultants in knowledge management and e-learning, advising the UK Government, until he retired from business in 2000. Justin then studied the History of Art and Architecture at Oxford, and later studied Islamic art at Oxford and classical culture with the university of Athens. While researching for a doctorate in naval history, Justin was invited to join the Bodleian Library as a senior academic manager, advising researchers and graduate students and editing manuscripts in the Bodleian's collections. He is a published historian. A qualified teacher, he is a tutor in the History of Art and Architecture and classical studies for independent colleges at Oxford and for private graduate students. He is a member of the AI & Arts Interest Group at the Alan Turing Institute, and is currently writing a university preparation course on the history of innovation and the impact of Artificial Intelligence on human creativity. A Fellow of two learned societies, and a member of the Walpole Society and the Arts Society Cheltenham.

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This lecture celebrates the 400th Anniversary of Charles I’s accession to the throne in 1625. Charles I’s obsession for collecting works of art began when as a 22-year-old prince he travelled to Spain and saw the magnificent collection of the Spanish king, Philip IV.  On becoming King in 1625 Charles purchased the fabulous collection of the Gonzaga Dukes of Mantua which included works by Titian, Raphael and Andrea Mantegna’s astonishing series of paintings “The Triumphs of Caesar”.  Charles engaged Peter Paul Rubens to paint the ceiling of the Banqueting House in Whitehall and he appointed Anthony van Dyck as his Court Artist.  By the end of his reign Charles had amassed over 2000 works of art but in doing so he had bankrupted England and alienated his people.  His life ended on the scaffold in 1649 and most of the collection was sold in what was known as “The Commonwealth Sale” in 1650. While many works were retrieved by Charles 2nd during the Restoration others now hang in the great Art Galleries of Europe.

Barbara Askew

Historian and London Blue Badge Guide since 1988. Lecturer, Examiner and Course Director on Blue Badge Guide Training Courses and an acknowledged expert on Royalty and Windsor Castle. The only Blue Badge Guide accredited to guide the Albert Memorial. Offers guided visits and walking tours linked to her lectures.

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The medieval goldsmith worked using the most precious metals - gold and silver - embellishing his work further with the addition of precious stones, engraved gems and enamelling. This lecture looks at the nature of the craft in both the Byzantine East and the Latin West during the Middle Ages. We discuss the materials used and their provenance; the various techniques involved in obtaining and working gold and silver ; the difference between champlevé, cloisonné and basse-taille enamelling; the organisation of the guilds; the role of the secular and the monastic workshops in creating these precious objects and in spreading medieval culture in general.   

Jane Angelini

Jane is a freelance lecturer for The Arts Society and other arts organisations. 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. She created St James’s Art Tours in 1998 and ran it successfully for almost twenty five years before closing the travel company in 2022. She and has travelled extensively and now offers online armchair travel talks over the winter months. She and her husband run an art gallery in St James’s, Piccadilly, which specialises in 20th century art. Most of her bookings are for special interest days.

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Strangers arriving in Helsinki are often surprised by its architecture, which is at once familiar yet strange; familiar in that it seems to recall the elegant lines of Rennie Mackintosh perhaps, yet strangely populated by unusual faces and creatures, mythical characters from Finland’s legends and her national epic, the Kalevala. This 19th century work of literature full of heroic tales dating back to the mists of time greatly inspired Jean Sibelius to compose some of his finest music, and artists such as Akseli Gallen-Kallela to paint some remarkable works.

Brian Healey

A senior modern languages teacher in an independent grammar school for many years, I have also enjoyed a successful parallel career since the 1980s as a professional artist and interior designer. Since 2006 I have been regularly appointed to a number of prestigious ocean and river cruise lines, either as resident artist, guest lecturer on art history or as destination speaker for more than forty countries. Most recently this work has successfully extended to art guiding through important towns and museums in France, Belgium, Holland and Spain. 

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Uzbekistan in the heart of Central Asia boasts glittering mosques, madrassahs and minarets in the Silk Road cities of Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva. These contrast wonderfully with the brutalist Soviet buildings of Tashkent, Urgench and Nukus. This lecture is an overview of the country, and a primer for anyone thinking of visiting. We explore the Savitsky Museum in Nukus, with the second largest collection of Russian Avante Garde Art, collected at a time when these artistic styles were banned by the state. We explore the revival of Islamic miniature painting in Bukhara and the resurgence of handicrafts all over the country that ceased during the 1930s and the Soviet drive to make everything factory-based. Embroidered suzanis from Nurata, stunning ceramics from Rishton, and the production of silk and velvet in Margilan. Plus, what are the ways that tourism is helping and hindering the production of high-quality handicrafts?  

Chris Aslan

Chris Aslan was born in Turkey (hence the name Aslan) and spent his childhood there and in war-torn Beirut. After school, Chris spent two years at sea before studying Media and journalism at Leicester University. He then moved to Khiva, a desert oasis in Uzbekistan, establishing a UNESCO workshop reviving fifteenth century carpet designs and embroideries, and becoming the largest non-government employer in town. He was kicked out as part of an anti-Western purge, and took a year in Cambridge to write A Carpet Ride to Khiva. Chris then spent several years in the Pamirs mountains of Tajikistan, training yak herders to comb their yaks for their cashmere-like down. Next came a couple more years in Kyrgyzstan living in the world’s largest natural walnut forest and establishing a wood-carving workshop.

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Since its foundation in 1925, Faber and Faber has built a reputation as one of London’s most important literary publishing houses. Part of that relates to the editorial team that Geoffrey Faber and his successors built around them - TS Eliot was famously an early recruit - but a large part is also due to the firm’s insistence on good design and illustration. This lecture traces the history of Faber and Faber through its illustrations, covers and designs. Early years brought innovations like the Ariel Poems – single poems, beautifully illustrated, sold in their own envelopes. In the 1950s and 1960s, there was an emphasis on typography, led by the firm’s art director Berthold Wolpe; his Albertus font is still used on City of London road signs. In the 1980s, the firm started its association with Pentagram, responsible for the ff logo. Along the way, it has employed some of our most celebrated artists as cover illustrators – from Rex Whistler and Barnett Freedman to Peter Blake and Damien Hirst. Slides will range from book covers, advertisements and photos of key individuals, to illustrations of the concepts behind the designs. The talk will also be peppered with personal insight and anecdote. Faber and Faber is the last of the great publishing houses to remain independent. As the grandson of its founder, I grew up steeped in its books. I was managing director for four years and I remain on the board. I am passionate about the firm’s success, and intensely proud of my association with it. 

Toby Faber

Toby is an experienced lecturer and public speaker who has been accredited by The Arts Society since 2012. His career began with Natural Sciences at Cambridge and has been through investment banking, management consulting and five years as managing director of the publishing company founded by his grandfather, Faber and Faber, where he remains on the board. He is also non-executive Chairman of its sister company, Faber Music and a director of Liverpool University Press.

Toby has written three narrative histories: Stradivarius – Five Violins, One Cello and a Genius; Fabergé's Eggs; and Faber & Faber – The Untold Story, as well as a novel, Close to the Edge. Of these, only the obvious one is published by the family firm.

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Every year the Royal Opera House puts on a season of Christmas shows: the Royal Ballet in Nutcracker and Cinderella, the Royal Opera in any piece with a folk tale theme, and either genre if it features snow. How do we cope with all those magic coaches and snow bags? Not to say 17 Sugar Plums, 12 Princes, and the entire Lower Ballet School backstage?  This talk takes you into the wings, down the traps and under the stage as our legendary Christmas Tree is moved on to its lift. Based on interviews and live video clips, it is updated every year. 

Sarah Lenton

Sarah Lenton has spent her working life in the theatre: her principal employers are the Royal Opera House, English National Opera, Glyndebourne Festival Opera and Garsington Opera. She writes programme articles, radio and play scripts, gives lectures on the operas and ballets in the rep. and broadcasts regularly for BBC Radios 3 and 4. She is also a cartoonist. 

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The long British tradition of political satire is coming to the fore again as a General Election approaches - May 2024 at the latest. At the root of that tradition is William Hogarth’s Election Entertainment series of prints from the 1750s. His ruthless exposure of electoral corruption and hypocrisy sets the stage for later generations of satirists including James Gillray, Private Eye and today’s digital artist Cold War Steve. We will look closely at the Election series, explain Hogarth’s many jokes and references and reveal some themes with surprising topical relevance, from voter identification to the politics of immigration.

Rupert Dickens

Rupert Dickens is an art historian based in south London with a special interest in Dutch and Flemish 16th and 17th century painting. He works at the Wallace Collection as a guide conducting public and private tours and lecturing on aspects of the collection. Rupert is also a tour director for a Cambridge-based company accompanying groups on art-themed tours to the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Austria and Italy. He has lectured to large audiences on subjects as diverse as the game of chess in art and Madame de Pompadour’s artistic patronage in 18th century France. He studied art history at Birkbeck College before undertaking a Masters in Dutch Golden Age Studies at University College London. Before that Rupert had a 26-year career as a BBC journalist ending as an editor in radio news. 

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The Stirling Prize has celebrated the very best contemporary buildings since 1996. Some winners, such as Norman Foster’s Gherkin, of 2004, have become enormously successful and appreciated by the wider public. Others have proved harder to love. This entertaining lecture looks at some of the hits, some of the misses, and several buildings that arguably should have won, but didn’t.

Brian Stater

Brian Stater lectured at University College London for 25 years, retiring in 2021 as a Senior Teaching Fellow. His principal academic interest lay in the appreciation of architecture and he has a lifelong enthusiasm for photography. He therefore offers lectures to The Arts Society on each of these subjects.

He has written on architecture for a wide range of publications and an exhibition of his own photographs was held at UCL. He is a member of the Association of Historical and Fine Art Photography and he works with a pre-War Leica camera, as used by his great hero, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and many others.

Brian is an engaging and amusing speaker who seeks to entertain as well as inform his audience.

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From the end of the 17th century, French taste was supreme.  So how lucky was it that a wave of skilled Huguenot craftsmen fled to London, escaping persecution in Catholic France! Bringing advanced skills and innovative techniques in silk weaving, and as goldsmiths, clockmakers and in many other fields, they had no problem in attracting influential patronage from those who drove fashion - royalty and the aristocracy.  This lecture examines the silk weaving trade in depth - the merchants, the designers, mercers, dyers and throwsters, the master weavers and the journeyman weavers, and explains the role this trade and these luxurious garments played in raising English style and elegance to a level deemed superior to that of France by the mid-18th century. 

Sue Jackson 

Originally in academic art and design publishing, Sue is also a Fellow of the Huguenot Society, a Freeman of the City of London, a tutor at the City Literary Institute and a Blue Badge guide, conducting a variety of walks and visits.  I am also happy to offer virtual tours.

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The story of Roland Penrose, British Surrealist artist and biographer of Picasso and Lee Miller, the American Surrealist photographer, who shot fashion and combat with equal talent as seen through the eyes of their son Antony Penrose, who is also their biographer. We look at how their early lives formed their motivations and how they strove to use art to make the world a better place. The last decades of their life together were at Farley Farm, their home in Sussex which was frequented by many prominent Surrealist and Modern artists. • Contains some war time images which may be disturbing. 

Anthony Penrose

For the past 30 years has conserved and disseminated the work of his parents, Lee Miller and Roland Penrose. He is the director of The Lee Miller Archives and The Penrose Collection at Farley Farm House in Sussex and has seen his parents' work featured in major exhibitions at the V&A, National Portrait Gallery, Manchester Art Gallery, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art and the Whitworth. He has lectured at museums and universities around the world, and made documentaries for television. Publications include The Lives of Lee Miller, Lee Miller's War (editor), The Angel and the Fiend, The Home of the Surrealists, Roland Penrose the Friendly Surrealist and The Boy Who Bit Picasso.

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In 1882 Gertrude Jekyll wrote a short but seminal article in The Garden in which she urged the readers to “remember that in a garden we are painting a picture”.  As an accomplished watercolour artist, Miss Jekyll was familiar with the principles of using colours, but she felt that in gardens these principles “had been greatly neglected”.  This talk looks at how to apply these principles in designing a border, but it also looks at the ways in which a border is different from a painting.  However, it goes further than this and looks at how contemporary work of the likes of Turner, Monet, Rothko, Jackson Pollack evolved in parallel with ideas about what a garden or border should look like.

Timothy Walker 

From 1988 to 2014 I was the Director of the University of Oxford Botanic Garden.  Botanic gardens are often described as living museums, and garden curators lecture about them in the same way as museum curators talk about their collections. Gardens are often thought of a place where science and art meet on equal terms and my lectures often investigate this relationship.  Since 2014 I have been a college lecturer and tutor in Botany and Plant Conservation at Somerville College Oxford. 

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After a painting purporting to be a work by Leonardo da Vinci sold for the staggering sum of $450.3 million dollars at an auction in New York, the world looked aghast at the art market and wondered whether it was definitively out of control. The case of the Salvator Mundi, as the painting is known, was made all the more extraordinary since experts in Leonardo’s work were divided as to its true authorship. Was it really a work by Leonardo, or was it created by his studio assistants with only minimal involvement by the master? The international art market now frequently sees breathtaking prices paid for works of art by the world’s most important painters and sculptors: $300 million for a painting by Gauguin, $250 million for a painting by Cézanne, $200 million for a Jackson Pollock ‘drip’ painting, $300 million for a work by the Abstract Expressionist painter Willem de Kooning, and even $120,000 for a banana duct-taped to a gallery wall. How can a single, humble banana be worth $120,000? How do these crazy prices come about? Who is buying these works? This lecture explores the dizzying prices paid for ‘blue-chip’ works of art and throws light on the secretive mechanisms and confidential ‘behind-the-scenes’ deals that help bring them about. To what extent might money-laundering be involved? Are they encouraging fakes and forgeries? Do they signify a shift in power and influence from West to East, from Europe to Asia and the Middle East, from the values of Old World connoisseurship to those of the globalised world of high finance.

Dr Tom Flynn

is a UK-based art historian, writer and art consultant. He holds a First Class Honours degree in Art History from the University of Sussex, a Masters in Design History from the Royal College of Art and a doctorate from the University of Sussex. His interests include contemporary art; sculpture history; museology and the history of  museums; art crime; issues in cultural heritage; and the historical development and professional practice of the European art markets.  

He is Senior Lecturer at Christie’s Education, Adjunct Professor at Richmond, the American International University in London, visiting Senior Lecturer at Kingston School of Art, and teaches at a number of other UK and European universities. 

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The lecture on the 21 March 2024 will be preceded by the Annual General Meeting. Doors will open at 6:30 and the meeting will start at 7pm.

Away From It All surveys the history of leisure away from home, covering the spas and watering places that rich people frequented from Tudor times onwards, and the seaside holiday towns that grew up in Victorian times when the railway system enabled ordinary working people to spend time away from home enjoying themselves. It explores the curative use of water from Roman times, through the Middle Ages in places like Bath and Buxton and after the Reformation, when the medical profession fostered the growth of new spas, such as Harrogate, and then examines the subsequent popularity of hydrotherapy, which created significant growth in such towns as Ilkley and Matlock. The development of the British seaside during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries – the heyday of popular holidaymaking – directly resulted from the growth of the railway network. The lecture includes such major resorts as Blackpool, Brighton, Great Yarmouth and Scarborough, showing the unique quality of seaside structures such as piers, winter gardens and fairgrounds.

Mike Higginbottom

Formerly part-time lecturer in architectural and social history for the Nottingham University Centre for Continuing Education, and also for the Universities of Birmingham, Liverpool, Keele and Sheffield and for the WEA East Midlands and West Mercia Districts. Freelance lecturer to local societies in South and West Yorkshire, Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire. Formerly broadcaster for BBC Radio Sheffield, BBC Radio Nottingham and BBC Radio Derby.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:I_Do_Like_to_Be_Beside_the_Seaside.jpg licensed under https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/

In this lecture, Harry Venning will trace the history of his profession with examples from early practitioners like Cruickshank and Hogarth, to more contemporary artists such as Giles and Schulz, bringing events right up to date with cartoons produced fresh on the page that day!

Yes, Harry will be drawing live.  Prepare to hear some tricks of his trade, learn where to put eyebrows for maximum effect and discover exactly what the eskimo brothers said in The Funniest Joke Ever (possibly).

Harry Venning

has been a professional cartoonist for thirty years, during which time he has provided cartoons for several high profile UK publications (The Guardian, Radio Times) as well as for countless more obscure titles (British Journal Of Wound Care).

In 2016 he was awarded UK Strip Cartoonist Of The Year for his Guardian strip Clare In The Community, which he adapted into a Radio 4 sitcom.

For the last ten years he has been performing his cartoon workshop Release Your Inner Cartoonist in its many different guises, to audiences as diverse as schoolchildren, business executives and festival goers.

Harry says he can’t draw hands or horses.

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George V was the only British monarch to visit India, for the Coronation Durbar of 1911. He surprised the entire population by announcing the relocation of the capital from Calcutta to Delhi. This involved not only the building, but also the layout of an entire new city. The centrepiece was a mansion for the Viceroy, dominating the processional avenue that divided New Delhi from the old town. Its architect was Edwin Lutyens, known as the highly inventive creator of country houses in an eclectic Arts and Crafts Style. Here, he not only undertook the largest single dwelling erected in modern times, he devised a hybrid style that incorporated elements of Indian architecture. Inside, Lutyens supervised every detail of the furnishings, creating a series of palatial rooms that mirrored the progress of European domestic architecture. Since the last Viceroy, Lord Mountbatten, handed the building over to the Government of India in 1947, it has rarely been open to the public. The lecture is illustrated largely with archive photographs, brought to life by the personal memories of the lecturer who lived in the Palace grounds as curatorial advisor to the President, possibly the only non-Indian ever to do so.

Timothy Wilcox

is a writer, lecturer and exhibition curator with special interests in British art, in landscape and in watercolour painting. He was a museum curator in the British Museum Department of Prints and Drawings following positions at the V&A, in Liverpool and Hove. As a freelance curator and lecturer since 1997, he has organised exhibitions on Laura Knight, Hilda Carline, John Sell Cotman and John Constable, at venues including Tate, The Lowry, the Wordsworth Trust and Dulwich Picture Gallery. He contributes regularly to the educational programmes at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford and lectures at museums and galleries in Britain, Europe and the USA.

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PLEASE NOTE THE EARLIER THAN USUAL DATE FOR THIS LECTURE

To kick off our seasonal celebrations, musician and broadcaster Sandy Burnett is on hand to share his selection of much-loved Christmas tunes. Expect an hour of the finest festive music from across the globe – his selections include sparking moments from Tchaikovsky’s ballet The Nutcracker, a heartwarming ballad from Mel Tormé, something from Soweto, a heavenly chorus from Johann Sebastian Bach’s Leipzig, an illustration of the English carol tradition at its finest - and something more cynical from Eartha Kitt…

Sandy Burnett 

is a versatile music commentator, combining broadcasting, performing and lecturing.  After studying at St Catharine’s College, Cambridge and working as music director for the RSC, National Theatre and in London’s West End, he spent a decade as one of the core team of presenters on BBC Radio 3.  He is the author of The Idler Guide to Classical Music and was appointed the Academy of Ancient Music’s Hogwood Fellow for the 2018-19 season.

Mel-torme-and-the-marty-paich-dektette-ltzn-15009-ab.jpg licensed under https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/

William Randolph Hearst had an obsession.  In 1935, Forbes Magazine called him "quantitatively the world's number one collector of Objets d'Art" and when he died in 1951 The New York Times stated that during the 1920s and 30s, he alone had accounted for 25% of the world’s art market activity.  But to where was this king’s ransom headed, and hoarded?

Some of you will already know of Hearst Castle in California, but lesser known are his 5-story Gothic castle hidden within a Manhattan apartment block; his weekend home on Long Island that inspired the castle in The Wizard of Oz; his sprawling 12th century castle in Wales with its own ghosts; and the Bavarian village he built around his mother’s 7-storey schloss deep in the forests of Northern California.

Through the unparalleled extravagance of the places he lived in and loved, we’ll take a dive into the extraordinary life of the man who Orson Welles famously satirized as Citizen Kane - the same man who changed the face of journalism forever and built 'the greatest publicity machine in history', but died paying rent to his creditors.

Mark Meredith

is a writer, the founder of HouseHistree.com, and lectures regularly at societies, festivals and clubs in both Europe and the United States.  After leaving Stowe School, Mark worked for twenty years as a plumber in London.  However, his real passion has always been for history, particularly the history behind houses through the characters that conjoin to create them. His special interest lies with the great American houses and their relationships with those in Europe, both socially and architecturally.

Hearst_Castle_Casa_del_Sol_September_2012.jpg licensed under https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/

Elizabeth draws on her time in Morocco - in visits spanning more than 25 years - to tell the stories behind the blue pigment used for the fishing boats and doorways of photogenic Essaouira on the Moroccan coast, and the Majorelle Blue developed and patented by French artist Jacques Majorelle in Marrakech in the 1920s.  The story of Morocco’s blues takes us from Berber veils to Yves Saint-Laurent (who restored Majorelle’s Marrakesh garden), via Modernist Orientalist art and a protected mollusc...

Elizabeth Gowing

studied at Magdalen College Oxford before training as a teacher and working in Lambeth, Hackney and Islington.  She moved to Kosovo in 2006, where she worked with the Ethnological Museum in Prishtina and co-founded ‘The Ideas Partnership’, a charity working on education and cultural heritage projects.  She is a regular contributor to Radio 4 (Saturday Live, Excess Baggage, From Our Own Correspondent) and to the BBC World Service.  She speaks fluent Albanian.

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In this lecture, Barry Venning looks at the contributions made by artists of African, Caribbean or Asian origin to British art since the SS Empire Windrush arrived in Tilbury from the West Indies in 1948.  He considers, among others, the work of Sir Frank Bowling, Francis Newton Souza, Eddie Chambers, Yinka Shonibare, Sonia Boyce, Rasheed Araeen, Lubaina Himid and the Singh Twins, all of whom have achieved international recognition and respect, their works collected by museums world-wide.  They may not all be household names but their work is eye-catching and thought-provoking, and they have set much of the agenda for British art of the late twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

Barry Venning

is an art historian whose interests and teaching range from the art of late medieval Europe to global contemporary art.  He has published books, articles and exhibition catalogue essays on Turner, Constable and European landscape painting, but also has an ongoing research interest in postcolonial art and British visual satire.  He works as a consultant and associate lecturer for the Open University.  His media work includes two BBC TV documentaries, radio appearances for BBC local radio and ABC Australia, and a DVD on Turner for the Tate. 

YinkaShonibare_-_Nelson%27s_Ship_in_a_Bottle_2010_2_(35362998922).jpg licensed under https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/

Note: This lecture will be held at Long Road Sixth Form College, Long Road, Cambridge, CB2 8PX.

Drawing on his own experiences as both a child and adult actor, Tyler reveals the pains and the pleasures of a career in the theatre, and takes us through the various intricate processes of putting on a play from the actor’s perspective, from the casting session to the curtain call, and all stops in between.

On the way, he reveals how props can let you down at crucial moments, how actors survive when out of work, and how to deal with stage nudity.

Tyler Butterworth grew up in a theatrical family and spent twenty five years as an actor working extensively in film, television, theatre and radio. He then worked as a development producer in television documentaries and was closely involved with NASA on a landmark commemorative tv series. Now, he works as a voice actor, recording audiobooks, documentaries and voiceovers, and he produces walking audio guides to cities across Europe for private clients on whatever subject he’s commissioned to do. 

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Driving_Miss_Daisy_stair_prop_(8516669733).jpg 

licensed under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Note: This lecture will be held at Long Road Sixth Form College, Long Road, Cambridge, CB2 8PX.

In the early 1860s Japanese prints started to pour into Europe; in Paris young radical painters, seeking fresh pictorial ideas appropriate to modern subjects, collected them (they were very cheap).  These prints by Japanese artists such as Hiroshige, Hokusai, Utamaro and Kunisada became hugely influential on the direction that painting was to take.

In this lecture, Oliver Gosling focuses on the works of Manet and Van Gogh and looks at the powerful impact that Japanese prints had on their ideas about composition, space, colour, form and expression of line.  

Oliver Gosling was born in 1958 and trained at the Royal College of Art.  He lived and exhibited in Japan for two years (1998-2001), and in China for eight years (2007-2015), where he lectured widely on contemporary art in Britain.

Oliver is a lecturer in Fine Art at the University of Brighton and in History of Art at Oxford University.

Vincent_van_Gogh_-_Bloeiende_pruimenboomgaard-_naar_Hiroshige_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg licensed under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Note: This lecture will be held at Long Road Sixth Form College, Long Road, Cambridge, CB2 8PX.

Years of working as an artist within the Criminal Justice System in England and Germany have given Angela unique insights into the destructive and costly cycle of crime, prisons and re-offending.  In this thought-provoking talk she offers a deeper understanding of the minds, lives and challenges of offenders.  With extraordinary slides of art projects and prisoner’s art, she demonstrates how within the process of creating art of any discipline, there are vital opportunities for offenders to confront their crimes and develop the key life skills so essential in leading a positive and productive life.

A frequent response to this talk has been “I had no idea!” and indeed it casts light onto areas of our society where the Arts not only are visual, decorative or commercial, but absolutely vital, hugely relevant and potentially life-changing.

Interspersed with personal accounts of humorous or slightly horrifying situations, this talk is moving, informative and very original.

Angela Findlay is a professional artist, writer and freelance lecturer with a long career of teaching art in prisons in Germany and England.  Her time ‘behind bars’, and later as Arts Coordinator of the London-based Koestler Arts, gave her many insights into the huge impact the arts can have in terms of rehabilitation. Though novel, her ideas were effective and in 2016 she was invited by the Ministry of Justice to support the case for the arts to be included in new, progressive programmes of rehabilitation and education. Brexit unfortunately reversed the direction of prison policy but art's role is still vital. 

Angela has a BA(Hons) in Fine Art, a Diploma in Artistic Therapy (specialising in colour) and her paintings are widely exhibited both nationally and internationally.

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The lecture on the 16th March 2023 will be preceded by the Annual General Meeting. Doors will open at 6:30 and the meeting will start at 7pm.

Note:This lecture will be held at Long Road Sixth Form College, Long Road, Cambridge, CB2 8PX.

Brian Healey will tell us the compelling and immensely moving story of Spain’s most iconic architect, from his childhood spent on its beaches, forest and mountains, to his final years dedicated to the realisation of his ultimate fantasy, the Sagrada Familia.  Brian will examine the theories and symbolism behind Anton Gaudi's creations and how he applied the lessons of nature to create magnificent private mansions and a temple - as he saw it - worthy of God himself.

Brian Healey taught senior modern languages in an independent grammar school for many years.  He has since the 1980s pursued a parallel career as a professional artist and interior designer.  He also finds work on ocean and river cruises as a resident artist or as a guest lecturer on art history. 

Barcelona_-_Temple_Expiatori_de_la_Sagrada_Fam%C3%ADlia_(3).jpg under licensed https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:FoP-Spain

Note: This lecture was cancelled due to power and heating problems at the venue.

Colonialism had played an intrinsic part in the musical culture of the Caribbean, which is a synthesis of African, European, Indian and indigenous influences.  Each island has its own complex rhythm patterns and styles.  Find out about the origins of calypso on Saint Kitts, jwé on Saint Lucia and much, much more in this light hearted but insightful lecture full of the sounds of the Caribbean.

Dr Graham Jones 

Dr Graham Jones started his professional life as a musician in the British Army and after a glittering career spanning nearly 40 years he retired as the Senior Director of Music, Household Division and Director of Music, Coldstream Guards.  In 1993 he was awarded an MBE for outstanding service to military music.

Having retired from military service in 2012, Graham is enjoying a second career as a guest conductor, adjudicator, guest speaker, lecturer, clinician, recording consultant and educator. 

Graham’s charitable works include event planning in support of the Royal British Legion and sitting on the London fundraising committee of the Army Benevolent Fund.

Caribbean_band_IMG_0611a.jpg licensed under https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/

Note: This lecture will be held at Long Road Sixth Form College, Long Road, Cambridge, CB2 8PX.

This is one of the quirkiest lectures you will ever hear.

There is a universal delight in being deceived and in this lecture Bertie Pearce takes his audience on a whistle stop tour of art which fools, surprises and amuses the viewer.

Beginning and ending with the Belgian surrealist, René Magritte, it encompasses Trompe L’eoil, Banksy, Bridget Riley, Arcimboldo and Escher to name a few.

Hold on to your seats and get ready to be visually fried.

Bertie Pearce is a Gold Star Member of the Inner Magic Circle.

Ambigram_Real_world_Prank_Fake_Alien.png licensed under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en

THIS LECTURE WILL BE HELD IN-PERSON ONLY

The celebration of the period following Christmas can be traced back several millennia, and to at least two cultures – neither of them Christian.  One of them is the southern Roman feast of Kalends on the 1st January, and the other, the northern Nordic festivals of Yuletide surrounding the celebrations of the Winter solstice.

It was Pope Julius I who decided to subvert the gluttony, drunkenness and sun-worship to Christian purpose, and by choosing the 25th December to celebrate the birth of Christ, he neatly bridged these cultures and paved the way for future Christmas festivities.  And so it is that many of our modern Christmas customs and carols bear references to traditions that have nothing to do with the birth of Christ.  Nonetheless, each year, Christ’s birthday on 25th December signifies the beginning of twelve festive days of celebrations and music making.

In this lecture-recital, Peter Medhurst will explore the wealth of Christmas music and traditions, and the curious legends that are connected with them.  His musical performances will include many favourites: Deck the Halls with Boughs of Holly; The Coventry Carol; The Wassail Song; The Three Kings (Peter Cornelius); and of course The Twelve Days of Christmas.

Peter Medhurst appears in the UK and abroad as a musician and scholar, giving recitals and delivering illustrated lectures on music and the arts.  He studied singing and early keyboard instruments at the Royal College of Music and at the Mozarteum in Salzburg.

The Twelve Days of Christmas song poster, photo credit: Xavier Romero-Frias (2012), licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

THIS LECTURE WILL BE HELD IN-PERSON ONLY

Should we accept that the very best photographs can be regarded as Fine Art?  This question is at the heart of Brian Stater's lecture, in which he will argue that photography can equal, not to say exceed, more traditional disciplines in the key genres of portaiture, landscape and still life.  Photography, moreover, has carved its own area of excellence in depicting the human condition.

Brian will discuss these ideas are discussed with reference to the work of some of the acknowledged masters of photography, including Henri Cartier-Bresson, Fay Godwin, Bill Brandt, Ansel Adams and Wolfgang Tillmans.

Brian Stater is a Senior Teaching Fellow at University College London, where he has lectured since 1997.  His principal academic interest lies in the appreciation of architecture, while a strong personal enthusiasm is for photography.  He therefore explores both business and pleasure by offering lectures on each of these subjects.

He has written on architecture for a wide range of publications and an exhibition of his own photographs has been held at UCL.  He is a member of the Association of Historical and Fine Art Photography and he works with a pre-War Leica camera, as used by his great hero, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and many others.

Henri Cartier-Bresson's first Leica (model Leica I), photo credit: Flickr, licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.

THIS LECTURE WILL BE HELD IN-PERSON ONLY

Donatello was born in Florence, over 600 years ago, but his sculpture is so powerful that it still speaks directly to us today.  Working alongside masters such as Brunelleschi, Ghiberti and Masaccio, he was one of the pioneers of the Renaissance and helped to change the way people looked at the world.

In her lecture, Jo Walton will tell us of the huge range of Donatello's sculpture, from delicate idealism and startling realism, to the astonishing emotional force of his later works, setting it against the vivid and colourful world of Italian politics in the age of the Renaissance.

Jo Walton has combined teaching and lecturing with a career in art bookselling; and she has been a volunteer guide at both Tate Britain and Tate Modern.  She is now a freelance lecturer for The Arts Society, the Art Fund, and Friends of Dulwich Picture Gallery.

Click here for a printable synopsis and biography with four further images

Statue of Donatello (outside the Uffizi Museum in Florence), photo credit: Frieda (2004), licenced under CC BY-SA 3.0

THIS WAS A HYBRID LECTURE (COMBINED IN-PERSON AND ZOOM)

This lecture serves as an introduction to the art of South Africa whilst addressing important contemporary themes relating to the depiction of race, colonialism and the appropriation of African culture.

Irma Stern was one of the most important and influential artists to come out of South Africa in the twentieth century. A near contemporary of Munnings, her art shows some stylistic similarities although her subjects were very different. A similar concern with figurative painting was in Stern’s case directed at the production of luxurious flower paintings in the manner of Van Gogh whilst perhaps her most original achievement were the powerful portraits she painted of black Africans in exotic locations and costumes.

Christopher Garibaldi is an Independent Researcher.

2010–2019 Director of Palace House, Newmarket (National Heritage Centre for Horseracing and Sporting Art: www.palacehousenewmarket.co.uk. 

2008–2010 Co-Director of the Attingham Summer School for the Study of Historic Houses and Collections.

1998–2003 Senior Curator & Assistant Keeper of Art (Decorative Art) at Norwich Castle Museum: co-curator of Flower Power – The Meaning of Flowers in Art and Eat, Drink and Be Merry, the British at Table 1600 to 2000.

1994–1997 Catalogued the silver in the Royal Collection at Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle and other royal residences.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Irma_Stern# licenced under https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/

THIS WILL BE A HYBRID LECTURE (COMBINED IN-PERSON AND ZOOM)

Note: The in-person element will be at Stapleford Granary

Canary Wharf was a totally new concept which revived London’s Docklands.  Or was it?  In this lecture, Charlie Forman will take us back to the foundations of the West India Docks with their magnificent warehouses, and follow through to the glittering high-rise commercial hub of today.  History has repeated itself – from the unprecedented scale of development with buildings to marvel at, to the re-use of derelict space in an ‘island’ setting, the innovative transport connections, the private security systems, and the opposition of the City of London.

Businesses central the national economy underpinned both developments – from the slave owning sugar producers of two hundred years ago to the global finance houses of today.  Tony will tell these parallel stories, while contrasting them with neighbouring Limehouse and its flagship Nicholas Hawksmoor church, a riverside community before the docks were dreamt of.  We will meet the likes of Robert Stephenson and William Adam in the first build-out and come across Cesar Pelli and Norman Foster in the second.

Charlie Forman is a London walking tour guide and a member of the City of Westminster Guide Lecturers Association.  He is passionate about London.  His talks focus on the forces that have shaped and changed tthe metropolis, and on the resulting artistic and cultural heritage.

Charlie has spent a career spanning four decades in housing and regeneration.  During the seven years leading up to the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, he played a role in channelling potential long-term benefits into surrounding East London communities.

Canary Wharf as seen from Thames Path, Limehouse, photo credit: King of Hearts (2016), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

THIS WAS A HYBRID LECTURE (COMBINED IN-PERSON AND ZOOM)

Note: The in-person element was held at Stapleford Granary

Fine art has provided advertisers and their agencies with a great deal of material to use in their creative campaigns.  Tony describes some of the processes by which these advertisements have been created and why the works of Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael and Michelangelo have been a particularly rich source.

From the Renaissance through to the present day fine art continues to provide opportunities to enhance Brand imagery with admiration, humour, satire and irony.

Tony will use a wide range of visuals and video to show examples of the original works, the creative process and the (not always entirely successful) advertisements that are the end result.

Tony Rawlins is an advertising executive, who started his career in advertising in 1965 as a mail boy in J.Walter Thompson before graduating through the training system there to become an account director .  He subsequently worked in a number of agencies before setting up on his own agency in 1985, where over a period of 15 years he produced many commercials and print ads for Guinness in Africa and the Caribbean.

He remains active as a consultant in the industry, but now concentrates on more philanthropic projects - producing a film in the rural villages of Nigeria for the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. More recently he has completed a sanitation project in Haiti after it was devastated by Hurricane Matthew in 2016.  

Tony has been a member of The Arts Society for many years and has lectured to Arts Societies in the UK and Europe.

Drink Coca-Cola 5¢ (1890s advertising poster), public domain.

THIS WAS A HYBRID LECTURE (COMBINED IN-PERSON AND ZOOM)

Note: The in-person element was held at Stapleford Granary

This lecture will examine Victorian life as reflected in the art of the time, and will cover a wide range of Victorian experience.  This will include the tragedy of the millions who emigrated from these islands in the 19th century, due to dire economic circumstances; the thrill the Victorians experienced when using the omnibus or the railway, or visiting the Derby; and the Victorians' ambiguous attitude to women. 

Val Woodgate is a lecturer at Tate Britain and Tate Modern and also at many other London galleries

Caricature of Major Lord Arthur Somerset, (drawing by Sir Leslie Ward, published in Vanity Fair issue of 19th November 1887), public domain [Somerset was an English aristocrat made infamous by the Cleveland Street Scandal]

THIS WILL BE A HYBRID LECTURE (COMBINED IN-PERSON AND ZOOM)

Note: The in-person element will be at Stapleford Granary

Pieter Brueghel the Elder (d. 1569) is probably best known for his colourful depictions of peasants making merry or toiling in the fields. He also painted religious scenes in the Netherlandish countryside. Although these works lent him the epithet, ‘Peasant Brueghel’, his work was more than just charmingly naïve. He was very much a townsman with a good eye for landscape, who painted for discerning collectors. He also lived in a time of religious and political turmoil that is evident in some of his ‘darker’ works. This lecture will show that there is more to Brueghel than peasant paintings.

Sophie Oosterwijk was born in Gouda (Netherlands).  She had an MA and PhD in English Literature (Leiden), an MA in Medieval Studies (York) and a PhD in Art History (Leicester).  She had taught at the universities of St Andrews, Leicester and Manchester; Sotheby’s Institute of Art; National Trust; V&A; U3A; WEA and other organisations, and organised many study days, tours and visits.  Sophie is also a regular lecturer for Cambridge University and travel companies, and is Honorary Research Fellow with the School of Art History at the University of St Andrews.  She has numerous publications to her name.

Click here for a printable synopsis and biography

Winter Landscape with Skaters and Bird Trap by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1565), in the collection of Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, photo credit: Web Gallery of Art, public domain

THIS WAS A HYBRID LECTURE (COMBINED IN-PERSON AND ZOOM)

Note: This lecture was held at Stapleford Granary

Russia in the second half of the nineteenth century was a cultural powerhouse.  The novelists (Tolstoy, Dostoevsky etc.) and composers (Mussorgsky, Tchaikovsky etc.) are well known.  The painters are not.  But the period saw a new realist school of art, the “Itinerants”, which broke violently with the earlier academicism and, in the run up to the revolutionary twentieth century, ruthlessly depicted and criticised Tsarist Russia with all its flaws.  Tony Brenton takes a tour through itinerant art and its interactions with the vast, repressed and unruly Russia that it both loved and detested.

Sir Tony Brenton is a distinguished British diplomat and commentator on public affairs issues.  He served for over thirty years with the British Foreign Service, including postings in the Middle East, the European Union, Washington DC, and Russia.  He was in charge of the British Embassy in Washington through the Iraq War, and was British Ambassador to Russia through a particularly tense time in UK/Russia relations.  He has been a lead UK negotiator on such issues as global climate change, international energy and human rights.  He has written a well-received book, "The Greening of Machiavelli", on international environmental politics.  On retirement he settled in Cambridge, where he is a Fellow of Wolfson College and a Senior Fellow at the International studies Department.  He is also a regular commentator on international affairs on the BBC and in the press.  His book "Historically Inevitable?" on the Russian revolution was published in June 2016.

Click here for a printable synopsis and biography

The Itenerants, photo credit: Mikhail Mikhailovich Panov (1886), public domain

THIS WAS A HYBRID LECTURE (COMBINED IN-PERSON AND ZOOM)

Note: This lecture was held at Stapleford Granary

Ludwig van Beethoven was born a little over 250 years ago, in December 1770.  Sandy Burnett guides us through the life and work of this brilliant, cantankerous, visionary and astonishingly original composer, a man who tore up the rule book of classical music.  Visual illustrations include a selection of contemporary portraits, while musical examples are drawn from his genre-busting piano sonatas, quartets and symphonies, and from the revolutionary opera Fidelio.  We’re talking about much more than just a musician here – Beethoven was a true Romantic artist, or as he preferred to describe himself, a “poet in sound.”

Sandy Burnett is a versatile music commentator, combining broadcasting, performing and lecturing.  After studying at St Catharine’s College, Cambridge and working as music director for the RSC, National Theatre and in London’s West End, he spent a decade as one of the core team of presenters on BBC Radio 3.  He is the author of The Idler Guide to Classical Music and was appointed the Academy of Ancient Music’s Hogwood Fellow for the 2018-19 season.

Click here for a printable synopsis and biography

Ludwig van Beethoven when composing the Missa Solemnis by Joseph Karl Stieler (1820), in the collection of Beethoven-Haus, public domain

THIS LECTURE WAS HELD VIA ZOOM ONLY

The scene of the Adoration of the Magi is central today to our image of the Christmas story.  So it may come as a surprise to learn that their number, names and ethnic origins were all later additions to the biblical account. Indeed, as we will discover, by the 16th century they were not the only additions to the text.

This lecture is a sequel to Shirley Smith's Christmas lecture 'Picturing the Nativity: Painting by Numbers'.

Shirley Smith graduated from the University of East Anglia with first class honours in the History of Art, specialising in the Italian and Northern Renaissance. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a part-time lecturer for the University of East Anglia and for the Department of Continuing Education of the University of Cambridge.

Click here for a printable synopsis and biography with three further images

Adoration of the Magi (1510-15) by Jan Gossaert, photo credit: National Museum, London, licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

THIS WAS A HYBRID LECTURE (COMBINED IN-PERSON AND ZOOM)

Note: This lecture was held at Stapleford Granary

Catherine of Aragon, daughter of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile, was sent to England to marry Arthur, first son of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York.  Her life turned into a challenging adventure and she unexpectedly married the dashing young Henry VIII, the new king of England.  After a long marriage with only one living daughter, the future 'bloody' Queen Mary, Catherine enterted into a formative struggle against her husband's desire to declare the marriage null and void.  Thus was precipitated one of the most epic periods of English history.

Henry's infatuation with Anne Boleyn, one of Catherine's ladies-in-waiting, is both inexplicable and profound.  Anne, often portrayed as a scheming opportunist, was a sophisticated, complicated and influential player on the stage of the early part of the English Reformation.  Her end was as sudden and dramatic as her arrival.  Her progeny in the daughter to become the future great Queen Elizabeth I is but part of her legacy.

Nicholas Henderson is a graduate of Selwyn College, Cambridge, and trained for the Anglican ministry at Ripon Hall, Oxford. He was formerly Bishop-elect for the Diocese of Lake Malawi in Central Africa. He obtained a doctorate on Lay Anglican Ecclesiology with the University of Wales, Lampeter. He has a particular interest in the period of the English Reformation and the associated cultural, architectural and social changes it has produced.

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The portraits of Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn are public domain.  Photo credits: National Portrait Gallery, London

THIS WAS A HYBRID LECTURE (COMBINED IN-PERSON AND ZOOM)

Note: This lecture was held at Stapleford Granary

Wine has been part of our global society for over 7000 years, and the story tells of its origin and appearance in all societies across the Mediterranean and through Europe.  There is rich evidence of the role wine has played in these societies and how it became an important component of faith, well-being and festivity.  From the kvevris of Georgia in 5000 BC, the symposia in ancient Greece, the thermopolia of Pompeii, the hospices of Europe, to the dining tables of fine society, wine has been ever present.  Drawings, paintings, engravings, buildings, pottery and wine labels themselves all contribute to the story.

David Wright has been a wine retailer, importer and distributor for 30 years, and presents tastings and talks on wine to trade and private audiences.

Click here for a printable synopsis and biography with four further images

Wine grapes, photo credit: Tomás Castelazo (2003), licensed under CC BY-SA 2.5.

Glass of red wine, photo credit: André Karwath (2004), licensed under CC BY-SA 2.5.

THIS WAS A HYBRID LECTURE (COMBINED IN-PERSON AND ZOOM)

Note: This was our first ever hybrid lecture.  It was also our first event to be held at Stapleford Granary.

Great St. Mary's is the most significant Parish Church in Cambridge and is also identified as the 'University Church'.  How did this happen?

The church has had two distinct lives - before and after Edward III.  By the mid-14th century the University had more or less barged into the parish space and, from then on, pretty much dictated the development of the church as we see it today.

Though the 'art' of the church has been all but lost, small details exist that tell an interesting story of patrons and people, some of which have only just come to light...

Dr Frank Woodman has a lectureship at the University of Cambridge and is based at the Institute of Continuing Education (ICE) at Madingley Hall.  He specializes in art and architecture from the Romans to the Reformation.  A former research fellow of Christ’s Cambridge, he has had academic responsibility for all the Art History and Architecture programmes at ICE since 1997.

Dr Woodman's many publications include books on Canterbury Cathedral, Norwich Cathedral and Kings’ College Chapel, and  papers and chapters on the Lady Chapel of Ely Cathedral, and Westminster Abbey.

Church of St. Mary the Great, Cambridge, photo credit: Jean-Christophe Benoist (2015), licensed under CC BY 3.0.

THIS LECTURE WAS HELD VIA ZOOM

The great period of English landscape painting coincided with the flowering of Romantic literature.  In this lecture, Sarah will explore some of the common themes in Turner’s painting of light and the sublime, with Wordsworth’s ‘huge and mighty forms that do not live like living men’, Coleridge’s 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner' and the Odes of Keats and Shelley.

Similarly, Jane Austen’s description of her work as ‘the little bit (two inches wide) of ivory on which I work with so fine a brush’ finds echoes in such works of Constable as ‘Flatford Mill: Scene on a Navigable River’, while Constable’s determination to paint the working landscape of his youth reflects concerns akin to Wordsworth and Coleridge’s desire ‘to choose incidents and situations from common life’ and to write in language really used by the common man.

Sarah Stopford is a guide and lecturer at the Tates Britain and Modern.  Her special interests are in British and post-1900 art as well as the connections between literature and the visual arts.

Click here for a printable synopsis and biography with two further images

All images are in the public domain.  Clockwise from top left:

Jane Austen (c.1810) by Cassandra Austen, photo credit: National Portrait Gallery, London

Flatford Mill (Scene on a Navigable River) (1816-17) by John Constable, photo credit: Tate Britain

Sheerness as seen from the Nore (1808) by J M W Turner, photo credit: Museum of Fine Arts, Houston / Google Arts & Culture

THIS LECTURE WAS HELD VIA ZOOM

In this lecture Mark Ovenden will speak about the surprising attempts, from Victorian times to the present day, to introduce and maintain a coherence of design across London’s underground network.  The results can been seen in the work of architects such as Leslie Green (Arts & Crafts) and Charles Holden (Streamline Moderne / Art Deco).  Mark will talk of Frank Pick, who initiated the development of the Underground’s corporate identity and visual style: for example, he commissioned Edward Johnston to create in 1916 the “Underground” typeface, which with only minor changes is still in use today.  Mark will also tell of the extensions to the Underground network over the years, the impact of post-war austerity, the creation of TfL, and recent schemes and future works.

Mark Ovenden is a broadcaster and author specialising in graphic design, cartography and architecture in public transport. His first book, ‘Metro Maps of the World’, 2003, is a guide to the diagrams, plans and maps of underground rapid transit systems. ‘London Underground by Design’ was published by Penguin Books in January 2013. 

Click here for a printable synopsis and biography with two further images

If you enjoyed this lecture you might be interested in Mark's book London Underground by Design, published by Penguin in 2013.

New Johnston font in TfL colours, photo credit: Blythwood (2014), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

Sign at Ealing Common Station, photo credit: Martin Deutsch (2006), public domain

THIS LECTURE WAS HELD VIA ZOOM

Best 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 is possibly one of the world’s best-known contemporary artists and 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.

Ian Swankie has a passion for art and architecture.  He is a guide at Tate Modern, Tate Britain, Guildhall Art Gallery and St Paul’s Cathedral.  Ian is a Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Art Scholars.

Click here for a printable synopsis and biography with one further image

Related material: Nick and Jo Barnes recommend an episode of Desert Island Discs from 2007, in which Grayson Perry was interviewed by Kirsty Young.  To listen to a podcast of that episode, click here (which will open a page on the BBC website), then click on the green 'Download' button below the photograph, and finally click 'View' in the window that pops up.

Grayson Perry as Claire, photo credit: Arnolfini (2017), licensed under CC BY 3.0

THIS LECTURE WAS HELD VIA ZOOM

Ancient Peruvian burial grounds have yielded up dazzling goldwork, fine ceramic vessels, and some of the richest textiles in the world.  Sumptuously woven garments, preserved for 2,000 years by the Paracas desert, display a profusion of embroidered designs.  For the Incas, who ruled the Andes of South America after AD 1200, the textile arts took precedence over other media.

Chloe Sayer is a freelance specialist in the art and culture of Latin America.  In 2016 she was awarded the prestigious Ohtli medal by the Mexican government for her long-standing commitment to Mexican culture.

Click here for a printable synopsis and biography with three further images

Gold Inca bird, photo credit: Simon Birchell (2012), licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.  Exhibit in the Museum of the Americas, Madrid

Face neck jar, photo credit: Daderot (2013), licensed under CCO 1.0.  Exhibit in the Brooklyn Museum, New York

Cotton and wool bag, photo credit: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, public domain

THIS LECTURE WAS HELD VIA ZOOM

Hieronymus Bosch’s (c.1455-1516) nightmarish monsters and demons, his bizarre allegories, and the amorous exploits in his Garden of Earthly Delights have intrigued viewers for centuries.  Little is known about this remarkable painter, although it has been claimed that he was a member of a heretical sect, a dabbler in alchemy and even a drug-user!

In this lecture, Paula Nuttall aims to unravel the meanings of Bosch’s enigmatic paintings in the context of his own time, explaining them in terms of social satire, medieval folklore and pre-Reformation spirituality, while also revealing the beauty and inventiveness of his images.

Paula Nuttall is Director of the V&A Medieval & Renaissance Year course.

Click here for a printable synopsis and biography

THIS LECTURE WAS HELD VIA ZOOM

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.  Utilising country houses from Buckinghamshire to Cumbria, tube tunnels, Welsh mines and Wiltshire quarries, a dedicated team of unlikely heroes packed up their greatest treasures in a race against time during the sweltering summer of 1939, dispatching them throughout the country on a series of secret wartime adventures, retold in this talk.

Caroline Shenton is an historian, formerly Director of the Parliamentary Archives and Senior Archivist at the National Archives.

Click here for a printable synopsis and biography

Related material: Barbara Latham recommends the book 'Our uninvited Guests' by Julie Summers, which tells of the WW2 requisition by the British Government of properties large and small in order to house, inter alia, armed forces, secret services and vulnerable children.  Details of this book, and where you can buy it, can be found here on the publisher's website.

THIS LECTURE WAS HELD VIA ZOOM

Mr Punch – the most famous puppet character of all time.  His comic irreverence gave “Punch” magazine its title.  His anarchic vitality has inspired opera, ballet and punk rock and his enduring popularity has seen his likeness on goods ranging from Victorian silverware to computer video games.

Appearing in England in 1662, Punch is descended from the Italian Clown Pulcinella of the 15th century Commedia Del’Arte tradition.  Even today this Lord of Misrule uses his slapstick to dispense with oppressive authority, be it politicians, political correctness or the devil, while proclaiming his notorious refrain: ‘That’s the way to do it!”

Bertie Pearce is a Gold Star Member of the Inner Magic Circle.

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THIS LECTURE WAS HELD VIA ZOOM

At the turn of the last century, Vienna was the capital of a vast empire and one of the most exciting artistic laboratories in the world.  It produced painters such as Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele and Oskar Kokoschka, architects like Otto Wagner, Adolf Loos and Josef Hoffmann, the psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, the composer Gustav Mahler and the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein.

Looking at these and others figures in the context of the society in which they worked, Gavin Plumley asks how and why the City of Dreams became a cultural hotbed around 1900.

Gavin Plumley is a writer, broadcaster and arts journalist.

Click here for a printable synopsis and biography

Click here for a list of the key characters mentioned in Gavin's lecture

THIS LECTURE WAS HELD VIA ZOOM

Following this lecture, Jo kindly emailed us with suggestions of related collections and places to visit, and further reading.

According to contemporaries, the great charm of William Morris’s method of decoration was the fact that it lent itself to “either simplicity or splendour”.  Morris interiors might include a few rush-bottomed chairs, an oak trestle table, and some simple textiles, or richly-painted sideboards, tapestries, stained glass and William de Morgan lustre-ware.  Rich clients might commission entire rooms with hand-made furniture and decorations, while less wealthy customers could create a similar look using cheaper products like wallpapers and printed textiles.

In this lecture Jo Banham examined a range of Morris’s commissions, including the Green Dining Room at the V&A, Wightwick Manor, Kelmscott House, and Standen,  as well as more ‘ordinary’ interiors like Emery Walker’s House in Chiswick.

Jo Banham is a freelance curator, lecturer and writer, currently curating an exhibition on William Morris and the Arts and Crafts Movement in Spain.

Click here for a printable synopsis and biography

Click here for Jo's suggestions for further reading

Click here for Jo's list of collections and places to visit

THIS LECTURE WAS HELD VIA ZOOM

On the basis of sensational new evidence from archaeological fieldwork, Neil will contrast the legend of Lawrence of Arabia with the true story of what happened in the famous desert war of 1916 to 1918.  Is the legend a myth?  Was Lawrence, as some claim, a liar and a charlatan?  Or does legend reflect reality?  Was he, in fact, a brilliant military commander and a sincere advocate of the Arab national cause?

‘Lawrence of Arabia’ is an early 20th century instance of celebrity culture. Neil will analyse the invention and re-invention of the legend from 1919 onwards through memoirs, photos, films, paintings, biographies, and documentaries.  He will then contrast the legend with the biography of the man himself, focusing on key aspects of his early years and his character, and using archaeology as the basis for a detailed examination of the role which made him famous – his participation in the Arab Revolt of 1916 to 1918.

Neil Faulkner is an archaeologist, broadcaster and author.

Click here for a printable synopsis and biography

THIS LECTURE WAS POSTPONED FROM JUNE AND WAS HELD VIA ZOOM IN JULY

The story of Chinese blue-and-white porcelain speaks of the important trade between East and West along both the overland and maritime Silk Roads.

The cobalt blue mineral, or ‘Mohammedan Blue’, that provided the distinctive under-glaze colour of Chinese blue-and-white porcelain owed its origins to China’s early trade with Persia.  During the Ming Dynasty, the Chinese imperial kilns at Jingdezhen perfected the production of blue-and-white wares and thus extended the scope of China’s trade with the West.  Oriental export porcelain has its own rich history, enhanced by tales of shipwrecks and lost cargoes, that hints of the fascination for these products from the East, that came to be adapted for Western markets.

In this lecture Marie traced the history of Chinese blue-and-white porcelain and the trade in export porcelain.  She also recounted tales of salvaging operations that have resulted in the recovery of sunken treasures from the East.  The ‘Nanking Cargo’ and the ‘Hoi An Hoard’ are but two examples of early shipwrecks in Eastern waters, the recovery of which have enhanced our understanding of blue-and-white porcelain and its wider commercial impact.

Marie Conte-Helm is an art historian specialising in Asian art.

Click here for a printable synopsis and biography

THIS LECTURE IS POSTPONED TO A LATER DATE

Tony Rawlins is an advertising executive

THIS LECTURE IS POSTPONED TO A LATER DATE

Val Woodgate is a lecturer at Tate Britain and Tate Modern and also at many other London galleries

Susan Owens, a distinguished art historian and former Curator of Paintings at the Victoria and Albert Museum, was well placed to introduce us to the extraordinary drawings of Aubrey Beardsley (1872-1898). Her lecture was timely, too, with the Tate Britain Beardsley exhibition opening soon (4 March-25 May 2020), the first since the great 1966 V & A display that recreated interest in the artist’s work.

Owens’s lecture was remarkable for its calm and measured clarity and its fine illustration. She sensibly adopted a chronological approach even though Beardsley’s life was so brief. She identified the phases of the artist’s swift development that took him from the intense black and white illustrations for Wilde’s play Salome to the complex costume details of Pope’s The Rape of the Lock. She made clear that new printing technologies allowed his images to be widely reproduced. The narrative was punctuated with images of Beardsley himself, many of them unfamiliar: his face, said Oscar Wilde, ‘was like a silver hatchet’. And there were the influential figures who helped him on his path: Edward Burne-Jones, the great Pre-Raphaelite; the publisher J. M. Dent who commissioned Le Morte d’Arthur; Henry Harland, editor of The Yellow Book; and Leonard Smithers who gave him wonderful opportunities to draw for his Savoy magazine (and who bravely refused Beardsley’s request that all copies of Lysistrata be destroyed after his death).

Dr. Owens was particularly forceful on the dramatic turning points of Beardsley’s career. After his upbringing in Brighton, where his mother carefully fostered her son’s precocious interests in music, literature and drawing, the family moved to London. Beardsley started as an insurance clerk (his drawing Le debris d’un poete shows him at his desk) but a meeting with Edward Burne-Jones in 1891 set him on the path to artistic fame. Burne-Jones’s studio was supposedly open to the public on Sundays but when Beardsley and his sister tried to go it was not. As they walked away, running footsteps were heard behind them: it was the great Burne-Jones himself trying to catch them. From this meeting came Beardsley’s place at Westminster School of Art, and the first meeting with Oscar Wilde at a Burne-Jones garden party. The commission to make the 353 drawings for Dent’s Le Morte d’Arthur also followed. One of these images that we were shown, of Belle Iseult writing to Sir Tristram, is a link between Pre-Raphaelite and Aesthetic art: how like it is to earlier Victorian art and yet how different.  Then followed the more experimental pictures for the notorious Yellow Book and the striking illustrations for Wilde’s play Salome. These amazing images of sex and death, some unrelated to the text, linked the two artists in the disgrace and imprisonment of Wilde.  After Wilde’s arrest, he was seen to be carrying a yellow-backed book, which was actually a French novel. This was enough to sink The Yellow Book and send Beardsley into exile in France, that great haven for ’Nineties poets and artists. We saw a final pale grey photograph of Beardsley aged 25 at work in Menton in the south of France: like Keats and D.H.Lawrence, he had sought a warm climate to try to escape from that deadly killer, tuberculosis. Dr Owens conveyed the drama of all these events vividly.

The Shock-Horror Decadent side of Beardsley has long faded. Each generation takes an aspect of his work for itself according to fashion. In the Sixties, it was the swirling, ornate decoration that impressed. For us, perhaps, it is the androgynous figures that have particular significance. Then there is the sly humour which, a shrewd member of the audience pointed out, runs like thread through many of the drawings. Just look at Lysistratawhich clearly shows this aspect of the work of a great artist.

Shirley Smith began by saying that art and architecture is best approached by understanding the context in which it was produced.

Leonardo da Vinci was born 15 April 1452, an illegitimate son, into a humble Tuscan family living in Vinci. In the 1460’s the family moved to the Florence of Lorenzo Medici, where Leonardo was educated in maths and to read and write in Tuscan (he did not learn the classics, to his own regret). Aged 11 he was apprenticed to the workshop of Andrea del Verrocchio where he learned sculpture, painting and other craft skills.

Leonardo moved to Milan, then the wealthiest Italian court of Ludovico Sforza, which was second in size (in 1482) only to Paris and London. He was 30 years old and arrived in Milan as a military engineer to aid Milan in its war with Venice. In his letter to Lodovico, Leonardo says “In architecture, sculpture and painting I can do as well as any other”. There are intriguing drawings of scaling ladders, cross bows and ‘tank’-like designs in his notebooks at this time. Did this archetypal Renaissance man perhaps not think of himself as an artist primarily?

In the course of his life Leonardo often lived in a household of young men, not an unusual situation for artists living and working in creative workshops. He was twice accused of sodomy which was never proved. It is interesting, then, that nearly all his extant portraits are of women and that he radicalised female portraiture in Italy.

Using beautiful slides to illustrate her points, Shirley Smith demonstrated how women in Italian painting had, up to this time, been portrayed in profile and as ‘mannequins’ used to display the wealth and influence of their husband, father or lover. The majority of Italian artists were using tempera. Leonardo’s female portraits are painted using the full potential of oil as a medium and his poses also reflect the art of the northern painters like Van Eyck. (From as early as the 1440’s artists in the low countries of the northern renaissance had been painting in oils and posing their female sitters face on to the viewer.) 

The incremental layers that can be achieved in oil were used by Leonardo to add interest and detail to landscape with what he termed “perspective of colour.” He began to use a serpentine pose for the figures within his characteristic pyramidal composition, giving the paintings movement. Oil also allowed Leonardo to develop the technique he called “sfumato”, enabling him to model eyes and mouth from light to dark to suggest “the motions of the mind” or the inner person. Relievo or texture (“the summit and soul of painting”) and chiaroscuro are other techniques that Leonardo developed to bring his female figures and their settings to life with a new realism. In group portraits, often women of the Holy Family, his mastery allowed Leonardo to create a sense of real interplay between the figures.

In a very interesting talk, with good slides of the Benin Bronzes, Dr Claire Walsh put these wonderfully sophisticated objects clearly into context, both within their own culture and how they were received in the west.

The first contact the west had with Benin, in the late 1400s, was through Portguese traders, exchanging boatloads of brass manillas (a kind of bracelet shape) for slaves, pepper, ivory and fine cloth. At this time all objects made in Africa for trade with the west were made in the European style. Thus, westerners were not exposed to the traditions of African art.

Bronze was a royal and sacred product in Benin and the bronzes were made for ritual purposes and used exclusively within the royal compound. The rest of the world was totally unaware of the Benin Bronzes until 1897 when a small British armed force attacked and burnt Benin City to the ground.. The British opened the doors to the palace and found 2,400 objects of treasure which were shipped to London and sold to fund the taking of Benin City. Interest in ethnography was growing at this time and pieces were bought for museums in Europe and the US.

The sale triggered an interest in, and market for, truly African artefacts and objects made in Africa for Africans began to arrive in quantity in the west.  Westerners perceived these as being primitive in production and aesthetic.

Avant-garde artists, looking to move away from academic 3D representation in 2D, were beguiled by African objects as carrying the ‘essence of barbaric power and the ability to transmute feeling’. Their response to these new images can be clearly seen in the work of Picasso for example.

The Benin Bronzes themselves are somewhat anomalous. They are so obviously skilfully manufactured and designed with a sophisticated aesthetic. It took a while before scholars were able to accept that they had indeed been made in Benin from as early as the 1400’s onwards.  We now understand that these beautiful objects; ritual figure; plaques; practical pieces (like thrones) were specifically designed to support the ritual life of the royal court. While the west prizes innovation in art, Benin art is about the right design solution. Scale and perspective in Benin art is social perspective where dominance is given to the most important person in a scene. Realism and movement are also not used in Benin art which values front facing static poses as the expression of proper respect for the sacred and royal depicted. Once the right expression of an occasion has been achieved this may be repeated through reproduction over 100’s of years.

The lecture provided a welcome insight into how to interpret these beautiful objects.

In the early evening of 16 October 1834, to the horror of bystanders, a huge ball of fire exploded through the roof of the Houses of Parliament, creating a blaze so enormous that it could be seen by the King and Queen at Windsor and from stagecoaches on top of the South Downs. In front of hundreds of thousands of witnesses, the great conflagration destroyed Parliament's glorious old buildings and their contents. No one who witnessed the disaster would ever forget it. In this lecture Caroline Shenton took us through the gripping hour-by-hour story of the fire through contemporary depictions of the disaster by Turner, William Heath and others. Caroline's former position as Director of the Parliamentary Archives means that she was ideally qualified to tell us about this  apocalyptic event.

This was by far the most serious conflagration in London between the great fire of 1666 and the blitz in 1940, and yet, owing to an attack of collective amnesia, few people today would even know that it occured. Caroline thought that a possible explanation was that the rebuilt Palace of Westminster has become such a well-recognised icon of parliamentary democracy.