Lectures

(note early 2:15pm start for this lecture only)

So many of our historical references for musical instruments can be found in works of art. Not only can these windows into the past show us what the instruments looked like but also the social context in which they would have been played. Music and different instruments also play a strong role within symbolism in art. In this lecture Sophie explores the instruments in selected works and then gives live demonstrations on replicas of the instruments depicted.

René Lalique was quite simply the greatest glass artist of the twentieth century. As a jeweller, glassmaker and architectural artist he spanned the two great movements of Art Nouveau and Art Deco. The dynasty that he established continues to produce bold and exquisite creations, which are coveted by glass collectors around the world. This talk features every major element of his genius from stunning car mascots to the interiors of the great ocean-going liners.

The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood not only challenged conventional definitions of beauty within the fine arts, they also rejected many of the fashions associated with the mid and late Victorian home. Inspired by their admiration for the Middle Ages and the medieval guild, they believed that artists should also be craftsmen, as capable of decorating furniture as painting on canvas. For Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones, a beautiful home was ‘the most important production of art’ and they expended considerable time and energy on beautifying their own homes. Morris’s work, first at Red House, then at Kelmscott House Hammersmith and Kelmscott Manor Oxfordshire, exemplifies his ideas about the synthesis of art and design. This lecture explores the decoration and lifestyles associated with these and other famous Pre-Raphaelite homes.

Antony Gormley studied archaeology, anthropology and the history of art at Trinity College, Cambridge. His art makes use of his expertise in such varied disciplines; he makes fascinating and challenging sculptures based on his own and other people’s bodies. Many of his works are life-size and made of lead or other metal, and can often be found in unusual locations such as the Australian desert, in the sea off the Liverpool coast or on the rooftops of London or New York.
Other works range from the enormous Angel of the North, which is 20 metres high, weighs 200 tonnes and can be seen at a great distance from the A1 at Gateshead, to his various Fields of tens of thousands of small clay figures made under his guidance by ordinary members of the public. At both ends of the scale, his work is astonishing and thought-provoking, and sheds a new light on the tradition of sculpture involving the human body.
This lecture takes us through the history of sculpture, from classical Greek marble carvings and cast bronze works, and its development until the present day, showing how innovative and imaginative Gormley and other modern sculptors can be.

When Lucy Kemp-Welch’s painting Colt Hunting in the New Forest (now in the Tate Gallery) was first exhibited at the Royal Academy’s Summer Exhibition in 1897 it caused a sensation. The Times predicted that the artist would ‘very rapidly become our most successful and popular painter of horses’. She also made a number of important paintings of the First World War. This lecture explores her life and work, and coincides with both a new biography (written by the lecturer), and two exhibitions curated by him, to be held in Hampshire and East Anglia in 2023.

Deborah Devonshire, the youngest of the Mitford sisters and wife of the 11th Duke of Devonshire, was hefted by marriage to one of Europe’s greatest treasure houses, Chatsworth. In partnership with her husband, she imbued it with a spirit, elegance and sense of welcome that transformed it from being the worn-out survivor of decades of taxation, war and social change into one of the best-loved, historic estates in the country. With responsibility for Lismore Castle and Bolton Abbey as well, no wonder her passport stated her profession as ‘housewife’.
Along the way, she became a best-selling author and sell-out speaker, champion of the countryside, trustee and patron of numerous charities, businesses and good causes, and the most famous poultry keeper in the country. She met Hitler and Churchill, was a trusted confidante of the then Prince of Wales, and was friends with a dazzling array of some of the brightest and most fascinating of her contemporaries, including President Kennedy, Evelyn Waugh, Oscar de la Renta, John Betjeman, Lucian Freud, Tom Stoppard, Neil MacGregor, Patrick Leigh Fermor and Alan Bennett.
She said herself that charm was the hardest quality to describe in another person; hers lived in her unique turn of phrase, her stoic Mitfordian perspective on life’s challenges, her curiosity about everyone she met, her stylish beauty, quick wit and delight in all that life offered her. Our lecturer was lucky enough to work for and with her over more than 20 years and in this lecture pays tribute to an astonishing life.
Picture © Gary Rogers

This lecture tells the multifaceted Ukrainian story through the shared culture,
which binds its diverse people together. This involves exploring the sacred art and architecture of Kyiv, inherited from Byzantium, the history of the Cossack element in Ukrainian identity, and the distinctive characters of Odesa and Lviv. We will also look at the important part played by folk culture in the years before Ukraine’s emergence as an independent nation, ranging from ‘red icons’ on glass and ancient songs, to the secret codes embedded in the country’s remarkable embroidery tradition.

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

Nicholas Hilliard captured a glowing, delicate and intimate image of the Elizabethans in his jewel-like portrait miniatures. He has left us a legacy of colour, pattern, symbolism and likeness, as well as an opinionated insight into the thoughts and practices of a sixteenth-century English artist. This lecture outlines Hilliard’s career and explores the changing styles demanded by his patrons.

In the Renaissance, Christmas was a popular time to hold jousts, tournaments and courtly spectacles. In the dark, dead of winter, a colourful, glamorous celebration of chivalry very much took on the role of a kind of sixteenth-century ‘festival of light’. In England, Christmas jousts became especially popular under that famous lover of armour and fighting, King Henry VIII. Such events were a kind of performance art, which fused real armoured combat with fantastical, mythological and allegorical themes. In this lecture, this rich history will be explored through the personal experiences of the lecturer, an academic specialist but also one of the world’s foremost jousters and medieval martial artists.