PAST MEETINGS Here are details of our past meetings, to give you an idea of the variety and scope of the lectures. Also members might like to use the links to find out more. Friday 18th December 2020 10.50am for 11am The Journey of the Magi: Origins, Myth and Reality – The True Story of the Three Kings Leslie Primo A welcome return by this ever-popular lecturer who will seek to unravel the myth and iconography behind the story of the adoration of the Magi, from its Eastern and pagan roots to its Christian interpretation. Illustrated with works by Bosch, Botticelli, Bruegel the Elder, Masaccio and Rubens, the talk considers what we want this story to mean and why we continue to value it in our largely secular Western society. Friday 20th November 2020 Raphael of Urbino: Artist and Architect Shirley Smith 2020 marks the 500th anniversary of the death of Raphael at the age of 37. In this lecture, we will study his art and architecture, from his early work in Urbino and Florence to its full maturity in Rome. On-line Study Day Helen Rufus-Ward Otherworldly Byzantium – Holy Places and Sacred Art This year, the study ‘day’ is being delivered as three separate, but linked, sessions on: Tuesday 10th November 2020, 10.00hrs Tuesday 17th November 2020, 10.00hrs Tuesday 24th November 2020, 10.00hrs The first session explores the 6th century architecture and art of St Catherine’s Monastery on Mount Sinai. So, not an easy place to reach, even pre-Covid! Look out for the link to the zoom session which will be sent in a separate email. These sessions this year will be provided complementary to your membership fee. Friday 16th October 2020 English Women and the French Revolution Karin Fernald Early on during the French revolution, several dauntless English women visited Paris and reported on their experiences in their diaries and letters. We hear about their adventures and encounters in a very entertaining lecture, illustrated by contemporary French paintings. Friday 18th September 2020 Paradise Lost and Restored: 400 years of Garden Design in Oxfordshire Timothy Walker A fascinating look at the history of English garden design through the lens of one particular example – the Oxford Botanic Garden, founded in the early 17th century. Successive head gardeners over the centuries have followed garden fashion and botanic developments while remaining close to the fundamental motive of garden design – the desire to create Paradise on Earth. Friday 21st August - Dr Max Jones The Glorious Dead: Grief and Politics in memorials to the Great War. Six million Britons served in the armed forces during the Great War. One in eight perished. The legions of the bereaved launched a wave of commemorative projects, erecting thousands of memorials which still mark the landscape of countryside and city today. We will explore how artists developed new strategies to represent loss on an unprecedented scale, how bitter disputes scarred many projects, and how memorials helped families grieve for those they had lost. Friday 7th August - Nicola Moorby Looking over the Artist’s shoulder: The Italian Sketchbooks of J.M.W. Turner. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries Italy was the country of every artist’s dreams. This lecture recreates a visual tour of Italy in the company of J.M.W. Turner. By studying rarely seen drawings from his travel sketchbooks we will take a privileged look into the world of the artist, following in his footsteps through Venice, Rome, Tivoli and Naples. Through his most intimate and private sketches we will recapture the excitement and dangers of nineteenth-century tourism, and the British love of Italian culture and history. In addition to on-the-spot sketches documenting where he went and what he saw, we will examine Turner’s artistic response to his Italian experiences, tracing the evolution of his ideas from preparatory studies to finished watercolours and oil. Friday 10th July - Anne Anderson How we got IKEA! : Scandinavian Design c1880-1960 This is the lecture originally schedule for June and more details are in your programme card. Friday 21st February 2020 Every Picture Tells a Story Grant Ford Our speaker will discuss some of the masterpieces he has handled in his career in the art world including works by the members of the Pre-Raphaelites and Modern British artists. Why did certain works fall out of fashion, only to set world records decades later? A fascinating look both at some great British artists and at their work within the global art market. Friday 17th January 2020 Domina: Imperial Women in Ancient Rome: their images in art, sculpture and coins, their influence, power and fates Guy de la Bédoyère Alongside Augustus, Caligula, Claudius and Nero were the Julio-Claudian wives whose dynastic significance conferred on them exceptional power. We look at these women through coins, art and sculpture and hear their remarkable stories. Study Day Tuesday 19th November 2019 Giles Ramsay: The World of Wolf Hall (1485-1649) This series of talks takes the works of Hilary Mantel as a starting point to explore the rise of the Tudor state, the psychopathology of Thomas Cromwell and Henry VIII, and the influence this period had on the emergence of a modern world and a modern theatre. Visit Tuesday 15th October 2019 Birmingham Symphony Hall The Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Yuri Simonov, will be playing Shostakovich’s astonishing 10th Symphony. This is followed by the long-awaited Birmingham debut of exciting young star Alexandra Dariescu, playing Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto.
Web site and mobile phone pages designed, created and maintained by Janet Groome, Handshake Computer Training
The Arts Society Oundle