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 19th September 2025 Annual General Meeting - 10:45am – followed by: Fields and Forests of Venice Chantel Brotherton Ratcliffe Everyone who has been to Venice will look at this title, and think “fields and forests in Venice? Are there any?” And of course, the answer is no, there are none. And anyone who has been in Venice for a long stay will have experienced a sudden overwhelming longing for something that’s green, a bit of nature, for anything that’s not a brick wall or a canal. Visit and Study Day GRANARIES, GASWORKS and GOOGLE WEDNESDAY 4th JUNE 2025 Join us for a guided walk with Ian Swankie around London’s Kings Cross area, which has seen one of the most dramatic urban redevelopments anywhere in Europe. Starting outside Kings Cross station, the walk is at a gentle pace and lasts about two hours. Friday 20th June 2025 Stephen Kershaw Bronze Age Frescoes from Santorini: The Art of Atlantis Inspired by Steve's appearance as an expert contributor in a Channel 5 TV documentary about ruined ancient cities, “The Bronze Age Frescoes from Santorini: The Art of Atlantis” indulges in a sumptuously illustrated look at some outstanding ancient Greek artworks, and the intriguing possibilities of interpretation that they have produced. In around 1625 BCE the thriving harbour town of Akrotiri on the island of Santorini was overwhelmed in a cataclysmic volcanic eruption that both destroyed and preserved one of the most wondrous sets of frescoes to emerge from the ancient world. Friday 16th May 2025 Isabelle Kent From Crete to Toledo: The Mysterious Art of El Greco Domenicos Theotokopolos, better known as El Greco, is often seen as an artist out of his correct place and time. At first glance, his dramatic, expressionistic paintings with their sinuous figures seem more at home in a modern art museum than among other Old Masters. In this lecture I will explore how his distinctive style came to be, and how it was received by his intrigued, and sometimes bemused, contemporaries. I cover his early years painting Byzantine icons in Crete through to his studies in Venice and Rome and finally his decades among the medieval splendour and humanist thought of Toledo. Study Day Wednesday 2 April 2025 Barnwell Village Hall Illuminated Manuscripts Imogen Corrigan An introduction to illuminated manuscripts of both pre- and post-Conquest periods. This considers briefly how they were made and planned and the difficulties faced by the scribes, some of whom complained bitterly in writing. The lecture considers the importance of the Correct Text and how errors were corrected, how some manuscripts are linked artistically to others; we can track styles migrating and progressing over the years. Throughout the lecture, there is a theme of how the books were used, whether as sacred vessels for The Word or as memory joggers for day-dreaming monks. Miniature from the Morgan Bible 1240. Friday 25th April 2025 (A week later than usual due to Easter) Adam Busiakiewicz The Queen of Instruments: The Lute within Old Master Paintings The lute holds a special place in the history of art; painters of the Italian Renaissance depicted golden-haired angels plucking its delicate strings, evoking celestial harmony; in the 16th century, during the rise of humanism, the lute was a becoming pastime of educated courtiers, as depicted by the likes of Holbein and Titian; throughout the 17th century, the instrument continued to play a key role in emphasising the intimate, debauched and transient pleasures of interior scenes by Jan Steen and portraits by Frans Hals. This lecture looks at the lute and other musical instruments, as devices to express various aspects of the human character throughout the ages. Friday 21st March 2025 Rupert Willoughby Marathon One of the world’s most popular athletic events commemorates Pheidippides’ epic run from the battlefield of Marathon to his native Athens. Since the 19th century, historians have argued that it was a crucial event, one that decided the whole future of human civilisation. Rupert recreates the background and battle itself in thrilling detail. He looks at the various ways in which ancient Athens has influenced our art and culture, and argues that Marathon was indeed the battle that saved ‘Western Civilisation’. Eye-opening and exciting. Friday 21st February 2025 Dr Aaron W. Hunter The Science of Art at the National Gallery The National Gallery is home to one of the best collections of art in the world. Its incredible diversity allows you to progress through the history of art in a relatively small space. The gallery gives us the opportunity to discover the science behind fine art. How has scientific innovation changed the way we create art? Examples are the development of perspective in the early Renaissance, to the evolution of different paint types. We will look at the genius of Leonardo da Vinci bringing original scientific knowledge into art. We will see how trade brought new copper minerals to Europe that would change the composition of paintings as seen in the work of Titian. Friday 17th January 2025 Justin Reay Lunaticks, Slavers and the Genteel: Portraits by Joseph Wright of Derby In the 18th century portraiture in Britain became more democratic, the nobility giving way to the nouveau riche, as industrialists and merchants commissioned portraits from the great painters of the day, such as Hudson, Reynolds, Ramsay, Zoffany and Gainsborough. Although Joseph Wright of Derby was highly regarded as a portraitist by his peers, he is now better known as the artist of the Industrial Revolution, but his unflattering studies of the leaders of industry and trade in the Midlands and Liverpool give a fascinating insight into the character needed to make a good living in a tough era. Friday 20th December 2024 Sarah Burles Hark the Herald Angels in Art How does a mere mortal go about creating an image of a heavenly being? Across religions and centuries, artists have sought to make spiritual messengers, protectors and protagonists visible through their skill and imagination. In Christian iconography, angels have been visualised in a myriad of different ways - Leonardo da Vinci depicts the Angel Gabriel with the realistic wings of a bird while, in contrast, a few years later, Raphael paints a pair of pensive toddlers. Van Eyck’s angels sing and play musical instruments while in the work of William Blake, they appear like phantoms in both poems and pictures. Friday 15th November 2024 Rosalind Whyte Antony Gormley: A Body of Work Antony Gormley’s career spans nearly 40 years, during which time he has made sculpture that explores the relationship of the human body to space, often using his own body as his starting point. His work has been shown throughout the world, in galleries including the Tate in London and the Hermitage in St Petersburg, but is also often on open display, as public art, such as Another Place at Crosby Beach, near Liverpool. As well as works that he is well known for, like the iconic Angel of the North, this lecture will look at some of his earlier and less well-known works, to give an overall view of the development of his work across his whole career, up to the present time. Friday 18th October 2024 Caroline Levisse Danish Modernism: The Skagen Painters Located at the northernmost point of the Jutland peninsula in Denmark, Skagen is an attractive spot in the summer for its unusual light. From the 1870s to the beginning of the 20th century this fishermen village was home to an artists’ colony. Some of its more famous members include Anna and Michael Ancher, Marie and Peder Severin Krøyer, as well as Laurits Tuxen, reacting against styles enforced by the Academies and influenced instead by French modernism. The lecture is followed by a welcome by the committee to new members. Friday 20th September 2024 Mary Alexander Dazzling Dufy: A Luminous Feast Raoul Dufy (1877-1953) was a key player in early twentieth century avant-garde art, design and literary/theatrical circles in Paris. As a widely travelled polymath, Dufy's charismatic personality, wit and curiosity about the world was infectious. His imagination and technical virtuosity - across a range of media including painting and lithography, posters, book illustration, theatrical set design, textiles and fashion, ceramics and large murals - cut across all conventional boundaries. Whether a small intricate woodcut illustrating a love poem, or the truly gigantic 1937 World Fair murals depicting the role of electricity in the modern age, the effect is mesmerising. VISIT TO THE ASHMOLEAN MUSEUM AND OXFORD TUESDAY 11th JUNE 2024 We warmly invite Arts Society members and guests to join us for a tour of the highlights of the Ashmolean with optional free time to explore Oxford. The Ashmolean came into existence in 1682, when the wealthy antiquary Elias Ashmole gifted his collection to the University. It opened as Britain’s first public museum, and the world’s first university museum, in 1683. Following the tour, the rest of the day is free for you either to explore the museum further, visit some of the Oxford colleges, visit the Botanic Gardens, enjoy a leisurely lunch or simply take it easy.