Archived lectures

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16
Jan
2024

Charles I: King & Collector

Money Painting

Tuesday 16th January 2024 at 10.45am

Lecturer: Barbara Askew

Charles I’s obsession for collecting art began when he saw the magnificent collection of Spain’s King Philip IV. He then purchased the fabulous collection of the Dukes of Mantua including works by Titian and Raphael; he engaged Rubens to paint the ceiling of the Banqueting House in Whitehall and he appointed Van Dyck as his Court Artist. Overall, he amassed over 2000 works, thereby bankrupting the nation.

Posted by vivalogue in Archived lectures
20
Feb
2024

Rosa Bonheur, Animal Painter Extraordinaire

Tuesday 20th February 2024 at 10.45am

Lecturer: Lois Oliver

French painter Rosa Bonheur had an extraordinary gift for painting animals that brought her international fame and recognition and in 1865 she was awarded the Légion d’Honneur, Defying convention, Bonheur obtained official permission to wear men’s clothing, so that she could study animal anatomy in the male-only spaces of livestock sales. Her painting ‘The Horse Fair’ was so famous that Queen Victoria requested a private viewing at Buckingham Palace.

Posted by vivalogue in Archived lectures
19
Mar
2024

London Bridged – 3,500 Years of Crossing the Thames

Tuesday 19th March 2024 at 10.45am

Lecturer: Charlie Forman

People were bridging the Thames in the Bronze Age - 1,500 years before the Romans built London Bridge. The last 200 years have seen over 50 new crossings over and under the river. Some are great feats of engineering, some are architecturally elegant. Every crossover changes the city’s genetic code.

Posted by Malcolm Lawrenson in Archived lectures
16
Apr
2024

Alma Tad. of the Royal Acad.

Medieval revelry

Tuesday 16th April 2024 at 10.45am

Lecturer: Tim Stimson replaces Louise Schofield who is indisposed.

The lecture title is from the song celebrating this cheery Dutchman’s knighthood during Queen Victoria’s diamond jubilee. It conveys the widespread affection with which he was regarded by his public, and the riches he enjoyed through the popularity of his accurate and amusing recreations of Roman life. His pictures were once criticised as “Victorians in togas”, yet that is their charm now; and the parallels between the Roman and the British empires are entertainingly apt. The partially disguised eroticism, of course, did no harm to the sales of his sumptuous evocations of delightful decadence.

Posted by vivalogue in Archived lectures