A light-hearted, possibly audacious survey of some of the more peculiar images depicted on icons within the pan-Orthodox Christian world. We take on board the pagan origins, ancient legends and extraordinary saints that have given rise to so many curious images over the centuries. From leafy underpants to pillar saints, from dog-headed soldiers to naked desert hermits, we ask were they really so odd after all?

Does it follow that a passionate, violent nature will inevitably create dramatic, even dark art works? The life of Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio was full of drama and passion and it could be argued that his art mirrored his life. Although sometimes deeply disturbing, Caravaggios paintings demonstrate an understanding of realism and also of faith. This lecture will analyse both the art and the man, exploring these questions and getting close to the meaning in Caravaggio's works. 

This talk covers the attempts to unify graphically the London Underground- the need to create some cohesion between the different operating companies, the influence of the Arts and Crafts Movement and how they influenced the design of the London Underground to create a unified aesthetic. The creation of TFL and its future works will also be discussed. 

The lecture covers all the striking features of ballet, from pas de deux, to Royal Ballet specialities like fast feet and traditional mime. Set in the context of the Royal Ballet's history and performing tradition, its based on years of articles and events shared with dancers, choreographers and ballet masters. 

At the turn of the last centry Vienna was the capital of an empireand one of the most exciting artisitc laboratories in the world. This talk asks how and why the City of Dreams became a cultural hotbed....

Palladio's villas are revolutionary in that they combined functional requirements with classical elegance and symmetry. We consider his town palaces, his villas, their planning and decoration and his churches in Venice. 

These eggs have become the most famous surviving symbols of the Romanov Empire: both supreme examples of the jeweller's art and the vulgar playthings of a decadent court.

Harpist Margaret will play a seasonal hour of Christmas music. She will speak about the history and development of the harp. This event will embrace the spirit of Christmas. 

We will look at clothes, underclothes, shoes and accessories worn by the more colourful characters who lived at Blenheim. We also look at Blenheim's continuing relationship with the House of Dior

Are Vermeer’s domestic scenes just that or are they loaded with symbolism? How in a Protestant country did Vermeer die a Catholic? How did Vermeer paint ?

All will be revealed.

(Please note this is a change to the previously advertised lecturer  who is indisposed.) 

Murder, poison, corruption and incest: all perfect ingredients for sensational popular culture. But in an age known for its brutality and church corruption were the Borgias really so bad? We examine the real family that dominated the Papacy and Italian politics during the last decade of the 15th century: the charismatic figure of Pope Alexander VI, the career of his son, Cesare, cardinal, general, employer of Da Vinci and the model for Machiavelli’s The Prince. The advance of Lucrezia Borgia from “the greatest whore in Rome” to a devout and treasured duchess of the city Ferrara. Sometimes truth is more intoxicating than myth.

Sarah Dunant

We examine a series of iconic photographs that are embedded in our collective memory. They range from records of historic events to fabulous portraits and scenes of emotional release and joy. The talk analyses the power of these images, traces the fascinating stories of how they came to be produced, and places them in the context of our appreciation of art.

Brian Stater

How opera began, developed and spread worldwide; from 1600 to the present day. Illustrated with musical examples and excerpts of opera productions from around the world. This illustrated lecture looks at the development of opera from its baroque beginnings right up to the modern-day . Highlighting the major changes and game-changers through each century, the movers and the shakers, focusing upon the greatest operas by the greatest composers.    

Jamie Hayes

In our modern world it’s easy to take colour for granted. Yet before organic chemistry the most desirable pigments were often exotic or poisonous.

Merchants supplied pungent yellow ‘purree’ nuggets from India, cochineal ‘grana’ from the holds of Spanish galleons, lapis lazuli rock carried by camel train from the mountains of Badakhshan. 

Alchemists prepared deadly ‘King’s Yellow’ and ‘ruby of arsenic’. ‘Moorish Gold’ was concocted, according to a 12thcentury monk, from basilisk powder ground with human blood!

No wonder artists kept their paint recipes closely guarded in Books of Secrets.

This lecture tells the stories of alchemy and adventure behind some our most colourful paintings.

Lynn Gibson

​Paintings are a wonderful source for the jewellery historian. We explore what jewellery was worn and how it interacted with dress, as well as jewellery items worn by particular people and how this changed over time. Paintings can show us lost jewels which have been destroyed or stolen. In this lecture, we will look at whether jewels in paintings reflected real life or were inventions by the artist.

Rachel Church

Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) was one of the great figures of the late nineteenth century: a poet, novelist, playwright, essayist, wit and subversive thinker. He lived a life crowded with incident, spanning great success and humiliating failure. This talk charts a way through his life and achievement by examining, and contextualising, half a dozen of his celebrated epigrams, from ‘Every day I find it harder and harder to live up to my blue china’ to ‘I am fighting a battle to the death with my wallpaper: one of us will have to go.’ 

Matthew Sturgis

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…

Perhaps the best sculptor in wood ever, Grinling Gibbons rose from an obscure apprenticeship in Rotterdam to reach the height of his profession in England, collaborating with Wren and Vanbrugh, building a consistently substantial business for his atelier, and becoming King’s Carver. Much of his work survives in country houses, large churches and state apartments. Justin describes Gibbons’s life and career, and discusses the techniques he used to create a convincing illusion of reality.

Justin Reay 

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 as a 22-year-old prince when he travelled to Spain and saw the magnificent collection of the Spanish king, Philip IV. Crowned 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.

Barbara Askew

Our lecturer discusses the highly individual style, haunting portraits and sensual nudes of Modigliani, including his early development and arrival and life  in Paris, where he was in the centre of the Bohemian life style.  His friends included Picasso, Utrillo, Mark Jacob and many other influential painters.

Rodin is one of the heroic figures of the 19th century art history, taking a revolutionary path equivalent to the Realists, Impressionists and Post Impressionists.  This lecture surveys his work showing why he is one of the greatest sculptors ever, looking at his work in relationship to 19th centurysculpture as well as assessing his continuing relevance.

Savile Row has been the epitome of British tailoring style for almost 200 years.  This lecture takes a look at the history of tailoring in Britain, looking at the art and objects that demonstrate its excellence

For the Romans, life meant getting together to eat and drink in a pub or banquet. This talk, based on the 2019-20 exhibition Last Supper in Pompeii at the Ashmolean Museum Oxford, celebrates the Roman love affair with food and drink.  A journey from fields and vineyards to markets and shops.

From Burns to Byron and from Jane Austen to the Brontes; this lecture will uncover the fascinating stories behind some literary portraits of the Romantic period. We will also explore the afterlives of literary portraits and their use in popular culture - from banknotes and fridge magnets, to tins of shortbread and bottles of gin.

Titian established himself as the foremost painter of Northern Italy, training in Bellini’s workshop, he developed the Venetian love of light and colour. Tough astute and ambitious, he is often seen as the first modern painter, applying pigment directly onto canvas. This lecture shows how he influences every painter over the next four centuries.

St Nicholas is said to have saved the lives of 3 Virgins by offering gifts.  As patron saint of sailors his fame spread to Italy, but it is the Dutch who transformed him into Sinterklaas and finally Santa Claus.  We learn of his journey from a 4th century Greek Bishop into Father Christmas. 

St Paul’s Cathedral was deprived of music after the fire of London in 1666, but in 1697 Christopher Wren was able to declare RESURGAM as the phoenix rose from the ashes.  This lecture will look at music from either side of this momentous event and we will be guided through the finest repertoire across the Cathedral’s liturgical year. 

If ever there was a people's Palace it is here, wrote the creator George Wallace. We explore the stories and objects that make up the eclectic collections and gain an insight into the vision that brought about this much -loved museums birth.        

Although Australian art is often overlooked, there is a large amount of talented and inventive painters who rose to prominence in the post-World War 11 era. This lecture will highlight those painters working in a naive and espressive style, plus figurative and abstract expressionism, to give us an understanding of the modern art of Australia and its place in the history of Western Art. 

The history of English garden design can be told in different ways but rarely can it be told "through the lens" of one garden. Oxford Botanic Garden was founded in the 17th century and its design bears all the hallmarks of that period of time. We will learn of how head gardeners changed the features reflecting the art of gardening and occasionally the science of botany during their tenure. 

We all use chairs! But over the past 500 years, artists across the world have been using the humble chair as a conduit for profond ideas on themes of protest, absence and memory, to domestic and everyday life. Our lecturer will discuss the many diverse artists and uses of chairs in paintings. 

The discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb by Howard Carter was arguably the greatest archaeological discovery of the 20th century. Our lecturer will explore the unusual tomb and iconic treasures, examine the design and decoration of the tomb and explain what has happened to the incredible wealth of funeral items found inside.

Lucia Gahlin

This talk covers the many portraits that George Chinnery painted of leading figures of the East India Company as well as the beautiful scenes of everyday life and landscapes of India. We also learn of Chinnery's very colourful background and his constant need to escape his debtors. 

Clive Stewart- Lockhart 

The depiction of partying has always been popular in the history of Western art; from Greek mosaics in the 2nd century, through weddings in the Bible and Renaissance allegories of refinement and excess; Our lecture covers peasant outdoor parties in the 16th century, 18th century harlequins, to the celebratory styles of 20th century painters.

Alice Foster 

The Impressionist Movement produced some of the finest snow paintings in the history of art. Often painters such as Monet, Pissarro and Sisley would stand for hours in the open air to capture the subtleties of light and colour produced by a recent snow fall, recording the silence, beauty and grandeur of the landscape.

Julian Halsby 

American pioneers in glass technology from the late 19th century onwards provided much of the innovative tradition that brought about the birth of the Studio Glass Movement in the USA. Dale Chihuly is the prominent name in this context and the talk concentrates on his individual works and large scale exhibitions, such as that in Kew Gardens.

Scott Anderson 

Trained as an archaeologist at Leicester University and was a professional archaeologist for ten years before his interests shifted to the world of art, antiques and auctioneering. In 1994 he joined the team at Southampton Solent University lecturing on the only BA(Hons) degree course of its kind to look at the commercial art world. Now, as a Senior Lecturer, he teaches courses on the history and theory of interior design and visual culture. He has lectured to many adult audiences for a variety of University Extra-mural departments and the WEA. For the last few years he has also worked as a consultant valuer for the BBC television programme Flog It.

Something extraordinary happened to the British seaside between the wars: It became glamorous exciting and modern. Whilst holiday makers grabbed slinky new bathing costumes, Artists found inspiration on the beach, with glorious posters, eye catching art work and photographs.

James Russell curated Eric Ravilious at Dulwich Picture Gallery in 2015. He is the author of The Lost Watercolours of Edward Bawden (Mainstone Press), a study of Bawden’s 1930s paintings, as well as titles devoted to Eric Ravilious and other artists of the period