Featured Image Attribute Khiva, minaret, minor, kalta minor, short minaret, unesco world heritage, majolica, turquoise, color, museum city. By courtesy PXFUEL. Description of Lecture This is a narrative approach to the revival of 15th century carpets in Khiva, a desert oasis in Uzbekistan. Illuminations on vellum – containing the only surviving representations of textiles from […]

Featured Image Attribute Catching some welcome sunlight after the miserable weather earlier in the day (see next photo). This is the former mascot of the long-demolished Lion Brewery; it's now on the south side of Westminster Bridge, next to the former County Hall. There were three lions originally, made by WF Woodington in 1837 (using […]

Featured Image Attribute Giotto - The Nativity in the Lower Church, Assisi Description of Lecture From the 13th to the 20th centuries, the Nativity must be one of the most popular subjects of all with artists, north and south of the Alps, from Giotto, Fra Angelico, Rembrandt to Rubens. Sometimes the scene takes place at night, sometimes […]

Featured Image Attribute By courtesy - PXFuel Description of Lecture At some stage in their life most of us have received or sent a valentine card. While enthusiasm for such a romantic gesture has fluctuated over the years, the symbolism has remained enduring. This talk explores the expressions of roses, hearts and cupids as depicted […]

Featured Image Attribute All Hallows, Tottenham - Stained glass window. This image was taken from the Geograph project collection. See this photograph's page on the Geograph website for the photographer's contact details. The copyright on this image is owned by John Salmon and is licensed for reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 license. Description […]

Featured Image Attribute Chinese and Chinoiserie furnishing and furniture of the last four centuries. by Konstig, Seppo - Finland - CC BY Description of Lecture When the very first Chinese porcelains found their way to Europe, the beauty and fragility of the material led to their being mounted with precious metal and treasured alongside other […]

Featured Image Attribute Jackson Pollock-CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication Description of Lecture What caused American painting to take off as it did in the mid-20th century? The painter Willem de Kooning attributed its initial success to the work of his friend Jackson Pollock whom he credited with ‘breaking the ice’. My talk […]

Featured Image Attribute Netherlandish Proverbs (The Blue Cloak) by Pieter Brueghel the Elder (1526/1530–1569) Description of Lecture In 1565, Pieter Bruegel the Elder was commissioned to create a series of paintings for a dining room in Antwerp. The images, charting the course of a year, changed the way we view the world through art. Landscape […]

Featured Image Attribute The Entry of Alexander into Babylon, about 1665–probably by 1676, made at the Royal Factory of Furniture to the Crown at the Gobelins Manufactory. Design by Charles Le Brun; cartoon for the vertical-warp loom by Henri Testelin; weaving by Jean Jans the Elder, Jean Jans the Younger, or Jean Lefebvre. Wool, silk, […]

Featured Image Attribute The Incredulity of Saint Thomas-Caravaggio (1601-2) Description of Lecture Caravaggio – one of the best known names today. A man of proverbial rebelliousness, painting in a style which he knew would drop a bomb on the art world he grew up in. He painted with startling immediacy, rejecting his peers’ obsession with […]