Norio NAKAYAMA from saitama, japan, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons This is my ‘calling card’. The lecture is of general interest and charts opera’s close connection with the society that is paying for it. The talk moves from the 17th and 18th century preoccupations with princely patronage, classical plots, courtly manners, high voices, enormous […]

Unknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons   In June 1520 the king of France and the king of England met in a field outside Calais to celebrate peace. The celebrations that accompanied this meeting have become known as The Field of Cloth of Gold because of their extravagance and luxury, a magnificence captured in […]

(left)User Roisterer on en.wikipedia, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons-(right)Majvdl, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons I confess to not thinking it much like the original – but that the public will not be able to detect… Cassie Austen on her Aunt Jane’s portrait. From Burns to Byron and from Jane Austen to the Brontes; […]

Lecture Description Deep blue is the most popular colour in the world.  Perhaps it is redolent of velvety night skies and starry Summer evenings. It is thought to symbolize strength and wisdom. It has always stood for the cosmos and the Virgin Mary, as a colour of the intellect and spiritual healing and was the […]

National Archives and Records Administration, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons   This talk is about the White House’s most celebrated twentieth century residents. Others had been, perhaps, more intellectual, such as Eleonora Roosevelt, certainly others utterly perfidious, just to name Nixon for one, but no other couple who inhabited the White House were ever so […]

Featured Image Attribute Pvt pauline, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons Description of Lecture The lecture explores the passion for the exotic and beautiful tulip flower which reached its height in Amsterdam in the 1630s. Collectors, besotted by the exceptional beauty of this new and exotic flower, speculated in and paid ever higher prices for […]

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 […]