Past Lectures
A Magical Mystery Tour : The English Miniature from the Tudors to the Victorians
Visions of India : Art and the East India Company – The meeting of East and West in Historic Paintings by Indian and European Artists
Art for the Afterlife : ancient Egyptian tomb scenes and funerary goods
The Christmas Story in Medieval Art
The Next Monthly Lecture
Gone in a flash ? A history of firework displays from the Renaissance to the age of electricity
Thu 3rd Jul 2025 @ 11:30 am - 12:30 pm

Featured Image Attribute
"Versailles Feu d'artifice" by Maurits Verbiest is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
Description of Lecture
The fireworks that mark great events such as the opening of the Olympics, or even the start of a New Year make an enormous impact. Despite their brevity, the displays live on through film and photography. For centuries, the very fact that the fireworks themselves were seen only for seconds and yet cost large amounts of money provoked a strong desire to record them and a large archive of visual evidence remains. When rulers such as Louis XIV or the Russian Emperors began to see the propaganda value of circulating images designed to impress and amaze, fireworks graduated from popular entertainment to become a sophisticated instrument of statecraft.

Lecturer: Timothy Wilcox
Stalbridge Hall, Lower Road, Stalbridge
Sturminster Newton,
Dorset
DT10 2NF
United Kingdom.
Oganiser: The Arts Society Blackmore Vale