PAST MEETINGS Here are details of our past meetings, to give you an idea of the variety and scope of the lectures. Also members might like to use the links to find out more. Study Day A Tale of Threads and Steel: A Bayeux Tapestry Study Day Dr. Tobias Capwell FSA Wednesday 14th October 2026 This study day comprises 3 lectures: ‘Understanding A Great Work of European Art: It Is NOT a Tapestry’ In the first talk of the day, we explore the essential facts of the Bayeux ‘Tapestry’ – what it is, when it made, and how, why such a monumental embroidery was made in the first place, and possibly who made it. We also look closely at how it works, in its telling of the grand drama of the Norman Conquest of England in 1066, and in its form as one of the greatest works of sequential narrative art ever created. Friday 16th October 2026 How Symphonies were born in a London Pub Robert Samuels Today we talk of “symphony concerts” and “symphony orchestras”, but where did these come from? The answer involves a fascinating story stretching across the whole of the eighteenth century, as the new and strange idea of just sitting and listening to music, rather than singing or dancing to it, gradually took off in musical life across Europe. One of the most surprising aspects of this story is the part played in it by Britain. This talk begins in a tavern in the Restoration London of Pepys’s diary, moves on through Haydn’s seasons in 1790s London, which he described as the happiest of his professional life, and then shows how Mozart and Beethoven, both of them friends and followers of Haydn, took up this new idea of a “symphony concert”. Like so many good ideas, this one really did begin in a London pub. Annual General Meeting at 10.45 am Followed by: Friday 18th September 2026 Caravaggio is not the only artist - a study of his contemporaries and their varied response to his revolutionary art Chantal Brotherton-Ratcliffe What misfortune to be an artist born at the same time as a dazzling personality like Michelangelo or Caravaggio! Perhaps we should pay more attention to the artists contemporary with and learning from such overpowering characters? This lecture repositions Caravaggio’s achievements in the period immediately following his brilliant but short career. Turning over the pages of art history, it presents the splendid achievements of many artists such as Gentileschi - father and daughter, the Spaniards Ribera and Velázquez, the Dutch Honthorst and the French artist de la Tour and, ultimately, connects him to Rembrandt. It also asks, “What happened next?” How was it that Caravaggio’s style came to lose its hold and that fashion in art began to change? Friday 19th June 2026 Irma Stein (1894-1966): Flowers and Faces of Southern Africa Christopher Garibaldi Irma Stern was one of the most important and influential artists to come out of South Africa in the twentieth century. A near contemporary of Munnings, her art shows some stylistic similarities although her subjects were very different. A similar concern with figurative painting was in Stern’s case directed at the production of luxurious flower paintings in the manner of Van Gogh whilst perhaps her most original achievement were the powerful portraits she painted of black African sitters in exotic locations and costumes. Friday 15th May 2026 In the Footsteps of Wren: The Architecture of Norman Foster and Richard Rogers Brian Stater Whenever a radical building appears, someone, somewhere, insists: “Christopher Wren would be turning in his grave.” That barb was certainly endured by Richard Rogers and Norman Foster, who embraced modernism, building in steel, glass and concrete, while Wren designed in the classical style, using timber and stone. But when Rogers was awarded the Royal Gold Medal for Architecture, the citation observed that he was “the rightful heir to the traditions of Wren”. And the same might very well be said of Foster. Tudor Art: A New Story Christina J. Faraday Wednesday 6th May 2026 £45 including lunch This study day comprises 3 lectures: 1. Climbing Roses: Art for Henry VII and Henry VIII In this lecture we consider art made during Henry VII's reign and the first two decades of Henry VIII's. As the first Tudor monarchs tried to underpin their tenuous claim to the throne, art began to play a major role in their political strategy. From portraits to coins to tapestries, the visual arts are used to express potent political and religious messages. 2. Renaissance Moments: Henry VIII to Mary I As England's knowledge of foreign art and artists grew, hints of the Renaissance start to appear in Tudor visual art. In this lecture we look at the ways three different Tudor monarchs, Henry VIII, Edward VI and Mary I, engage with apparently 'Renaissance' trends in tapestries, book arts, architecture and paintings, in a uniquely English, hybrid, manner. 3. Gloriana in Orbit: Elizabeth I and the Visual Arts Although Elizabeth I was famously parsimonious, her reign ushered in a golden age of visual art. Courtiers and new-made men sought to define their social position and their relationship with the queen through visual arts. From vast prodigy houses to portrait miniatures, Elizabethans used every method at their disposal to send messages about their social status. Friday 17th April 2026 Fire and Water: The Rivalry of Turner and Constable Matthew Morgan Two artists developed radically opposing approaches to the emotive power of landscape painting in Britain in the early 19th Century. One was dramatic, bombastic and fiery, intending to provoke powerful emotions and elevated thoughts. The other was spiritual, heartfelt and closely observed, asking the viewer to react to an intense, inward and personal approach to nature. These two artists were JMW Turner and John Constable, the leading British artists of their day. Not only did they approach painting in different ways but their lives were opposites as well. This lecture will explore their different approaches and their famous, bitter rivalry. Friday 20th March 2026 The Creation and Early Years of the Newlyn School Alan Read From the 1880s Stanhope Forbes, Walter Langley, Frank Bramley and others working in Cornwall began to be recognised as a discrete school. Examining the process of that recognition, there will be a description of how the work of the Newlyn-based artists responded to international movements and ultimately how they came into conflict with trends elsewhere in British art. Friday 20th February 2026 National Treasures: Saving London’s Museums and Galleries in WWII Caroline Shenton This is the gripping and sometimes hilarious story of how a band of heroic curators and eccentric custodians saved Britain’s national heritage during our Darkest Hour. As Hitler’s forces gathered on the other side of the Channel to threaten these islands, men and women from London’s national museums, galleries and archives forged extraordinary plans to evacuate their collections to safety. Friday 16th January 2026 The Great Age of the Shogun: Art and Culture in the Edo Period Japan Marie Conte-Helm During the Edo period of rule by the Tokugawa Shogunate (1615-1868), the arts of Japan gained in richness and diversity. With the rise of the merchant class and the growth of cities such as Edo (modern-day Tokyo), a new vitality was injected into traditional forms and an emerging middle class culture gave rise to exciting developments in the visual and performing arts. This lecture will consider the arts of the period including castle architecture, golden screen painting, ukiyo-e prints, textiles, lacquerware, and netsuke, as well as the emergence of the flamboyant kabuki theatre. Friday 19th December 2025 The Art of Partying Alice Foster From Greek Mosaics in the second century, through weddings in the Bible, Renaissance allegories of refinement and excess, sixteenth century peasant parties out of doors, eighteenth century harlequins, to the celebratory styles of twentieth century painters, the depiction of parties has always been popular in the history of Western Art. Alice Foster traces the variety of merrymaking, banqueting, dances and music in a feast of colour. Friday 21st November 2025 Catherine the Great: The World’s Greatest Collector Andrew Prince In 1745, a Princess from the minor province of Anhalt-Zerbst in Saxony, married Prince Karl Peter Ulrich of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorf, heir to the Imperial Russian Throne. She was Princess Sophie Auguste Frederike and by 1762 she had deposed her husband, Peter lll and was crowned Empress Catherine II becoming the sole ruler of the Russian Empire. Visit A Day at Compton Verney Wednesday 15 October 2025 ‘An extraordinary, eclectic and creative high-quality experience, Compton Verney is a place for the curious that inspires, delights, challenges and rejuvenates.’ An accredited museum and charity located in Warwickshire, its history dates back to the late Saxon period. In the early 2000s, the Grade I-listed Georgian manor house, set in 120 acres of Grade II-listed Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown parkland, was restored and renovated and is now an art gallery and park. The galleries at Compton Verney host six permanent collections – Naples, Northern Europe, Portraits and Miniatures, Chinese Bronzes, Folk Art, and the Marx-Lambert Collection. There are also thought-provoking changing exhibitions and events both outdoors and inside. For members with mobility issues there is a shuttle bus from the coach park to the house. There are lifts to all floors within the house and accessible toilets on all floors. Stick stools are available in all galleries. The total cost is £52 for members (£62 for guests) and includes coach travel, entrance, coffee and biscuits on arrival, a one-hour guided tour of the Collections and a sandwich lunch. Places are on offer to Arts Society members and guests. Please book early to avoid disappointment. We hope that you can join us and we are very much looking forward to your company. Study Day at Barnwell Village Hall Caroline Holmes Australian Art Wednesday 29th October 2025 The three lectures will explore how aboriginal peoples, botanists, pioneers and artists have captured the land of Australia. We will view its extraordinary climatic contrasts, prompted by Dorothea McKellar’s celebratory poem ‘My Country’. We start with the patterned hands of ancient Aboriginal cave paintings, discover the dreams of pioneers and the country’s unique botanical treasures, learn how the Heidelberg School captured its zenith landscape and finally the rediscovery of its indigenous art. Friday 17th October 2025 The Scoliotic Knight: Encounters with Richard III Tobias Capwell The discovery of the grave of King Richard III in Leicester raised many fascinating new questions. The severe scoliosis exhibited by the skeleton revealed that the twisted physique of Shakespeare’s ‘Black Legend’ was based in fact. But how could a diminutive person, suffering from a significant spinal condition, have become a skilled practitioner of the knightly fighting arts? How could he have worn armour and fought in three major battles? What would his armour have looked like? In the case of a king whose royal legitimacy was questioned by many people, how were the visual trappings of knightly kingship used to solidify his claim?