Art and architecture along the Silk Road
This course will take us on a journey in the footsteps of the merchants who travelled the Silk Road, studying some of the sites they would have seen in the first millenium when mercantile activity was at its height. We … More details …
Great Spanish Masters: El Greco, Velázquez, Goya
El Greco was born in Crete, but later painted in Italy and then Madrid and Toledo. His highly dramatic and expressionistic art was not appreciated in his own time, but much regarded in later centuries. His altarpieces and religious themes … More details …
Paris 1925: The Birth of Art Deco and Modernism
A thoroughly French affair, the 1925 Paris Exposition Internationale Des Arts Decoratifs et Industrials Moderne was dominated by the foremost designers Rene Lalique for glass, Edgar Brandt for metalwork, Emile-Jacques Ruhlmann for furniture and Jean Dunand for lacquer work. With … More details …
Reading Paintings
Explore the links between art and literature, from the Mona Lisa to The Lady of Shalott. We will begin by reading a single painting in detail, William Holman Hunt’s The Awakening Conscience (1853). We then broaden our focus to other … More details …