In this Study Day we examine the artistic tastes and art collections of three kings, King Charles I, King Charles II and King Charles III.
Without King Charles I’s passion for collecting we would not have the Royal Collection, the largest privately-owned art collection in the world; without King Charles II we would have lost the magnificent collection his father had amassed, and King Charles III is the owner of the Royal Collection today.

Lecture One
On becoming King, Charles I purchased the fabulous art collection of the Gonzaga Dukes of Mantua.  He engaged Rubens to paint the ceiling of the Banqueting House and he appointed van Dyck as his court artist, but in amassing his great collection he bankrupted England and alienated his people.  Charles I was our most tragic monarch and yet he was also our single greatest royal collector of art.

Lecture Two
On being restored to the throne in 1660 Charles II’s first act as monarch was to recover as much as possible of his father’s magnificent collection of art. He received 28 paintings and 12 antique sculptures, the so-called "Dutch Gift”, from the States of Holland and realised that art could be used as bargaining chips in diplomacy.
During his reign he amassed over 1000 paintings and was instrumental in creating his own image as King.  He transformed Windsor Castle into a magnificent Baroque Palace in the manner of his cousin King Louis XIV’s Palace of Versailles and used art as a symbol of power.

Lecture Three
King Charles III is a keen artist and has painted watercolours since the 1970’s.  
In 2000 he co-founded the Royal Drawing School to address the lack of observational drawing in art education and he has set up a Traditional Skills Centre at Dumfries House. In 2018 in an exhibition marking his 70th birthday he selected his personal top 25 historical works from the Royal Collection.
King Charles III is our most culturally attuned monarch in over a century.

Barbara Askew is an historian and London Blue Badge Guide since 1988. Lecturer, She is an examiner and Course Director on Blue Badge Guide Training Courses and an acknowledged expert on Royalty and Windsor Castle. She is the only Blue Badge Guide accredited to guide the Albert Memorial. She offers guided visits and walking tours linked to her lectures.

Portrait of King Charles III by artist Peter Kuhfeld 
© His Majesty King Charles III 2025, Royal Collection

• New Location: The Village Hall, Back St, East Garston, Hungerford RG17 7EX
  Parking in Hall Car Park, or tidily in the road
• Admission / coffee from 10am.  Hot lunch at 1pm - catering by Priscilla’s Kitchen.
• Cost for the day £40pp
• Booking opens at the January lecture, or contact the organisers after that.

In the field of world class architecture, British talent has always been at the forefront, and we have much to celebrate. In this Special Interest Day, Ian tours around the UK and overseas showcasing the brilliance of some of the designers who have made huge improvements to the built environment and enhanced the lives of those around them. Famous names like Wren, Lutyens, Gilbert Scott, Foster, Hadid, Rogers and Heatherwick are joined by several lesser known but equally creative architects. It is not a technical talk, but an informative and lively examination of some brilliant designers and their legacy. 

Lecture 1. The Gleaming Spires of London from 1066 to 2066
London boasts a remarkable range of architecture and this talk reveals the evolution of the capital through its great buildings. We start with a brief look at the development of architecture in the capital and then focus on the modern. Whether we like it or not, there are currently well over 500 new buildings over twenty storeys high planned for London in the next few years, including dozens more than twice this height. This is in addition to those already completed. This talk looks at the best of these buildings including the cutting-edge designs of the latest towers such as the Shard, the Gherkin, the Walkie-Talkie, the Leadenhall Building, the Scalpel and 22 Bishopsgate.

Lecture 2. The Brilliance of Thomas Heatherwick – a Modern Leonardo.
The past decade has seen the meteoric rise of this extraordinarily versatile British designer with his acclaimed Olympic cauldron, the iconic new London bus and designs for a spectacular new HQ building in King's Cross for Google. Over the last thirty years the Heatherwick Studio has used an intriguing combination of curiosity and experimentation to produce a vast range of solutions to design challenges around the world. This talk looks at the problems presented, and the wonderfully creative ways in which Heatherwick and his team have responded

Lecture 3. The Classical Re-invented – the legacy of Sir Christopher Wren
In this lecture we wind the clock back to the seventeenth century and enjoy an armchair tour of some of Wren’s magnificent structures including City Churches, the Old Royal Naval College at Greenwich and, of course, his greatest masterpiece St Paul’s Cathedral. Wren was primarily a mathematician and astronomer and we’ll see how these disciplines are harnessed in his work. 

Image courtesy of Ian Swankie

Ian Swankie is a Londoner with a passion for art and architecture. He is an official guide at Tate Modern, Tate Britain, Guildhall Art Gallery and St Paul’s Cathedral, and gives tours at each venue. He is also a qualified and active freelance London guide and leads regular tours for various corporations and organisations. Since 2012 he has led a popular weekly independent art lecture group in his hometown of Richmond in West London, and he gives talks on a variety of subjects. He is an accredited lecturer for The Arts Society, and a Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Art Scholars, one of the City Livery Companies.
 In recent years Ian has talked to us about Grayson Perry and about Great Railway Stations.

• Location: Riverside Room, Bear Hotel, Hungerford 10.30 – 3.30 (coffee from 10am)
• Booking at October lecture or email the organisers
• Price: £38 per person to include coffee and a sandwich lunch

Please note that this event will be now held in the Riverside Room at The Bear Hotel and NOT at Herongate

The day will comprise of three lecture sessions:

LECTURE 1 -  History of the Royal Academy of Arts:
How it came to be (with its various homes), its remit of establishing the RA Schools, its Permanent Collections and holding the annual Summer Exhibition since 1768 (and this will include what it means to be a RA and the various past Presidents).

LECTURE 2 -   History of its world-renowned temporary loan exhibitions:
In addition to the above remits as outlined in lecture 1, from the early 20th century to modern day, the RA has garnished a reputation for holding ground-breaking temporary loan exhibitions (and now with the new ‘extension’ of Burlington Gardens, there are many more).   We will review a selection of these exhibitions (from the 1930s to modern day) and why they are were/are so important. Not only to educating the public of art coming to the UK from all over the world, but how this forged the behaviour of other art museums and institutions. The RA trailblazed where other institutions followed: ie Tate Modern, Serpentine, Haywards gallery and so on - with the ‘blockbuster’ and the niche exhibition. We have the longest run of temporary loan exhibitions in this country.

Lunch Break

LECTURE 3 -  Women and the RA from 1768 - Present day
Founding Members (Angelica Kauffman and Mary Moser) as well as the work of other female RAs, across all disciplines, painting, sculpture, printmaking and architecture, Keeper of the RA Schools and current President (and first female President).

Pamela Campbell-Johnston: MA Hons Art History, St Andrew's University. Over 30 years of lecturing experience to undergraduates, adult groups, and to Friends and Patrons of the Royal Academy of Arts as part of the Adult Education Department's programme of events. Also conducted numerous guided tours and focused gallery talks on individual works of art. Specialises in British Domestic Architecture and Modern British Art. Over 12 years' experience at the Royal Academy. Work experience also undertaken at Bonhams, Art Loss Register, National Trust. Now a freelance art consultant and lecturer.

Pamela has worked at the Royal Academy for over 12 years and will share some behind the scenes stories as well as what is written in history books.  She will give participants a well-rounded but also in-depth knowledge of the RA, Britain’s oldest and privately funded fine arts institution.

• Location: The Riverside Room, Bear Hotel, Hungerford
• Meet at 10am for coffee
• Price £38 per person including coffee and a sandwich lunch
• Bookings in person or by email to the organisers from 15 January 2025

Drawing of The Royal Academy of Arts by William Shipley
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

This event is now fully booked, but if you would like to go on the waiting list, please contact the organisers.

Not only was Italy the primary destination of the 18th century Grand Tour traveller, but a 100 years later it was also the inspiration to countless poets, artists and composers who journeyed and drew genuine inspiration and fresh ideas by visiting Venice, Rome, Bologna and Naples.  The study day looks at these four principal cities that have attracted people over the years and attempts to see what it was that inspired them on their travels.

Session 1 - The siren call of Italy - Rome, Florence and Bologna with Portraiture on the Grand Tour / Pompei & Herculaneum

Session 2 - Opera in Venice & Naples / Goethe in Italy / The English Romantic poets in Italy / Italian festivals / The Nazarenes / Mementos of Italy

Session 3 - The final session of the day allows time for listening to a range of music written by Italian composers from Palestrina to Respighi and musical compositions inspired by visits to Italy, including works by Handel, Mendelssohn, Berlioz and Stravinsky.

British Gentlemen in Rome, ca. 1750 by Katharine Read
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection

Peter Medhurst’s work as singer, pianist and lecturer-recitalist has taken him all over the world and travels in the last few years have included tours of New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, as well as mainland Europe.  Closer to home, he has presented events at the King’s Place, the Barbican, St John’s Smith Square, and the Royal Festival Hall on subjects that range from Beethoven String Quartets, Mozart Operas, Vermeer’s Music Lesson, The Twelve Days of Christmas, The Golden Age of Vienna, and 18th Century Venetian Art and Music.  He has also directed presentations at the Wallace Collection, the National Gallery, the National Portrait Gallery and the V&A, linking the visual arts with the world of 17th & 18th century music making.

He is a familiar face to audiences of music societies, regional theatres and British festivals, as well as to those of arts based organisations such as The Art Fund, The National Trust ,and the Arts Society (formally known as NADFAS).  Radio work has included Classic FM, Radio 3, and Radio 4.  His recordings number For Two to Play, Schubert Songs, Handel and His Satellites,  Tyme at the Virginalls, and On Christmas Night – a Programme of Christmas carols and seasonal songs.

Peter Medhurst was born of German and English parents, and did his musical training at the Royal College of Music in London where he studied singing with Redvers Llewellyn and Edgar Evans, organ with Richard Popplewell, and composition with Justin Connolly. A scholarship from the Austrian government gave him the opportunity to study with the accompanist Erik Werba at the Mozarteum in Salzburg.  He also studied the harpsichord with Ruth Dyson, who became his fellow performer in a professional partnership that lasted until her death nearly 20 years later.

• Location: Herongate Centre
• Meet at 10am for coffee
• Sandwich lunch will be included in the price
• Price £38 per person

This event is now fully booked, but please contact the organisers if you would like to go on the waiting list

The Silk Road extended over 8,000 kms from China through Central Asia to the Mediterranean. With the Greek invasion of Alexander the Great, early Persian routes spread East towards India, until stability finally allowed the Chinese to trade silk, jade and ceramics in exchange for horses, pearls and gold. Silk was just one of the many products traded for 1,400 years, but the route also acted as a highway for beliefs, ideas, inventions and art.
Buddhism spread throughout Western China and there are wonderful paintings from the Magao caves at Dunhuang and the 'Caves of the Thousand Buddhas' at Bezeklik in the Flaming Mountains. Central Asia was the main link with the West where many trading cities became wealthy and important centres for the arts. Samarkand and Bukhara are the beginning of the great Islamic buildings that continue through Persia and Syria. The Roman Empire was the destination of silk and all the other commodities which eventually arrived at the Mediterranean coast. Along the way of this great journey we will see traditional murals, ceramics, statues, carpets, architecture, mosaics, tile-work, rock-carvings and of course, silk itself.

'Suzaneh' embroidery work, Central Asia
Photo courtesy of Christopher Bradley

Session 1 - China and the East.
An introduction to silk and its early trading history, followed by a journey from East to West highlighting the art and history still to be seen today, through Chinese, Parthian and Roman territory. From their capital of Xian (ancient Chang’an and home of the Terracotta Warriors) early diplomatic missions developed into important overland trading routes across the length of China. Merchants passed through Dunhuang (one of the world’s greatest collections of Buddhist art) and around the Taklamakan Desert to reach Kashgar for access to India and Central Asia.

Session 2 - Central Asia
Many trade routes criss-crossed Central Asia, which were determined by seasonal climate, natural disasters and political upheavals. We look at the daily practicalities of life in the caravanserais. The region is also known as 'The Stans', bringing us historically from the Sogdians and Bactrians to the Seljuk Turks and Timur (known in the West as Tamerlane). Wealthy trading centres such as Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva in Uzbekistan display some of the grandest Islamic designs, whilst Merv in Turkmenistan was the largest city along the entire Silk Road.

Session 3 - Persia to the Mediterranean and Venice
 Ancient Zoroastrian beliefs underpin much of the art and architecture to be seen at Persepolis, capital of the Ancient Persians. More than 1,000 years later, Isfahan became the capital of the Safavid Empire where we investigate the difference between Shia and Sunni Islamic art. From Iran we can take different routes to the Mediterranean through places like Palmyra with updates on the current situation following minor destruction by the Islamic State group. Following the Great Schism of 1054 within Christianity, Constantinople (modern Istanbul) was later replaced by Venice as the major destination of silk and the other luxury goods.

Christopher Bradley is an expert in the history and culture of the Middle East and North Africa. As a professional tour guide and lecturer he has led groups throughout the Middle East and Asia. Has written extensively on Arabia and is the author of The Discovery Guide to Yemen, Insight Guide to the Silk Road and Berlitz Guides to Libya; The Red Sea; Oman; Cairo; Abu Dhabi and Nile Cruising. As a photographer has pictures represented by four photographic libraries. A broad range of lecturing experience, including to the Royal Geographical Society and the Royal Institute of British Architects. As a film producer and cameraman he has made documentaries for the BBC, National Geographic TV and Channel 4.

The day will start with coffee at 10am in the Cafe at Herongate, followed by 2 x 60 min lectures, then a sandwich lunch in the Cafe, last 60 min lecture and end about 3pm.

• Location: Herongate
• Booking starting at December lecture or by contacting the organisers by email or phone.
  (Phone numbers on your membership card).
  After booking your place you can pay by cheque or preferably online. Bank details here.
• Price £35 / person

A unique day exploring how and why the city of Paris has acted as both a magnet and a cauldron of talent for aspiring artists and designers.  Join Mary Alexander to discover more about the key events and personalities shaping the 'City of Light' during the first half of the twentieth century. We will venture beyond the 'mainstream' to identify the creative individuals who shaped the Parisian concept of 'modernity' (including the many female innovators described as 'wife/ sister/ muse/ assistant of ....!)

The international exhibitions of 1900, 1925 and 1937 will be used as focal points in each of the sessions to identify shifting patterns of emphasis and inter-connections between various arts and design media, including  interiors, graphics, fashion, photography.  Whether strolling along the new boulevards, calling into a favourite cafe, nightclub or gallery, the descriptions of Zola, Stein, Hemingway, and Fitzgerald will accompany the imagery and recreate the sense of 'being there'. In particular, the significant role of Parisian couture and fashion within French culture will be examined as a response to the rise of German  industrial and military ambitions.

• Session One: the Belle Époque: the City as Spectacle
• Session Two:  1920s - Partying into a new Future
• Session Three: the 1937 Paris Exposition, Occupation and Defiance

Mary will be bringing a selection of historic artefacts from her personal vintage postcard collection, advertisements, magazine covers, fashion plates, and official exhibition catalogues (1925 and 1937) for you to enjoy.

Image: L'escalier de l'opéra Garnier by Louis Béroud (1852-1930)
Musée Carnavalet, Paris
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Mary Alexander has thirty years' experience as a lecturer, with a BA in History and History of Art and a MA with distinction in History of Art from University College London. Experience includes public lectures in museums, tutoring for the Open University, visiting lecturer at Christie's Education in London, museum curator at Platt Hall, the Gallery of Costume, Manchester. Now a freelance lecturer to various arts, heritage and antiquarian societies. She also worked in Pentagram design consultancy in London and New York, organising conferences and special events. Author of various articles on design and visual awareness issues, her background combines an unusual blend of academic and visual communications skills. Lectured for ADFAS Australia and New Zealand in 2011, 2013 and 2016. Mary is an enthusiastic member and President of The Arts Society Glaven Valley

• Booking now
• Venue: Herongate Leisure Centre
• Price £39/person to include welcome coffee at 10am and lunch. Event finishes at 3pm

In this Study Day Giles will look at the revolution in theatre that took place in the late C19th and its legacy on the European theatrical styles of the early C20th. He will examine the impact of the First World War and the Great Depression on the theatre and the extraordinary divide that emerged between the drawing-room dramas of Noel Coward and Terrence Rattigan in London's West End and the work of Lillian Bayliss, south of the river, at The Old Vic.

Whilst Noel Coward and Terrence Rattigan had dominated the pre-war theatre scene by the 1950’s they had begun to fall out of favour with the British public. A revolution was taking place in the arts and new voices were beginning to be heard such as John Osborne and Harold Pinter. Giles will examine the stark contrast between pre and post-war British theatre and how we, in the C21st, can now reassess which playwrights really stood the test of time.

Giles Ramsay is an independent theatre producer, director and lecturer who specializes in creating new work with artists in developing countries. He is the Founding Director of the charity Developing Artists, a former Fellow of St. Chad’s College, Durham University and Course Leader in Theatre at The Victoria and Albert Museum in London. He is also an accredited Arts Society (formerly NADFAS) lecturer.

• This event will be at Herongate. Meet in the Café at 10am, first lecture starts at 10:30.  
• There will be three one hour lectures and the day will finish about 3pm
• Price £38 / person including coffee and a sandwich lunch
• Booking open NOW. Contact Sarah Barrett or Angela Heather (see your membership card)
• Payment by BACS preferred

Coffee will be served from 10am, and the first lecture starts at 10:30

Jazz is one of music’s most important genres: a fascinating blend of rigorous structure, free-wheeling creativity, close-knit ensembles and imaginative improvisation. Drawing on his experience both as musicologist and gigging musician, Sandy can shed light on jazz from the inside. His talk covers the early years of jazz up to the Second World War, and touches on the disparate influences which lay behind the emergence of jazz. Musical illustrations range from the blues, ragtime and the very first jazz recordings through to classics by Louis Armstrong’s Hot Five and the Duke Ellington Orchestra, and the dawn of the Swing Era.

Sandy Burnett is one of the UK’s most versatile music commentators, enjoying a career that combines broadcasting, performing and lecturing. After studying at St Catharine’s College, Cambridge and working as music director for the RSC, National Theatre and in London’s West End, Sandy Burnett spent a decade as one of the core team of presenters on BBC Radio 3. He devises and leads cultural holidays all over the world, is the author of the Idler Guide to Classical Music, runs an online classical music appreciation Listening Club, is a highly sought-after double bassist on the London jazz scene, and was appointed the Academy of Ancient Music’s Hogwood Fellow for the 2018-19 season.

The day will have three lecture sessions:

Session 1: Where did it all come from? Sandy examines the many and varied origins of jazz:  the music of black slaves brought over from Africa; the blues, with its distinctive take on the major Western scale; the forms of piano music such as the cakewalk and ragtime; its roots in the Classical genres such as the quadrille and march; and the role played by military bands.  He also examines the social context of New Orleans, which can be regarded as the cradle of jazz, and reflects on how these early precursors to jazz travelled to Europe in sheet music form, where they influenced leading composers of the day. And he concludes by playing examples of the very first jazz numbers preserved for posterity, thanks to the primitive technology of acoustic gramophone recordings.

Session Two: Who were the early greats?  In the earliest days of jazz, the genre was an ensemble activity, with players performing together with great individuality.  The hallmark of this era of jazz performance was a kind of simultaneous improvisation, an exhilarating sound.  Sandy takes a look at how these improvised performances were structured, and how they worked in reality. In time, individual bandleaders came to the fore – dynamic and brilliant individuals such as Jelly Roll Morton and Louis Armstrong, men who in their recordings from the mid 1920s began to shape their compositions into arrangements that were much more structured.  This process was continued by the great Duke Ellington, whose orchestra’s residency at the Cotton Club led to the creation of exceptional jazz compositions which crucially was both music for dancing and listening.  This musical development reflected the importance of the art form itself, in an era in which the freedom of the music went hand in hand with a radical change of social behaviour.  Truly this was, as F Scott Fitzgerald put it, “The Jazz Age.”

Session Three: From the Crash to the War – the Wall Street Crash ushered in a new era in American politics, but the new political reality meant that people turned to music for entertainment more than ever.  The rise of radio was an enormously significant force, with weekly radio transmissions and coast to coast tours meaning that the leading big bands of the day could reach hundreds of thousands of listeners. Jazz music too began to flourish on this side of the Atlantic; its influence was also felt in the music of the dance bands (a slightly separate genre).  And above all, jazz transformed itself into swing, a new style with the emphasis on a smooth sound and danceable rhythms – a style typified by the band whose sound was all the rage at the outbreak of the Second World War:  The Glenn Miller Orchestra.

This event will be at Herongate from 10.00am to 3.30pm
Price £35 / person including a sandwich lunch
Booking starts 14th September. Contact Angela Heather or Sarah Barrett (see your membership card)
BACS payment preferred, quoting your membership number

SOLD OUT!
Email the organisers to join the waiting list

This study day follows the course of this hard, determined, often brutal dynasty who ruled Russia for over three hundred years, from Peter the Great, the founder of St Petersburg, through his eccentric daughter Elizabeth, to Catherine the Great, the most powerful of all the Empresses of Russia who had no real claim to the throne, and on to the tragic figure of Nicholas II, the last Tsar and one of the most poignant figures in history whose death in a cellar in Ekaterinburg ended the reign of this turbulent and ill-fated family.

• Lecture 1: “The Blaspheming Bear.”  The life of Peter the Great
• Lecture 2: “The New Byzantium.”       Russia at the time of Catherine the Great
• Lecture3: “The Last Romanovs.”        The life and death of Nicholas and Alexandra.

Nicholas II & Family c.1914
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Douglas Skeggs read History of Art at Magdalene College Cambridge and has been a lecturer on paintings since 1980. In that time he has given over 7000 lectures to universities, colleges and art societies. He was the director of  'The New Academy of Art Studies' for three years and is presently a regular lecturer at 'The Study Centre', 'Christie's' course 'The History of Art Studies' and other London courses. Among his more improbable venues for lectures are the bar on the QE2, MI5 headquarters, the Captain's Room at Lloyds, and an aircraft hanger in a German NATO base. Overseas he has lectured in Belgium, France, Germany and Spain, and has taken numerous tours around Europe. He helped set up the Abercrombie & Kent “Private Label tours” and is presently cultural adviser to Ultimate travel
  He has written and presented various TV documentaries, notably the Omnibus programme on 'Whistler' and the exhibition video on 'William Morris.' Three one-man exhibitions of his paintings have been held in England and Switzerland. He has published five novels, which have been translated into 8 foreign languages, and his book on Monet, 'River of Light', has sold 30,000 copies in England, America and France

The art of the three main ‘Bloomsbury’ artists (Duncan Grant, Vanessa Bell and Roger Fry) cannot be separated from their astonishing lives.  They, along with their literary and other intellectual companions (Virginia Woolf, Lytton Strachey and John Maynard Keynes, amongst others) were part of a movement, the popular name for which became widely used only after the death of around half its members.

 This study day looks at their work and reviews the multi-faceted relationships between Bell and Grant, Bell and Fry, Grant and (inter alia) Lytton Strachey, and several others.  In addition, it covers what many consider the most important contribution of the group to the visual arts in Britain, the so-called ‘Art-quake of 1910’, when Roger Fry, assisted by Virginia’s husband, the art critic and writer, Clive Bell, mounted the Manet and the Post-Impressionists exhibition at the Grafton Galleries in London.

Frank Woodgate BA, ACIB, MBCS

 Lecturer and ex-Guide in Tate Britain and Tate Modern since 2000, and from 2008-2010 on P&O cruises on behalf of the Tate.  NADFAS (now The Arts Society) lecturer since 2003 in the UK, France, Spain, Germany, Gibraltar, Australia and New Zealand.  Lectured for Dulwich Picture Gallery, the Art Fund (UK and Guernsey), the National Trust, U3A and other organisations.  Lecture series arranged for Pallant House Gallery (Chichester) since 2015. Now running Zoom courses in conjunction with Alexandra Epps and Val Woodgate.

Venue: Riverside Suite, Bear Hotel, Hungerford
Cost:  £38 per member

Contact our SID Organisers to book. Contact details on your membership card.

Places are still available and non-members are welcome.
Please contact the Special Interest Day organisers
(details on your membership card)

This event will take place online. Participants will have the option of watching all the lectures live on the day with the ability to participate in discussion and to ask questions. Or they can watch recordings of some or all of the sessions at any time over the following week but without being able to interact.

This study day will comprise three lectures, looking chronologically at artistic developments in Rome, beginning with the fifteenth-century Popes, who employed artists such as Fra Angelico, Alberti and Botticelli, and moving on to the High Renaissance and the masterpieces of Michelangelo, Raphael and Bramante.  It will conclude with responses to the Sack and the Counter Reformation, seen in works such as Michelangelo’s Last Judgement and Campidoglio, and developments on the eve of the Baroque.

Rome was one of the great hubs of creativity and artistic patronage during the renaissance, testifying to the city’s position both as the heir to ancient imperial Roman glory and as the capital of the Christian ‘Empire’.

Yet this had not always been the case.  The absence of the Papacy in Avignon during the Great Schism in the fourteenth century meant that Rome was in a sorry state at the start of the Renaissance, and it was only after the restoration of the Papacy to Rome in 1420, that the city began to experience its own rebirth, as successive popes sought to refashion it as a fitting capital for the Church.  Increasingly, leading artists from throughout Italy were attracted to the Eternal City by the wealth and power of the Papal court, where they produced some of the greatest masterpieces of the Renaissance.  These include such iconic works as Michelangelo’s Sistine chapel ceiling, Pietà and Moses, Raphael’s Stanze, Bramante’s Tempietto and St Peter’s Basilica, but also a host of less well known, yet ground-breaking projects, such as Fra Angelico’s exquisite Chapel of Nicholas V, Filarete’s bronze doors of St Peter’s and Pollaiuolo’s tomb of Sixtus IV.  The great flowering of the arts in Rome around 1500-20, known as the High Renaissance, was brought to an abrupt end by the terrible Sack of Rome in 1527, and the subsequent religious upheavals of the Reformation.  However, the Papacy, although severely shaken by these cataclysmic events, bounced back, and in the second half of the sixteenth century, the creative genius of the city’s artists was once again harnessed to express Rome’s power and glory.

Paula Nuttall is Director of the V&A’s Medieval and Renaissance Year Course.  She is a specialist in Renaissance Art, both Italian and northern European, on which she has published widely, notably From Flanders to Florence: the Impact of Netherlandish Painting 1400 -1500 (Yale, 2004).   She has collaborated on major exhibitions including Jan van Eyck, an Optical Revolution (Ghent, 2020).  Paula was formerly a lecturer at the Courtauld Institute and the British Institute of Florence.

Fee: £15 per participant

Booking: Please contact the Special Interest Day organisers (details on your membership card)

Venue: Online on Zoom

In the first lecture, Joanna discusses
How History and Fashion have influenced Jewellery Design 1800 – 1900

The French revolution of 1789 not only swept away the old regime, but also triggered a series of changes in habits, lifestyles, government, religion and calendar which were felt throughout Europe. Queen Victoria was expanding her wealthy empire and trade and commerce were flourishing both in France and England. The jewellery trade started to recover with the reversal of fortune and the exciting discoveries of ancient archaeological sites. The opportunities to travel meant that jewellery became an exciting addition to the ever increasing appetite for the new, the exotic and the unusual.

A second lecture explores the exciting world of Contemporary Jewellery 1960-2013

Joanna Hardy is the author of ‘Collect Contemporary Jewelry’ and is passionate about introducing newcomers to the delights of buying from craftsmen today. The lecture will start with revolutionary 1960s and discuss the importance of new material coming into the design world - from acrylic (fashionable again today) as well as titanium. Joanna will then conclude with an exploration of value, quality and design in today’s marketplace and show how forgotten or unloved jewels can be transformed into jewellery that can be worn and enjoyed once more.

 The afternoon session - How to get the most from your jewellery

Joanna will conduct a consultancy seminar where members have the opportunity to bring their own jewels along to be assessed as to their value or discuss the possibilities of altering their jewels if appropriate. 

Venue:   The Riverside Suite, The Bear Hotel, Hungerford
Tickets:  £35 to include refreshments
Tickets are limited and will be available on a ‘first come, first served’ basis from 9.30 am at the Arts Society Lectures in December 2019 and January 2020.
Due to the anticipated interest in this day, this will be a MEMBERS ONLY event and you may be asked to show ID on the day.  

Tragedy and Triumph : The Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration

Three famous explorers dominate the story of early Antarctic exploration: Scott, Amundsen and Shackleton.  After placing the Heroic Age in context, we will focus on their expeditions including the race to the Pole between Scott and Amundsen.  Herbert Ponting’s photographs and Edward Wilson’s water colours provide a visual and evocative record of this frozen world and these early pioneering expeditions into the unknown.

On Shackleton’s third expedition south in 1914, his ship, the Endurance, was trapped in the pack ice and crushed.  After camping for months on the ice, Shackleton’s men rowed to a remote island.  From there, Shackleton sailed for help to South Georgia over 800 miles away, later returning to rescue his men.  Frank Hurley was the expedition’s official photographer.  This session will follow his photographs of this epic journey, which captures eloquently one of the greatest survival stories of polar history.

Price: £35 per person to include coffee on arrival and a light lunch.
Booking at September & October lectures
Venue: The Riverside Suite, Bear Hotel, Hungerford

A Study Day on the Art of Venice

For three hundred years Venice was the most powerful city-state in the Mediterranean, and much of its wealth was put towards ornamenting itself with works of art. Paintings were frescoed onto the ceilings of churches and the facades of palaces along the Grand Canal; canvases were set into gilded altarpieces and the ornate walls of Council Chambers. Art was the outward proof of status, the symbol of the city’s prestige and influence. These golden years of Venice’s history were to produce the works of Titian, Tintoretto and Veronese.

Then, when the Republic collapsed and the city fell into decay, it became a treasure house for the artistic imagination. Painters from all over Europe came to Venice to paint its quiet back waters, its crumbling plasterwork, shadowed doorways and sunlit reflections, and the city was reborn as a romantic vision.

This Study Day looks into the artists who have lived and worked in Venice, their styles, their techniques and how each added his own unique contribution to the artistic legend of the city.

The first, “The origins of Venetian art” looks at the dawn of the Venetian style from the gemlike paintings of Carpaccio to the serene altarpieces of the Bellini. From their studio emerged the enigmatic Giorgione, the most poetic of Venetian artists, and then Titian, whose powerful brushwork and vivid imagination had a profound influence on generations of artists after him.

The second, “The Golden Age” looks at the high years of Venetian art when Titian’s works were commissioned by every patron in Europe, from the Pope to the Holy Roman Emperor. How his style was then turned and reformed by Tintoretto into turbulent flights of fantasy, the paintings he made for the Scuola Grande di San Rocco flickering with an eerie light. And how the last glories of the republic glow in the ceiling paintings of Tiepolo and the crystal clear cityscapes of Canaletto.

The last, “Poets, painters & private lives” looks at the years of decline when the faded beauty of the city was rediscovered by Turner who painted it lost in shimmering light, by James Whistler, Bonnington and John Singer Sargent, by Henry James who set stories of delicate melancholy in Venice, and by John Ruskin who measured every building of the city and published his report in the “Stones of Venice”, one of the most influential books of the 19th century.

Venue: The Organic Research Centre, Elm Farm,Hamstead Marshall, Newbury RG20 OHR  
10.00am to 3.30pm

Cost: £30 to include coffee and light lunch

A few places are still available (as at 21/1/19). Please contact the SID Secretary (see your membership card for details)

FORTY SHADES OF GREEN  - A SPECIAL INTEREST DAY WITH TOM DUNCAN

Tom Duncan was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, where he studied History of Art and Ancient History & Classical Archaeology. 

He has lectured widely to heritage and artistic organisations, nationally and internationally for many years.

There are still places available for members and guests at this event (as at 14/10/18)

Wednesday 31 October 2018, 10.00 for 10.30 am

The Organic Research Centre, Elm Farm,

Hamstead Marshall, Newbury RG20 OHR

£30 to include coffee and light lunch

Tom Duncan is going to talk about how the 19th century saw the development of new ideas as the professional classes began to garden.  Twentieth century gardening was something practiced quietly, in private, reflecting the polarised nature of Irish Society after World War I.  This has culminated in recent years with a true renaissance of gardens and gardening:  old gardens restored and new gardens created.

It sounds like a great day!

10.00 am   Arrival and coffee and biscuits

10.30 am – 12.30 am  Lecture part 1

12.30 pm Light lunch provided

1.30 pm - 3.00 pm  Lecture part 2

BOTTOMS UP   with Andy McConnell the well-known broadcaster from the Antiques Road Show

The Organic Research Centre, Elm Farm,

Hamstead Marshall, Newbury RG20 OHR

£30 to include coffee and light lunch

Andy McConnell is one of Britain’s leading authorities on glassware of all types.

Andy is a witty, spontaneous speaker who is delighted to share his knowledge and enthusiasm for the subject with the audience on the day. He says that his mission is to engage, entertain and educate.  ‘By the end of a talk, nobody should be left regretting their decision to abandon a comfy fireside armchair for a hard seat in a hall’. 

10.00 am         Arrival and coffee and biscuits

10.30 – 11.30 am  Lecture 1

An introduction to Andy, touching on his colourful past and involvement with the Antiques Roadshow [BBC Tv’s number one programme, when Attenborough isn’t on!]. The history of wine, from its beginnings 6,000 years ago and is spread across the Ancient World, and the vessels used to serve and consume it.  The discovery of the craft of glass-blowing, just before the birth of Christ, and the resulting vessels.

11.30-12.30 pm Lecture 2

The first fine wines created, then shipped to London at the time of Pepys and the Great Fire, 1666.  The Bordeaux classification of 1855, which enshrined terms such as Vin Ordinaire, Vin Superior, etc.  How French wine production was wiped out by the Phylloxera mite.  The development of New World wines.  An examination of the differing glasses traditionally used for specific wines. 

12.30 pm Light lunch provided

1.30 pm  Lecture 3

An appraisal of the glassware brought in by guests.   Andy POSITIVELY ENCOURAGES those attending to bring in their glassware for this session. So far as he’s concerned, the more the merrier…and the more interesting this session is.

3.00 pm Approximate finish

Images of women abound in art, from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance and beyond.  This Study Day will demonstrate how women's lives and status can be revealed by interpreting these masterpieces from the past.

Venue:  Chilton Foliat Village Hall, Chilton Foliat, Hungerford RG17 0TG

This study day will demonstrate how women’s lives and status can be revealed by interpreting these masterpieces from the past through music art and literature.

 10.00 am      Arrive for Coffee

 10.30am       Tim:  Depictures of Mediaeval Women in a social context.

 11.30am       Alice: Mediaeval and Renaissance Women Artists

 12.30pm       Light lunch provided by The Wheatsheaf Pub

 1.30pm         Juliet: Depictions of Elderly Women

Parking in the Wheatsheaf Pub car park next door to the Village Hall.

Cost: £30.00 to include refreshments

Bookings from Wednesday 18th October

Day 3 Buildings

NADFAS lecturer Philip Venning will consider the history and philosophy of buildings conservation before we focus on two local examples.  Toby Kirtley of Bodleian Libraries will cover the restoration of the New Bodleian Library (now Weston Library) and how its heritage was taken into account through the briefing and design process and a balance struck between its needs and those of the collections it now houses. The final session will consider the Ashmolean Museum’s major transformation in 2009, when a new wing, designed by award winning architect Rick Mather, was added; interlinking the galleries with one theme: Crossing Cultures, Crossing Time.

 Venue: Headley Lecture Theatre, Ashmolean Museum, Beaumont Street, Oxford OX1 2PH

Time:  10.30am – 3.30pm

Cost:   £32 per Study Day  (includes coffee and biscuits and light lunch)

NB Open to both NADFAS members and non-members

BOOKING:  Download the Booking Form from http://nadfaswyvernarea.org.uk/StudyDays.html

or contact Susan Williams Tel  01235 522898  wyvernsd@gmail.com

 £25 including lunch  
 
Why for example were such extraordinary objects as Clock Salts produced in the Tudor period, and, what was mustard served in before 1760? 
All will be revealed during this talk, which will use images of contemporary paintings and of objects to illustrate the evolution of social custom from 1066 through to the early 19th Century. 
If you have a piece of silver that has been sitting in the cupboard, on the sideboard or in a box and you would like to know more about it please bring it along for discussion. 
Venue: Herongate Leisure Centre

10:15   Arrival
10:30   Lecture Day begins
11:30   Coffee Break
11:50   Second Lecture
Light lunch provided
13:45  Hands-on discussion of pieces brought by members
15:30  Approximate Finish
 
Ian is a Freeman of the Goldsmiths' Company and of the City of London, a Lecturer at the University of London and the University of Surrey, at the V&A, the National Trust and the Art Fund. He is one of the foremost authorities in the UK on Period English Silver and is well known as a broadcaster on Antiques Roadshow. 

Day 2: Paper, Painting and Inscriptions

Concentrating on three specific areas of conservation: the conservation of paintings and drawings by the Western Art Print Room, the use of technology by the Ashmolean Latin Inscriptions Project to decipher inscriptions on stone and metal objects and, finally, painting conservation, considering the restoration of the Ashmole portrait and its frame by Grinling Gibbons plus the investigation of Burges’s painted C19th Great Bookcase. Once again all lectures are given by relevant experts from the Ashmolean Museum.

Venue: Headley Lecture Theatre, Ashmolean Museum, Beaumont Street, Oxford OX1 2PH

Time:  10.30am – 3.30pm

Cost:   £32 per Study Day  (includes coffee and biscuits and light lunch)

NB Open to both NADFAS members and non-members

BOOKING:  Download the Booking Form from http://nadfaswyvernarea.org.uk/StudyDays.html

or contact Susan Williams Tel  01235 522898  wyvernsd@gmail.com

Day 1 Conservation Stories

A short introduction to the history of current thinking on conservation techniques and ethics followed by three ‘Conservation Stories’ - preparing Raphael‘s drawings for a major exhibition, techniques in textile conservation and conserving the Wellby Collection of silver gilt. We conclude with guided group visits to specific galleries, making reference to elements covered earlier in the day. All talks are given by specialists from the relevant department of The Ashmolean Museum.

Venue: Headley Lecture Theatre, Ashmolean Museum, Beaumont Street, Oxford OX1 2PH

Time:  10.30am – 3.30pm

Cost:   £32 per Study Day  (includes coffee and biscuits and light lunch)

NB Open to both NADFAS members and non-members

BOOKING:  Download the Booking Form from http://nadfaswyvernarea.org.uk/StudyDays.html

or contact Susan Williams Tel  01235 522898  wyvernsd@gmail.com

NADFAS CHILTERN HILLS EVENT

Venue:  The Hub, Easton Street, High Wycombe HP11 1NJ

Time:  10.30am – 3.30pm (coffee from 10)

Cost:  £32 per Study Day (includes coffee and biscuits and light lunch)

Study Day 3   Treasures from the Royal Collection

with Oliver Everett

Date:          Friday 25th November 2016

The Royal Collection is the last great European Dynastic collection to survive in royal ownership, with over 485,000 objects collected over the last 500 years. It is not a series of museums, more a unique collection reflecting the tastes of many generations of the royal family.

Oliver is the ideal guide to these accumulated treasures having had close connections with the royal collections for many years, most recently as Librarian at Windsor Castle.

For booking and further information, contact Lisa Green

Study Day Organiser, NADFAS Chiltern Hills Area

lisachilternhills@gmail.com

01494 521750                           0774 734 9766 (for use ONLY on a study day, no texts)

NADFAS CHILTERN HILLS EVENT

Venue:  The Hub, Easton Street, High Wycombe HP11 1NJ

Time:  10.30am – 3.30pm (coffee from 10)

Cost:  £32 per Study Day (includes coffee and biscuits and light lunch)

Study Day 2   The Story of the Tate

with Frank Woodgate

Date:           Monday 17th October 2016

Over the day we will explore the history of the Tate and its galleries from its foundation in 1897 through to recent developments, including the 10 storey expansion of Tate Modern due to open in October 2016; Frank will give us an exciting preview of what it will contain.

For booking and further information, contact Lisa Green

Study Day Organiser, NADFAS Chiltern Hills Area

lisachilternhills@gmail.com

01494 521750                           0774 734 9766 (for use ONLY on a study day, no texts)

NADFAS Chiltern Hills Event

Venue:  The Hub, Easton Street, High Wycombe HP11 1NJ

Time:  10.30am – 3.30pm (coffee from 10)

Cost:  £32 per Study Day (includes coffee and biscuits and light lunch)

Study Day 1   Personalities and Patronage: the story of one family’s collecting at Chatsworth

with Simon Seligman

Date:          Tuesday 20th September 2016

The Cavendish family has been collecting art and precious objects to enhance their family home for 400 years and is still doing so.

Simon, who worked at Chatsworth for 19 years, gives us a behind the scenes view of this spectacular stately home and garden, its history and some of its secrets. 

For booking and further information, contact Lisa Green

Study Day Organiser, NADFAS Chiltern Hills Area

lisachilternhills@gmail.com

01494 521750                           0774 734 9766 (for use ONLY on a study day, no texts)

Venue: Headley Lecture Theatre, Ashmolean Museum, Beaumont Street, Oxford OX1 2PH Time: 10.30am – 3.30pm Cost: £36 per Study Day (includes coffee and biscuits and light lunch) NB Open to both NADFAS members and non-members The Booking Form can be downloaded from the Document section in this website

Become an active, rather than a passive, viewer of art. Unplug the gallery headphones and take your nose out of the catalogues! This Study Day develops your visual and critical skills by equipping you with a strategy for looking: a simple, flexible and effective approach to analysing and interpreting any piece of art work. You will put this strategy into practice by looking at, and discussing, a wide range of works from across the history of Western Art. Learn how to trust your own eyes and enjoy art more fully.

Venue: Herongate Leisure Centre

10:15   Arrival

10:30   Lecture Day begins

11:30   Coffee Break

11:50   Second Lecture

Light lunch provided

13:45  Afternoon Lecture

15:30  Approximate Finish

Lynne is a freelance lecturer and artist. She specialises in talks covering the subject of Critical and Contextual Studies in Art (Understanding Art) and in teaching Drawing and Painting. Following a Fine Art foundation at Reading University, Lynne’s first degree was in Fine Art and Education at Sussex University. Her MA in ‘Language, The Arts and Education’, at Sussex was a mixture of Arts Theory and Practice. She also holds a certificate in Printmaking, (distinction), from Brighton University. Lynne has devised courses for the Art National Curriculum and been involved in service training for teachers and in Continuing Education at Sussex and Bristol Universities. She has lectured for ARCA colleges, given talks for the National Trust and art galleries and museums. Lynne’s etchings and paintings have been included in a number of publications and exhibited widely.

Venue: Headley Lecture Theatre, Ashmolean Museum, Beaumont Street, Oxford OX1 2PH Time: 10.30am – 3.30pm Cost: £36 per Study Day (includes coffee and biscuits and light lunch) NB Open to both NADFAS members and non-members The booking form can be downloaded from the Documents section in this website

Venue: Headley Lecture Theatre, Ashmolean Museum, Beaumont Street, Oxford OX1 2PH Time: 10.30am – 3.30pm Cost: £36 per Study Day (includes coffee and biscuits and light lunch) NB Open to both NADFAS members and non-members The Booking Form can be downloaded from the Documents section

Karin Fernald is an actor, writer and speaker. She researches and creates a spell-binding picture of a character and a historical period; sometimes with revealing powerpoint images, and sometimes with music. She has appeared at festivals in England and on tour in Japan, Australia, Europe and at the University of Cape Town Summer School.

English glass came of age with a national style during the 18th Century, thanks to the invention of lead glass. Fine tableware for dining in the styles of baroque, rococo and neoclassicism, where even the dessert had its own visually stunning presentation, was complemented by glittering chandeliers. We will consider all these, including reference to contemporary paintings, to illustrate this extraordinary century of glass. Cost: £34 per study day or £95 for all three days (inc coffee & biscuits and light lunch) Contact: Susan Williams 01235 522898 southmerciasd@gmail.com

"The English decorate their tables with only a few pieces of plate... a choice collection of porcelain supplying the place of a richer service" commented Andre Roquet in the early 1750s. Porcelain, now being made in Europe, was ideal for the table: easily moulded for the different shapes needed, with coloured decoration reflecting the taste of the host. The day will include opportunities to handle examples. Cost: £34 per study day or £95 for all three days (inc coffee & biscuits and light lunch) Contact: Susan Williams 01235 522898 southmerciasd@gmail.com

This day gives an overview of 18th Century dining silver from three different perspectives: in the first lecture we will look at the wider context of the evolution of stately dining. In the second we focus on England in the 18th Century and the styles and repertoire of dining silver, and in the third we will sharpen the focus yet more and look in detail at some of the greatest surviving silver dinner services, in particular the Sachsen-Teschen service that was ordered by the Empress Maria Theresa. Cost: £34 per study day or £95 for all three days (inc coffee & biscuits and light lunch) Contact: Susan Williams 01235 522898 southmerciasd@gmail.com