The music, architecture and manuscript illumination of medieval England are among the greatest achievements of any period of English cultural history. This lecture opens a window onto this remarkable world to capture something of its religious and secular music, Romanesque and Gothic cathedrals and rich span of manuscript illumination.

THIS LECTURE WILL BE HELD AT BORINGDON PARK GOLF CLUB. PL7 4QG

How do dealers, auctioneers and museum staff determine whether a piece is by one painter or another? What role does the signature play? Artists before the 18th century usually worked with a number of assistants trained to reproduce the style of the master as closely as possible. How can we study these workshop productions, distinguishing between master and pupil, master and copyists? In this lecture, we consider clues, weigh up their relative usefulness, and learn some of the tricks of the connoisseur.

Venue and Date to be confirmed

Venue and Date to be confirmed

Sorolla (1863-1923) was a highly successful artist of international renown in his lifetime, but outside Spain and the United States he is largely forgotten today. While he admired the great Spanish traditions of Velázquez and Goya, his delightful paintings of fishermen and children at the seaside, landscapes and the great series depicting his Vision of Spain, are full of sunlight and optimism. For those who do not know him, his paintings are a real treat.

The Livery Companies of the City of London are best known today as charitable organisations. But in their early days their focus was on their trades, acting as a cross between modern trade unions and regulators. The Companies were (and still are) jealously mindful of their place within the order of precedence, from the Mercers' Company at number one to the recently founded Arts Scholars at number 110.  Within this hierarchy the top dozen have always had special prestige.  This lecture is told from the inside, given by a former Prime Warden of the Goldsmiths' Company (number 5) and explores the mystery of the origins of the order of precedence.

Dutch art dealt with the real lives of its people and this lecture shows how Holland achieved its independence, how its new Protestant mentality would allow astonishing advances in science, how its merchant wealth will be reflected in serene seascapes, its civic pride in brilliant portraits  and its insistence on moral order and well scrubbed households in the enigmatic poetry of Vermeer.

Uzbekistan in the heart of Central Asia boasts glittering mosques, madrassahs and minarets in the Silk Road cities of Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva. These contrast wonderfully with the brutalist Soviet buildings of Tashkent, Urgench and Nukus. This lecture is an overview of the country, and a primer for anyone thinking of visiting. We explore the Savitsky Museum in Nukus, with the second largest collection of Russian Avante Garde Art, collected at a time when these artistic styles were banned by the state.