THEME VI: ART IN BRITAIN, THE NETHERLANDS AND ITALY
NEW COURSE
Course 6: Dr Paula Henderson

‘All Gardening is Landscape Painting’

£445

The English landscape garden is deemed  one of the great achievements of British art, admired and imitated throughout the world. The radical shift from the rigid formality of the late 17th-century garden, epitomised by Louis XIV’s Versailles, was inspired by new political and philosophical ideas that also resulted in a return to the Palladian style of architecture. We will consider the role of important patrons, such as Lord Burlington, Lord Cobham and Henry Hoare and of innovative designers, from Charles Bridgeman and William Kent in the first half of the 18th century, to the ‘improvements’ of ‘Capability’ Brown and his successor, Humphry Repton, at the end.  If, as Alexander Pope wrote, ‘all gardening is landscape painting’, we must ask how these gardens reflected the work of great artists.  Similarly, Horace Walpole wrote that ‘every journey is made through a succession of pictures’, which raises the question of how ‘painterly’ elements were achieved in the landscape garden.   The role of sculpture will also be explored, as it emphasised links with ancient Rome in England’s ‘Augustan’ age and gave meaning to gardens.  Equally significant were garden buildings, designed by many of the finest architects of the day, which helped to inspire the eclecticism of the Victorian age.  Visits will include the National Gallery, the RIBA drawings collection at the V&A, and Chiswick House.  We will spend a full day exploring the 18th-century landscapes at Claremont and Painshill.


THEME VIII: MATERIAL CULTURE, FASHION AND THE ARTS OF DESIGN

NEW COURSE
Course 16: Helena Pickup

Luxurious Liaisons: The Decorative Arts of 18th-century France

£445

The Prince de Talleyrand claimed that, ‘Anyone who did not live in the 18th century before the Revolution knows nothing of the sweetness of life and cannot imagine what happiness it can hold.’  In the rarefied atmosphere of ancien régime France the decorative arts reached an apex of refinement.  We will look at the people who bought art, from royalty to courtesans - especially influential individuals such as Madame de Pompadour and Marie Antoinette - and explore the world of shops and shopping.  Our theme is ‘Luxurious Liaisons’ and the liaisons we will look at include the collaboration of  different artists on the same pieces; the combined use of porcelain and gilt bronze on furniture; the influence of silver on porcelain and the relationship between decorative painting, textiles and panelling.  Finally, we will examine how these elements combined to make a harmonious whole in châteaux and townhouses; and unveil the social rituals played out against this backdrop.  Among our primary sources will be drawings by designers such as Juste-Aurèle Meissonnier and Charles de Wailly.  After the French Revolution the priceless objects they had created were dispersed all over the world: we will visit the Wallace Collection, the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor, Buckinghamshire, to look at some of the most important survivals.



THEME V: ART AND SOCIETY IN NORTHERN EUROPE
Course 22: Dr Matthias Vollmer

17th-century Painting in the Low Countries: The Golden Age of Dutch and Flemish Art

£420

THIS COURSE IS NOW FULL. PLEASE DO LET US KNOW IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO BE PLACED ON A WAITING LIST.

As a result of the religious and political conflicts in the 16th century, the Low Countries were split into two territories with different theological and social developments. In both states, the production of art was strongly determined by patrons. In Flanders, artists like Rubens and Van Dyck celebrated the Catholic Church of the Counter Reformation and the Spanish Hapsburg monarchy with grandiose themes, lively compositions, and vivid colours in portraits, altarpieces, mythological scenes and allegories. The Protestant Republic of the United Netherlands, on the other hand, was dominated mainly by austere Calvinists. Dutch painters like Rembrandt and Jan Steen conveyed moral and often religious messages through elaborate symbolism in land- and seascapes, still life compositions, allegories and scenes of daily life. This course will offer an introduction into the vibrant art and culture of the separated Low Countries in the 17th centuries. We shall visit the National Gallery, the British Museum and the Dulwich Picture Gallery.

Matthias Vollmer´s study tour to Amsterdam, The Hague and Rotterdam from 27–29 August will provide further opportunities to study the art of this period closely and in situ.


THEME VI: ART IN  BRITAIN, THE NETHERLANDS AND ITALY

NEW COURSE
Course 23:   Dr Lucy Jessop

‘The Impossibility of Being Dull”: Architecture in London, 1715–1820

£420
THIS COURSE IS NOW FULL. PLEASE DO LET US KNOW IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO BE PLACED ON A WAITING LIST.

When Charles Lamb wrote to Wordsworth in 1801 of his beloved London, he was thinking of a city seething with life and variety, a setting for the lives of people of every class. During the 18th century, London established itself as not only the heart of the new Great Britain but also of a growing empire, and as a centre of international trade. This course will consider the building boom experienced by the city in the long 18th century: the vast speculative estates around the West End, Bloomsbury and their successors, the growing number of government and public buildings, the magnificent houses of the aristocracy and plutocracy in both urban and suburban London, and places of entertainment, business and worship. We will examine the development of key building types, areas and individual structures, whilst also considering the milieu of the architects and craftsmen who constructed them and the people who used them.  Visits may include several walking tours, Spencer House, Home House, the drawings collection of Sir John Soane’s Museum and, of course, an exploration of The Courtauld’s home, Somerset House.


THEME V: ART AND SOCIETY IN NORTHERN EUOPE

NEW COURSE

Course 31: Dr Stephanie Porras

Bosch and Bruegel: Grotesque, Fantasy and the World of the Everyday

£420
N.B. We regret that due to unforeseen circumstances this course had to be cancelled

The work of Hieronymus Bosch, in its curious iconography and fantastical imagination, has led art historians to seek answers in occult philosophies, religious sects and alchemical texts. Bosch's pictures, in their unique sketchy painting style and strange subject matter, seem to challenge conventional interpretation. Yet Bosch is

also the progenitor of the painting of everyday life, picturing the otherworldly realm of hell populated by familiar, even mundane objects. For Pieter Bruegel the Elder, who styled himself as a 'second Bosch,' the world of peasant feasts and children's games is also a kind of grotesque fantasy; painted and printed spectacles made to adorn the homes of Antwerp's middle classes. Bosch and Bruegel, two of the most debated artists of the 16th century, have become synonymous in art history with 'grotesque' and 'genre.' Utilising London's as well as The Courtauld's own collection of works, this course seeks to investigate the apparent oddities of both artists' work, exploring the variety and the fantasy of both the grotesque and the everyday as pictured by Bosch and Bruegel and considering the functions of both artists' work with regards to the religious, social and political contexts of the Low Countries in the 16th century.