Week 1: 12-16 July 2010

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.



Week 2: 19-23 July 2010

NEW COURSE

Course 14: Dr Richard Williams

Renaissance Art at the Crossroads: Italy and the Netherlands

£420

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

The impact of Netherlandish painting, founded by Jan van Eyck and Rogier van der Weyden, was so profound in Italy that it changed the direction of Italian Renaissance art. From Filippo Lippi to Raphael, Italian painters switched from egg tempera to the Netherlandish technique of painting in oils, adopted the northern approach to portraiture, emulated the depiction of light, texture and other illusionistic effects, and even copied landscape backgrounds from imported northern altarpieces. In the 15th century this influence travelled almost exclusively in one direction from north to south. However, in the 16th century this direction was effectively to reverse as the works of Michelangelo and other Italian masters caught the imagination of Netherlandish artists and their patrons (from Gossaert ultimately to Rubens). In studying this cultural cross-fertilisation in the 15th and 16th centuries this course draws on more recent scholarship that has caused a major re-evaluation of Renaissance art. Cutting across national boundaries and the boundaries existing in traditional art history the course tells a newly-emerging story and looks at well-known works from a fresh perspective.

 


Week 3: 26-30 July 2010

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.

 


Week 4: 2-6 August 2010

Course 32: Dr Sara Cochran

Contemporary British Art

£420

In the 2009 Venice Biennial, the German Pavillon was devoted to the work of the British artist Liam Gillick. While this fact speaks to the fact that Gillick has lived in Berlin for a number of years, it also highlights the incredible international presence of contemporary British art on the world scene. This has extended well beyond the phenomenon of the Young British Artists and draws on the great strengths of the British art schools. After a preliminary discussion of the strategic success and undeniable influence of the so-called YBA, this course will focus on the diverse generation of artists working in Britain today and explore the intellectual and professional topology of their context. There will be a particular focus on the work of women artists and their considerable role and influence on the British scene. Visits include museums, galleries, and studios.