The European Invention of Paradise: The Art of the Exotic
5 October 2027 - 23 November 2027
10.45–12.45 Tuesdays
£89.00 – £590.00
Description
This lecture series traces how European art, from early Christian visions of Paradise to C19th images of empire, abolition, exoticism and whiteness, helped construct visual fantasies of perfection and otherness. Across eight lectures, the programme foregrounds artists, artworks and iconographic traditions that shaped European ideas of paradise, race, beauty, civilisation and the so-called exotic.
“Leslie’s previous series at the National Gallery was a great privilege - to stand in front of the actual paintings and have them described by him. He is so enthusiastic and knowledgeable”
Course Outline
05 OCT 2027 In the Beginning — A Biblical Paradise
This lecture explores how Byzantine, medieval, and early modern art visually constructed Paradise, Hell, and the Virgin Mary. It investigates how iconography conveyed good and evil to Christian audiences and how images of Heaven encouraged a longing for a return to Paradise. Texts by Petrarch and della Porta contextualize how European visual traditions elevated whiteness while denigrating blackness.
12 OCT 2027 The Rise of the Black King — A Religious Manifestation of the Exotic in Art
Here we focus on the emergence of the Black King in Christian art, particularly The Adoration of the Magi and Nativity. Despite lacking a biblical basis, we trace how this black figure developed. We examine whether representations stemmed from real Black European sitters, caricature, or imagination, focusing on the Black King’s role as symbol, spectacle, universal marker, and exoticized subject.
19 Oct 2027 Import, Export and Exploitation — The Beginnings of Servitude
This lecture examines Elizabethan and early Stuart visual culture, focusing on Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger and contemporaries to investigate commerce, maritime expansion, and empire. It decodes regalia and portraiture to show how art normalized social hierarchy, territorial ambition and the foundations of the slave trade through key historical figures such as Elizabeth 1, Sir Francis Drake and art works by John de Critz the Elder, Paulus van Somer and Robert Peake the Elder.
26 Oct 2027 Paradise Found and Lost — Voyages to the South Pacific
Today we explore how C18th Pacific voyages by Captains Wallis and Cook, and Louis Antoine de Bougainville shaped European paradise fantasies. It examines artists (Reynolds, West, Dance, Philippe Jacques de Loutherbourg and William Hodges) as visual recorders, how collected artifacts built narratives of discovery, and the influence of Enlightenment ideals on noble savage imagery. Finally, it addresses botanical illustrations and how memorial portraits transformed explorers into heroes while hiding colonial violence.
02 Nov 2027 Princes & Paupers — The Art of Being Black from Renaissance to Baroque
We will examine the diverse roles of Black figures in Renaissance and Baroque art, covering artists such as Titian, Frans Hals, and William Dobson. We will also examine Venetian painting, Dutch portraiture, and European decorative arts and analyse how artistic traditions shaped the representation of Black people and normalized dehumanising visual conventions.
09 Nov 2027 The Portrait of Elizabeth Murray and Dido Elizabeth Belle — Exoticism in Polite Society
Today uses the portrait of Elizabeth Murray and Dido Elizabeth Belle to explore slavery, race, and abolition in eighteenth-century Britain and particularly investigates Dido’s life at Kenwood House, her social position, and the visual choices that distinguish her portrait from many other images of Black sitters in Georgian Britain. It compares the portrait with works by Joshua Reynolds, Thomas Gainsborough and William Etty to consider how British art registered changing attitudes towards slavery and abolition.
16 Nov 2027 Turner’s Slave Ship — Abolition & The Exoticisation of Trauma
We will focus on J. M. W. Turner’s Slavers Throwing Overboard the Dead and Dying – Typhoon Coming On, commonly known as The Slave Ship, as a work at the intersection of history painting, seascape, abolition and spectacle. It explores Turner’s motivations, historical myths, and the painterly language of storm and colour and questions whether the masterpiece acts as a moral protest against slavery or turns human suffering into a seductive visual spectacle.
23 Nov 2027 Images of Modernity — The Black Exotic & The Invention of Whiteness n Victorian & European Art
This lecture investigates how 19th-century art, science, and popular culture shaped racial ideas, focusing on thinkers such as Carl Linnaeus and Francis Galton, and artists Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres and William Etty. It will also look at how advertising, academic illustration and popular imagery as vehicles for racialised seeing were shaped. The series concludes by asking how the relationship between text and image embedded these ideas into European art history and into modern visual culture.