This course will explore an artist who is still seen as the epitome of the ideals that aligned themselves with the term Renaissance. We will chart the rise of Raphael

From JMW Turner and John Constable, to Chinese Masterpieces, Japanese Prints,  Hokusai’s Mount Fuji, and Cézanne’s Mont Saint Victoire,  artists have strived to capture landscape in all its beauty and

Light illuminates, it moulds, it defines our mood – and, in art, its effects are determined by the artist’s tools. From gold leaf to photography, oil paint to the Louvre

Europe is at a turning point in its history. Questions about its unity and diversity are more relevant today than ever. This series of talks will address the concept of

The last 50 years have produced some of the most exciting and powerful music, painting and sculpture in history, but to many people it remains an undiscovered world. This course

Money may make the world go round, but it is also crucial to the development of the arts. The Renaissance across Europe was financed by Church, commerce and conquest, and

A look at some great strivers of the late 18th and l9th centuries and their relationship with fame. Mary Robinson enjoys it; Fanny Mendelssohn hankers after it; Benjamin Robert Haydon

Most of London’s housing stock now dates from no earlier than the beginning of the eighteenth century. The forms that its dwellings have taken since the time of the Great

The concept of the solitary male genius has been a dominant theme of Western art histories. Wives, mistresses, partners and collaborators have often been chased into the shadows, even if

We will explore the fascinating and exacting world of C19th British horticulture and its development as a respectable, skilled Victorian trade which matured into a competitive gardening community with the