PROGRAMME
We meet at the Arts Centre Stamford, 27 St
Mary’s Street, Stamford, PE9 2DL on the second
Tuesday of each month (except July and
August). Arrival and refreshments are from
10.00 am and the lecture starts at 11.00 am.
New Membership year - Don’t forget to change
your standing order. Membership fee is £50
March 12th
The Sign of the Fish: Catacombs and the
Classical Roots of Christian Iconography
Hilary Guise
This is the dramatic story of the survival of the new
Christian faith in Imperial Rome, against a backdrop
of persecution and illiteracy, when hundreds of
kilometres of tunnels were dug outside the city for
the burial of saints and martyrs.
The early Christians become real to us as we
explore the rough wall-paintings made hastily by the
light of oil lamps. The earliest symbols being those
that alluded to Christ himself, the sign of the Fish,
the Ikthus, and the Good Shepherd who appears
over 120 times. Stories of divine deliverance from
mortal peril (Daniel, Noah, and Jonah) dominate the
themes, as one would expect at a time of severe
persecution all over the Roman world.
The Cross is
mysteriously absent,
only appearing in
mocking graffiti
around 200AD and only
emerging as the symbol of the faith long after it
ceased to be a common method of execution in
313AD
Ikthus symbol Photo Wikicommons
April 9th
The Overshadowed
Chantal Brotherton-Ratcliffe
Have you had this experience? You go to a gallery,
an exhibition and are stopped dead by an unknown
picture: you look at the label and find you have
never heard of the artist. How does it come about
that there can be such wonderful painters of whom
we have never heard?
This lecture will consider some of the many reasons
for a good artist’s obscurity, from the brevity of his
life to the misfortune of his being born and working
in the shadow of a larger reputation, such as
Leonardo or Rembrandt. But above all it is an
excuse to spend an hour gorging on beautiful
paintings, finding hidden treasures.
May 14th (change to Programme
Lars Tharp (of Antiques Roadshow fame)
Subject details late
June 11th
Wild Men of the North: Tom Thomson and The
Group of Seven
Ross King
In 1924 an exhibition in London of Canadian
landscapes moved the critic C. Lewis Hind to
celebrate them as ‘the most vital group of paintings
produced since the war - indeed, this century’.
These landscapes of Canada’s northern lakes and
rugged backwoods, painted in a boldly Post-
Impressionist style, had been produced over the
previous decade by a collective of Toronto-based
painters known as the ‘Group of Seven’, whose aim
was to forge a national school of landscape painting.
This illustrated lecture introduces the painters -
including their talismanic colleague Tom Thomson,
who died in 1917 - and examines how they stormed
the
conservative
bastions of
Canadian art
to establish
themselves
on the
international
stage as
practitioners
of a
distinctive
avant-garde.
Moose at Night, Winter 1916 Tom Thomson National
Gallery of Canada Wikimedia Commons
September 10th
Tulip Mania in Golden Age Holland
Tom Flynn
This talk tells the story of
one of the most
fascinating investment
“bubbles” in the history of
economics. In the late
sixteenth century, the
humble tulip bulb made its
way from China through to
the courts and gardens of
the Ottoman Empire
where its beauty and rarity
were admired by the
wealthy sultans. In time,
its fame spread, triggering
a collecting craze in early
seventeenth century
Holland, which we now
know as the beginning of the so-called Dutch
Golden Age.
The mania for tulip collecting and speculating meant
that some rare varieties eventually reached
staggering prices, becoming an example of what
economists have called an “extraordinary popular
delusion” or “the madness of crowds.” In many ways
tulip mania can be seen as a parallel development
to what has happened on occasions in the art
market, where the relationship between the market
price of the object comes to bear no credible
relationship to its intrinsic worth.
In Holland, the tulip market collapsed in 1637,
leading to the impoverishment of many speculators,
including a number of artists who had over-invested
in the promise of untold riches.
A tulip, known as "the Viceroy" (viseroij), displayed in the
1637 Dutch catalogue Verzameling van een Meenigte
Tulipaanen. Its bulb was offered for sale for between
3,000 and 4,200 guilders (florins) depending on weight
(gewooge). A skilled craftsworker at the time earned about
300 guilders a year.
October 8th
The Culture of Ukraine
Rosamund Bartlett
This lecture tells Ukraine's story through the shared
culture which binds its proud people together.
We will explore the sacred art and architecture of
Kyiv and its links to Byzantium, as well as the
distinctive characters and ethnicities of Odesa and
Lviv. Tracing Ukraine's complicated multi-ethnic
history also means looking at its rich folk culture
traditions. These range from native song and the
secret codes embedded in ancient embroidery,
which have exerted a surprising impact on modern
painting and contemporary haute couture, to
Cossack dancing and borshch.
November 12th
Sir Stanley Spencer: an Autobiography in
Pictures
Carolyn Leder
Endlessly autobiographical, Spencer (1891-1959)
noted, ‘my longings became pictures’. One of
Britain’s greatest painters, he was a visionary artist
whose name became synonymous with Cookham,
the picturesque Thameside village he immortalised,
which for him was the scene of heavenly visitations.
Cookham shaped his work throughout his career, as
the setting for subject pictures as well as beautiful
realistic landscapes. He also created remarkable
images of two World Wars. His mural decorations at
the Sandham Memorial Chapel, Burghclere,
commemorating the First World War, are one of the
great achievements of twentieth century painting.
His turbulent private life can be traced through his
figure paintings.
Riggers - detail Workers in the rigging loft of a Glasgow
shipyard. Stanley Spencer 1944
Public Domain Wikipedia Commons
December 10th
A Very Ceremonial Christmas
Dr Graham Jones
Find out, in this very light-hearted lecture, about the
various ceremonial events that take place around
Christmas time. Carol services, concerts and even
Changing the Guard at Buckingham Palace and
Windsor all play their part. How do the Chelsea
Pensioners prepare and celebrate the festive
season? All will be revealed so, come along and feel
wrapped in a blanket of Christmas loveliness.
Web site and mobile phone pages designed, created and
maintained by Janet Groome Handshake Computer Training