Wednesdays, 15th May – 17th July
The return of the popular ten-week course exploring painting, sculpture, architecture, and their context from the Middle Ages to the modern day. If you’ve ever wanted to learn how to ‘read’ a painting, understand architecture, or appreciate sculpture then this course could be for you. Featuring famous names and lesser-known gems, by the end of this course you will know your Rubens from your Rothko, Manet from Monet, and Giotto from Gainsborough.
Led by experienced Art Historian Morgan Haigh MA of The Courtauld Institute of Art, London. For several years he was a tour guide at Cardiff Castle, and has guided tours at the National Gallery, Tate Gallery, National Gallery of Art Washington DC, and V&A. He recently appeared on the BBC’s ‘University Challenge’.
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“Morgan leaves you longing for more! A course suitable for beginners, those who know a little and those who know a lot. Interesting anecdotes, fascinating art, and a totally non-stuffy presentation.” – Previous attendee
“Morgan is outstanding – knowledgeable, passionate, articulate, engaging and a superb communicator. Difficult to overpraise his skill in conveying 1500 years of European art in ten two-hour classes and holding the attention of his audience every step of the way.” – Previous attendee
Places are limited
Course Breakdown:
- Week 1 – Chaos & Order – c.500-1150
- A time in Europe often known as the ‘Dark Ages’, we will see how, as civilisation clung on after the fall of the Roman Empire, this period produced exciting, vibrant, and elaborate art and architecture.
- Week 2 – Pageantry & Pain – c.1150-1500
- The gothic Middle Ages, including stories of saints and pilgrims, Kings and Knights. Beautiful and gruesome objects from the great cathedrals to the smallest parish churches and everything in between.
- Week 3- Money & Faith – c.1400-1500
- A case study of Florence in the fifteenth century. Often considered the birthplace of the Renaissance, Florence under the de facto rule of the Medici was a centre of artistic production. With famous artists including Botticelli, Verrocchio, and Donatello.
- Week 4- Popes & Painters – c. 1400-1600
- The Big Three: Michelangelo, Raphael, and Leonardo da Vinci. The intertwined life stories of the three most famous artists of the Italian Renaissance and how, along with their papal patrons, they changed the course of art.
- Week 5- Harmony & Dissonance – c.1500-1600
- The Reformation arrives and sends a schism through the heart of European culture. As region fought region over the fundamental principles of life and culture, how did artists on both sides of the divide respond to the unrest facing their world?
- Week 6 – Half Term Break
- Week 7 – Sense & Sensibility – c.1600-1700
- In the aftermath of the Reformation, a class split into two halves and two contrasting cultures. The opulent, sensuous world of baroque Rome, of Bernini, Caravaggio, and Bramante, versus the calm, rational Dutch Golden Age of Rembrant, Vermeer, and Hals.
- Week 8 – Reason & Revolution – c.1640-1815
- Europe in and around the eighteenth century was a tumultuous place. From the birth of modern science to the execution of Kings, the first industrial cities to the most opulent palaces, it was a century that built nations and cathedrals as well as burning them to the ground. Featuring Hogarth, Wren, David, and Fragonard.
- Week 9 – Romance & Industry – c.1800 – 1900
- As the nineteenth century dawned to great forces dominating Europe, one was the exponential growth of industry in all aspects of life, the other was its antithesis, the romantic longing for nature and spiritual freedom. Covering artists such as Turner and Constable in England, Freidrich in Germany, as well as Delacroix and Rodin in France.
- Week 10 – Shocks & Impressions – c.1850-1916
- Tracking the rise of modern art from its origins in French radicals to the birth of Impressionism and beyond as art breaks new ground in the early twentieth century. We will examine Manet and Monet, van Gogh and Cezanne, Picasso and Boccioni.
- Week 11 – Global War & Global Art – c.1916 – 2000
- In the final week we will come up to the new millennium by exploring how new forms of art emerged from the ashes of the two world wars and see how the currents of European art arrived with a bang in New York. Including Dali, Magrette, Pollock, Warhol, and Mondrian.
