MENU PREVIOUS LECTURES


× Home Our Society
About Us Joining Us Where We Meet What Is The Arts Society? Committee Documents
Lectures Visits & Tours News Diary Volunteering
Arts Volunteers Heritage Volunteers Trails
Gallery Web Page Links
Useful Links Culture Links Videos
Contact Us


Click here for future lectures



Click here for future lectures

09 June 2026Raphael, a god amongst painters
12 May 2026Persistent Memory: The Art of Salvador Dali
14 April 2026‘Greek Vase Painting’
10 March 2026‘Painting in Ukraine and Russia 1860-1960’
10 February 2026Britain’s Art Deco Architecture
13 January 2026John Singer Sargent: The Private Radical
09 December 2025‘Banksy: Fraud or Genius’
11 November 2025‘Influences in Photography’
07 October 2025Joseph Wright 1775-1777: A Derby Man in Bath
10 June 2025Frozen Breath of the Polar Night: An introduction to Art Nouveau Glass
13 May 2025The Borgias, The Most Infamous family in History
08 April 2025Henry Scott Tuke, The Sunshine Painter
11 March 2025Velazquez and Goya: Traditionalists or Modern Masters?
11 February 2025 Wassily Kandinsky
14 January 2025Inspired by Stonehenge
10 December 2024How to steal a million
12 November 2024Great Operatic Rivalries - Handbags at Dawn?
08 October 2024A Magical Mystery Tour: The English Miniatures from the Tudors to the Victorians
11 June 2024George Stubbs, The English Leonardo (NB Changed from May)
14 May 2024The Rise and Fall of Napoleon Bonaparte, as Depicted in Art (NB Changed from June)
09 April 2024What can we Learn from Jewellery shown in Art ?
12 March 2024Fiction, Fallacy & Fake News, Spin and Propaganda in art throughout the ages - CHANGE OF LECTURE
06 February 2024The White Mantle of Winter. Impressionist Paintings of Snow NB 1st Tuesday of the month
09 January 2024The Elgin Marbles
12 December 2023A Blast from the Past: Medieval Woodwind
14 November 2023Pots and Frocks - The World of Grayson Perry
10 October 2023Dame Laura Knight RA
13 June 2023The Market for Antiques in the UK today, or Why no one wants to buy your wardrobe anymore...
09 May 2023Art and Architecture along the Silk Road
11 April 2023Women in Art; Gentileschi to Emin
14 March 2023David Hockney: Old Master of the Modern World
07 February 2023Caravaggio: A Rebel With A Cause Rescheduled meeting - 7th February (1st Tuesday for this month ONLY)
10 January 2023The Wilton Diptych and the hammer-beam angel roof of Westminster Hall - Angels from the realms of glory
13 December 2022The History and Art of the Nativity Crib
08 November 2022Laughter and Loss: British Artists in WWII
11 October 2022The Two Gustavs: Mahler and Klimt
14 June 2022The Life and Work of Sir Alfred Munnings KCVO, PRA (1878-1959)
10 May 2022Posters of The Belle Époque, The Great Age of the Poster
12 April 2022Under the open sky: Newlyn, Falmouth and Lamorna Artists
08 March 2022Chinese Imperial Court Costume: Journey through The Imperial Wardrobe
08 February 2022George III as Patron and Subject of Art
11 January 2022What did the Greeks and Romans Ever do for Art? (BY ZOOM)
14 December 2021How Do They Make That Noise? The Opera Singer Phenomenon
09 November 2021Bruegel: Peasants, Proverbs and Landscapes
12 October 2021Painting the Modern Garden - Monet to Matisse
08 June 2021The Forensic Eye: Find Your Inner Connoisseur- 17th C Flanders
11 May 2021Art and the Devon Garden, 1700-1900
13 April 2021Beethoven at 250-Classical Music’s Greatest Revolutionary
09 March 2021Canal History and Heritage
09 February 2021Post War Australian Painting
12 January 2021The Studio-Houses of the Holland Park Circle
08 December 2020Renoir – a colourful life
10 November 2020Gwen and Augustus John –Two Great Opposites (Zoom meeting)
13 October 2020With A Little Help From Their Friends: The Beatles and Their Artists - (Zoom meeting)
09 June 2020The Forensic Eye: Find your Inner Connoisseur”
12 May 2020Gwen and Augustus John - Two Great Opposites
07 April 2020“Post War Australian Painting”
10 March 2020“Creativity in British Prisons”
11 February 2020“Big Ben”
14 January 2020“Persephone’s isle: The Heritage of Sicily”
10 December 2019“Christmas at Covent Garden”
12 November 2019“Landscape Photography”
08 October 2019“Harlots, Rakes and Crashing China”
11 June 2019Looking for Georgia- my travels through New Mexico in the Footsteps of Georgia O'Keeffe
14 May 2019Painting the Land of the Midnight Sun: Romantic Visions of Norway
02 April 2019Prague: City of the Winter Queen
12 March 2019Turner vs Constable: The Great British Paint-Off
12 February 2019Images of the British Empire
08 January 2019The magic of pantomime
11 December 2018Clara, rhino superstar and wonder of the Grand Tour
13 November 2018George Romney’s muse: Emma Lady Hamilton
09 October 2018The First Atlantic Liner: Brunel's 'Great Western'
12 June 2018‘Frank Thrower and Dartington Glass’
08 May 2018‘Man’s Real Best Friend: horses in art and history’
10 April 2018‘Treasure of the Black Tent: antique tribal rugs and dowry weavings of the Persian and Central Asian nomads’
13 March 2018‘Arsenic and Old Wallpaper – the darker side of William Morris’
06 February 2018‘A Potted History of Britain’ (Note date FIRST Tuesday of the month this time).
09 January 2018‘Gods, Goddesses, Heaven and Hell.’
12 December 2017‘Sing we Yule’
14 November 2017‘Adventures in Three Dimensions – 20th-century sculpture in Britain’
10 October 2017‘The Cult of Gloriana: Art, Music and Politics at the Court of the Virgin Queen’
13 June 2017'Les Parisiennes' - How Women Lived, Loved and Died in Paris from 1939 to 1949
09 May 2017An Introduction to the Gardens and Tea Houses of Japan
11 April 2017Christian and Islamic Art and Architecture in the Iberian Peninsula
14 March 2017Healing Stitches - Therapeutic Handicrafts at Times of Conflict
14 February 2017Hidden Canvases - street art in the City
10 January 2017Buckfast Abbey; the rebuilding of a mediaeval monastery
13 December 2016'That Jocund World' - theatre in the life and works of Charles Dickens
08 November 2016The Art and Beauty of Old Maps of the World
11 October 2016Bricks, Sheds and Unmade Beds: Is it Art?
14 June 2016From Magic Lanterns to Metro Goldwyn Meyer
10 May 2016The Cult of the South Pacific - from Cook to Gauguin
12 April 2016Shakespeare: the Plays in Performance and Art
08 March 2016The Glasgow Boys - Painting in Scotland
09 February 2016Repton on the Tamar
12 January 2016Women Artists from 1500 to 1800
08 December 2015'Le Roi Soleil' - King Louis XIV

Click on a row and scroll to display more details about the lecture

Raphael, a god amongst painters Dr Chantal Brotherton-Ratcliffe Tuesday 09 June 2026

Until the late 19th century to emulate Raphael was the goal for most artists succeeding him. Yet today he is not as well-known as this might suggest. Is this because his biography is less dramatic than Caravaggio’s? or his career less tormented than Michelangelo’s? This lecture asks “what is the magic of Raphael?” It takes a fresh look at Raphael, exploring what he achieved, and looking, as if for the first time, at the beauty and grace of his work.

With 40 years' experience as a lecturer, Chantal has taught at Sotheby's Institute of Art on the MA in Fine and Decorative Arts since 1989, and as a freelance lecturer for a number of societies and institutions in London. She has an MA in History of Art from Edinburgh and a PhD from the Warburg Institute, London University