Scone ADFAS presents this lecture on Tuesday 9 May 2023 at 6.30pm at the Upper Hunter Shire Council Chambers Liverpool St, Scone.
Tuesday May 9th 2023, 6.30pm
Venue: Upper Hunter Shire Council Chambers Liverpool St, Scone
Fee: Members free, Guest $30
Refreshments will be served after lecture.
Leslie Primo Holds a BA in Art History and an MA in Renaissance Studies from Birkbeck College, University of London. He was the Visiting Lecturer in Art History at the University of Reading in 2005 and 2007, and gives lectures and guided tours, plus special talks, at both the National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery. He also lectures at the City Literary Institute and has presented a series of talks at the National Maritime Museum and the Courtauld Institute. His book, called The Foreigners that Invented British Art: From Renaissance to Enlightenment, will be published by Thames and Hudson in Spring 2023.
The nude is still seen in our modern age, and indeed has been seen for quite some time as the pinnacle of creative artistic perfection but, throughout the course of art history the notion of the perfect body and consequently gender has been constantly reshaped and redefined. This lecture will look at the continuing fascination with representation of the body in sculpture and in painting across the ages, with sculpture from the 4th century BC, painting from the Renaissance, and through to the modern age with paintings from the Impressionists. This span of time will encompass iconic works within this lecture by Botticelli, Raphael, Titian, Bernini, Degas, Renoir and Velazquez, to name but a few.
Moreover, I will look at the reasons that lay behind the commissioning of such images. What were their purposes, who were the patrons, and what, if any, hidden riddles, signs, and symbols are hidden within these seemingly enigmatic and flawless images of perfection? As this lecture charts the ever-changing attitude towards the nude as a subject, we will look at the treatment of nudes by collectors and museums in the 19th century, as we set the scene and chart the many and varied approaches to this subject that has become synonymous with the very idea of art itself; indeed, finally asking ourselves, ‘if this is art’, how did it become so and why?
Image courtesy of Scone ADFAS