“The Moment of Truth: Art in the Early Renaissance”
Monday evenings online course moves on through time to the 15th Century
from Monday 31st January 2022 7-8pm
Zoom illustrated live talks with popular local lecturer, Eleanor Bird
(recorded sessions will be available)
10 weekly I hour sessions (half term break week 21st February 2022)
Course Fee £50 (only one payment per household)
Monmouthshire Museums’ online evening course for spring 2022 explores the explosion of art in the 15th century, when painters began to strive for an art that looked real – reflecting new ideas which put Man at the centre of God’s universe. Artists such as Ghiberti and Masaccio learned how to create a realistic 3-dimensional world on a 2-dimensional surface for the first time, while others explored how to bring well-known narratives to life by setting their saints and sinners into the familiar world of the century’s booming cities.
The course takes us from the first inklings of this realism as Giotto painted figures which had weight and form, while Duccio ramped up the storytelling power in his work. Then as developments in scholarship and art came together around 1400, we watch as art bursts into new life on the walls and altarpieces of Florence with Fra Angelico and Donatello and see how the economic success of the Low Countries sets off another outpouring of new works such as Jan Van Eyck’s extraordinary Ghent Altarpiece. As the century moves on, artists such as Veneziano, Piero and Botticelli create ever-more sophisticated works with a glowing intensity that still draws us today.
These 1-hour, evening talks continue the online provision by Monmouthshire Heritage which has proved popular with viewers who are at work in the day or prefer to remain at home to consume some of the highlights of art history with our regular lecturer, Eleanor Bird.
