2 Audley Square
Mayfair, London W1K
UK
Founded in 1994, THE COURSE offers art history lectures, opera and literature courses, guided museum visits and London walks.
In this series of 10 lectures, Nicole Mezey will examine how no single theme has so preoccupied the western artist as has Christianity. It is the only one of the world’s great monotheistic faiths to allow, indeed to encourage, representation, and the history, narratives and practice of the Faith are richly reflected in its art. Cherubim and chasubles, Passion and pilgrimages, Samson and St. Lucy – this course explores a range of Christian themes, some of the devotional and other forms in which they were expressed, and the experiences and ideas which inspired them.
PRAYER AND PRACTICE
In this lecture we will see how the artefacts of the church, from vestments to altarpieces, are linked to the practices of devotion, whether in the cycles of the year or the key moments of human life. These trappings have, over the centuries, exercised the greatest talents of painters, metalworkers and embroiderers to inspire a coherent and powerful legacy.