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 5 part series, Nicole Mezey, looks at how symbolic, illuminating, awe inspiring – the mastery of light has been a vital tool of the western artist. The course looks at such forms as stained glass, the natural light of Constable, the brooding emotion of Rubens and the reflections of Impressionism in an attempt to understand the fascination of light and its immense possibilities for the artist.
THE MOOD OF LIGHT
In this final lecture we examine how we are primitive creatures. We respond emotionally to darkness, shadow and its interplay with light – something which artists from Leonardo to Gericault, from Caravaggio to Rembrandt, have known and used to intensify the mood of their work, drawing us in to share and empathise with their deeper meanings.