2 Audley Square
Mayfair, London W1K
UK
Established in 1994, The Course offers exciting lectures in Art History, Literature and Music.
“Our classic, the classic of all Europe, is Virgil”, said T S Eliot in 1944. 75 years on, the UK is scheduled to leave the EU, but not European culture. What better moment could there be to retrace the journey Virgil created for Aeneas: escape from the Trojan inferno, voyage to Carthage, love for Dido, abandonment of her to found a new Troy at Rome, and pilgrimage to the Underworld, a golden bough as passport. Artists picture it all as if they travelled with him.
Venus as Travel Guide (Virgil, Aeneid Book i)
Aeneas’s mother is goddess of love, so he has a head start: Venus hears Jupiter prophesy the rise of Rome, so she guides her boy to Carthage where Queen Dido welcomes him in the temple. At dinner, he begins to tell his story. Botticelli, Boucher, Cézanne, Claude, Corot, Correggio, Ingres, Angelica Kauffmann, Reni, Rubens, Tiepolo, Titian, Turner and Zucchi flock to their easels to do it all in colour.