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.
The Escape: A Tale of Accidents, Monsters, Landfalls (iii; iv)
Aeneas builds a fleet. They sail to Delos, Crete, the Strophades, Italy and Sicily, and so to Carthage. Dido falls in love with Aeneas, and the gods debate their destiny. The two go hunting and shelter from a storm in a cave whose atmosphere suggests love’s consummation. A. Carracci, Claude, Guignet, Janssens, Thomas Jones, Miel, Morrison, Tiepolo, Tischbein and Turner are visionary here.