Our annual Art talks are back. For the fifth consecutive year, starting 7th of January, we’ll bring a group of online guests on an imaginary weekly trip around some the of the best, most beautiful art from the Eternal City of Rome.

Each week sees a richly illustrated slide talk with live expert commentary discussing the art works, giving you real context and depth.

Your host and speaker is the teacher and art expert Arran Henderson, who lived in Rome and has over 30 years experience studying and teaching the great Art of Italy.

Rome arguably represents the single-greatest repository of art treasures anywhere in the world.

Accordingly these talks are selective: a personal selection of favourite art treasures. They will be wide-ranging however, from discussions and ancient Roman sculpture and architecture in the Roman Forum and Capitoline Museums, to the great paintings and altarpieces found in dozens of beautiful historic churches all around Rome, from the earliest imaginable Christian Art, through shimmering Mosaics in Rome’s medieval churches, to the painted masterpieces of the High Renaissance and Baroque epochs.

Every single talk is available live and/or recorded. You do not have to choose either. Because every ticket-holder is automatically sent the links, for both versions – for the live talk, and later its video-recording- every single week of the 8-week course.

The only practical two practical differences are with the recorded versions, you naturally get to choose your own time to enjoy it; and with the live version, you, can- only if you wish to- participate or simply listen in each week, to the short Question and Answer session that follows every live slide talk. (We don’t record the Q&A on the video, recorded version)

3, and 4- Finally, we also have tickets for people who wish to purchase just the first, or just the second half of the course.

First half of the course:  Talks 1-4 inclusive:  €55: here.
and/or
Second half,  of the course.  Talks 5-8 inclusive: for €55, here.

The Gifting option is also available for both these 4-talk tickets too.

We hope to see many of you online for this wonderful annual art course, starting in early January just after Christmas.  Please spread the word too?

Gift the talks?

The talks are also a perfect Christmas present for any art-lover:  and good, stimulating company for a cold Tuesday afternoon!   We are glad to confirm again this year you can easily gift the talks to a friend or family member this time.  In fact we have added a bonus feature (see further below)

How to Gift.

To gift the talks, please keep your eye out – during your online purchase- for the little check-box that asks “Buying as a Gift?”    If you are, please simply tick this check-box.   It will then open up the two additional fields you will require to make a present of these talks, including the email address of your recipient.  

Please, be extra-careful to enter the email address for your recipient correctly in this field, double-checking if necessary please?    Because, when the talks come around, the address you’ve entered is the one we will use each week!

Gift Card Pdf:  included with your Gift purchase.

We have a new feature for people who would like to gift the talks.  In previous years, many of you who bought talks kindly said later that your friends and relatives had loved them. But you still rued the fact there was no tangible card or gift you could hand them, to represent your gift at Christmas or New Year.

To address that, we’ve now introduced a new feature.   When you buy the talks this year,  please read your confirmation email carefully.  Near the foot of the confirmation email is a PDF you can download.  (Please only download if you’ve previously selected the Gift option and have filed in your recipient’s email address)     When you do download this Pdf you will find an attractive, carefully-designed, full-color Gift Card with images of Roman Art and the key course details.   You can can print this Gift Card to give to your family or friend.   The gifting option is available for all 3 ticket types (Talks 1-4;  Talks 5-8;  and for the all 8-Talks master ticket (including the 8-talk Early Bird option)

Accordingly there are 3 different versions of this gift card.   Can we also recommend you print your gift card on heavier, good-quality paper, where possible?  This makes a nice difference.

Approximate course outline*

Arran Henderson’s Grand Tour of Rome: a Personal Selection

Talk One: Caput Mundi.    a trip around ancient Roman, architecture, monuments and public space:  the Colosseum and Roman Forum.  Understanding the monumental buildings and architecture of ancient Rome:  Amphitheaters, Theatres, Stadia, Arches and Columns.

Talk Two:  Ancient Rome outside the Forum. The Pantheon, Ara Pacis,  Mausolea and other monuments. Plus ancient Roman Sculpture: and visit to the Capitoline Museums.

Talk Three: Moments and details from Rome’s great, neglected medieval past.  a personal selection from early Christian Art to Wall paintings and Hidden church details.   This weekly talk is a designed like a city walk, bringing us into seven of Rome’s most extraordinary medieval sites. We will use this imaginary walk to explore worship, pilgrimage and sacred art in Rome from 150AD to 1150AD.

Talk Four:  Sculpture & architecture in Renaissance Rome:   The huge change in architecture from the early 1400s onward. Donatello and Brunelleschi visit t Rome to measure and study its ancein monuments. Later in our story legendary figures like Donato Bramante, Michelangelo and Raphael further develop the language of classically-inspired, Renaissance architecture.  The epic story of the building of the new Saint Peter’s Basilica, and more, from Julius II through the Medici Popes and beyond.

Rome Talk Five:  Painting in Renaissance Rome:  paintings from Botticelli and Perugino to the giant frescos of Michelangelo and Raphael.   Symbolism and meaning in the Sistine Chapel, the wide influence of Raphael’s murals in the Papal stanze and more.   And outside the Vatican, around the wider city of Rome, we explore a stunning altarpiece by Filipino Lippi,  discussing its lessons and its surprises.

Talk Six:   Rome’s other Zenith:  Baroque Rome, Part One: The re-shapping of Rome under its 17th century cardinals and Popes: the obelisks, city avenues and fountains of the 1600s.  Looking at the Palazzo Barberini and San Ivo in Sapienza  The genius and architectural rivalry of Borromini and Bernini.

Talk Seven:   Roman Baroque, Part Two: Caravaggio,  impact, innovations, and his followers.  The epic story of painting in Rome during the 1600s.

Talk Eight:  The Grand Tour Era to the Mid-20th century.   Vedute and capriccio.   The genius of Panini,  of Piranese, and other Grand Tour artists:  art, mementos and illusion in 18th century, painted versions of Rome.

* Please note that the description above is approximate only,  and the course may be subjects to small changes and adjustments week-to-week, in the precise subject matter, artifacts and artworks covered and discussed. The above however, is likely to be very close to the final content.

Your Speaker.

The annual winter art talks are researched, created and presented by art history graduate and teacher Arran Henderson.
Arran is an art history graduate of Oxford Brooks University, and later on, also graduated in Fine Art from NCAD (the National College of Art and Design) in Dublin. He has lived in Italy (primarily Rome) and studied at (inter alia) the University of Rhode Island, Central Saint Martin’s London, and Trinity College Dublin.  Arran has taught art and art history at A-Level, has written for the journal Irish Arts Review and has led walks and talks for many universities and cultural organisations, including Trinity College, the Royal Hibernian Academy, and the National Gallery of Ireland.  This is the fifth year of Arran’s winter online arts talks.

All are very welcome on this course.

You will not believe how much you will learn each week.

Join us.