Talks & Lectures
These talks are organised by the Lit & Phil (you don't need to be a member in order to attend any of their public events), and tickets cost £6 per talk, from the Lit & Phil Library, 23 Westgate Road, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 1SE, online, in person or over the phone (0191) 232 0192. It is advisable to book seats in advance; if you reserve a ticket and are subsequently unable to attend, please let us know as we often have a waiting list.
An Autumn Visitor
- Monday 21st September, 6.00 pm
Pierre Mignard's portrait of the Marquise de Seignelay
and Two of her Sons - In 1691 an aristocratic young widow and mother (still in her twenties) had herself painted by one of Louis XIV's favourite artists, Pierre Mignard. She didn't wear the stiff formal garments of the French court, but instead was portrayed, with two of her sons also in classical guise, as a sea nymph or goddess with lavish pearls suggesting a wealth that in her real world was evaporating rapidly.
- This exquisite painting will be on loan from the National Gallery to South Shields Museum from 29th of August till 7th November. This lecture explores its background and themes and places it in the larger context of French 17th century art and Mignard's career as a painter of portraits and religious works.
- Bool online.
Halloween Thoughts
A series of three illustrated lectures on the visual history of some of our favourite traditional characters from beyond the bounds of our everyday experience.
- Monday 12th October, 6.00 pm
The Fairy, the Angel and the Nymph - Starting on the brighter side of popular belief we find Angels, magnificent winged creatures who occasionally descend from Heaven, and occupy a central role in the iconography of Christian art. What relationship might they bear to the much more unofficial belief in fairies, who don't seem to belong to the same traditions and who might have something in common with classical nymphs? Discover how art has given form to these airy creatures, and just how it all got so twee (and sometimes worryingly erotic.)
Book online (Members' priority booking till 14th September) - Monday 19th October, 6.00 pm
The Devil, the Demon and the Vampire - This is the season to look again at creatures of the night, pondering whether the vampire at your window is a reanimated corpse or a demon lover, and whether the demon is a fallen angel or a hideous hybrid. How have stereotypes arisen, and how in visual art might you possibly convey the notion of Satan as the embodiment of Ultimate Evil, especially when there's a dragon somewhere in the mixture? Scaly, seductive, bat-winged, red horned, dark cloaked, fanged - let's survey the way we see the real bad boys of Halloween in art and popular culture.
Online booking (Members' priority booking till 21st September) - Monday 26th October, 6.00 pm
The Ghost, the Skull and the Sheet - The Sheet-With-Eye-holes-Spook must represent the most canonical of Halloween costumes: Easily constructed, playfully anonymous and about as scary as an unmade bed. But how do we visualise ghosts, who belong to the unofficial beliefs of folklore and oral tradition and so have their origins in tales told, words rather than images? Memento Mori traditions might add a skull or winding sheet to indicate their post-mortem status and add a touch of necromantic atmosphere, while transparency or unearthly glow can suggest the uncanny, but visitors from beyond the grave apparently appear in a bewildering range of guises.
This talk discusses the fraught, tangled and often ridiculous history of representing an undefined phenomenon within the conventions of art and modern media.
Online booking (Members' priority booking till 28th September)
