‘Four Weddings and a Funeral’. An Art Lecture.
7pm Thursday 5th May 2016, in Big Classical at Cheltenham College.
This lecture will explore four paintings focussed on weddings, by Van Eyck, Botticelli, Titian and Hockney, thus spanning the period from the early Renaissance to Post Modernism. In one case, the painting will be discussed under the auspices of both a wedding and a funeral. Artists have celebrated the theme of matrimony from a religious and secular perspective since the pre-Renaissance period – adopting a personal or more objective stance dependent upon the commission or occasion. Most commonly, however, wedding paintings provide an interesting insight into the dynamics of a given relationship, or the spirit of the age in broader terms. In commemorating bereavement, clearly artists adopt a more sombre and elegiac tenor, appropriate for the gravity of the subject matter. This visual lecture is predominantly to aid Lower Sixth Form History of Art students in revising four key case studies, but other pupils, parents and members of the public are most welcome. Refreshments will be available before the talk, and there will be an opportunity for questions at the end.
Nick Nelson is Head of History of Art at Cheltenham College.