On Friday 02 October 2026, we started another Art History programme for 2026-2027, with the theme of Renaissance Portraiture 1400-1550. As usual our guide was Jennifer, who managed to overcome a ticklish cough in order to deliver her talk.
We started with the earliest portraits, mostly Greek, and whilst some of the heads and the torsos that were sculpted or cast are still with us, we only have reports of the paintings. The most common portrait from the early years BC however is probably coinage. Kings, Princes and the like would ensure that all their people would remember them by having their face on coins – usually in profile.
After the Greeks, many of the portraits, including painted portraits, were Roman. And thanks in part to the disaster of Pompeii, many of these portraits have been found and restored. Pliny is an important source as he described the paintings that he saw at that time. What was of particular interest was how much of the ancients skill was lost for nearly 1,000 years until the Renaissance.
Jennifer then took on the self-portraits of artists, and the first recorded use of a mirror by the artist to see themselves as they paint. This was a fascinating aspect of portraiture.
Portraits must also include the tomb carvings we see in churches and cathedrals, and Jennifer had many excellent examples from Fontevraud in Normandy as well as closer to home in Worcester Cathedral and Southwark Cathedral. Also, as we see in our current times, the sponsor of a portrait or a painting would wish to be included in the work, and Jennifer provided several examples. We then considered the pose of the sitter and what that aims to say about the character of the subject. This would include the aspect, the clothing, the jewellery, the background and the props in the painting.
After a short break for teas and coffees, Jennifer took us on a tour of what she had seen during the Summer of 2026. She started with Norwich Cathedral, which provided a link to Edith Cavell as she was buried there after her repatriation in 1919. We then went to Sandringham followed by Liverpool to see the statue of the Beatles near the Pierhead. Also in Liverpool we saw the portraits in the Walker Gallery of Clara Isabella who had acted as Governor of the Netherlands. There also several self portraits there, some as the allegory of painting. There was much discussion about the Millais painting of a man kicking a dog.
We were then off to Portugal to see the religious portraits in the church of Santa Maria in Obidos in the centre of Portugal. From Portugal we travelled to the National Gallery in Edinburgh, where we were shown more portraits, this time by Botticelli, Raphael, and Van Dyck. There were also more modern portraits, including Calum Stevenson’s portrait of Nicola Bennedetti.
From Edinburgh, we were off to Barking Abbey, for its alleged connection with the Bayeaux Taoestry which is on display in the British Museum, and its modern twin being shown in Reading Museum. From Bayeaux, we travelled to Germany for Schloß Neuschwanstein. From Bavaria, we were off to Rothenburg ob der Tauber to see the famous altar piece in St James’s Church, and from there we finished our travels in Ulm Minster, with its fabulous wood carvings of real characters in the choir stalls and the pews.
This was a fascinating lecture, and it was given to a full audience with every available seat taken. Our course on Portraiture from 1400-1550 continues on 16 October 2026 at 10:00am.