Past lectures

	Thursday 17th October 2024 10.45am and 2.15pm. Simultaneous transmission a.m. only Lecturer: Emily Chappell ‘I saw a New Heaven and a New Earth’ (Rev 21) : The Gothic Cathedral as the Heavenly Jerusalem Report: The October TASH lecture was given by a new Arts Society lecturer, Emily Chappell, and was on the design and building of Gothic cathedrals in France and the UK. The inspiration came from the Book of Revelations, with the first cathedral that provided a model for all the others being the Basilica of St Denis, now in the Paris suburbs. Emily showed how the designs evolved, via Chartres, Rheims, Wells and others, to bring light into the buildings and focus the worship. When they were built, they were elaborately painted and ornamented inside and out, though the paint has generally faded over the centuries. Many of the examples have been modified over the centuries, and some partially collapsed and were later rebuilt, including at St Denis. This lecture will consider the aims and motivations of the master masons who built the great Gothic cathedrals of England and France. We will study several key buildings: their architecture and stained glass, the influence of liturgical practice and religious symbolism on their layout and the importance of light and colour in their interiors. We will look at the technical challenges and how these were overcome by an extraordinary determination to build Heavenly Jerusalem on earth. (Please click on the blue print above to continue reading)
	Thursday 19th September 2024 10.45am and 2.15pm Lecturer: Jane Angelini The Glories of Byzantium Report on The Glories of Byzantium: The TASH lecture in September was The Glories of Byzantium, given by Jane Angelini. The talk was extremely well-illustrated with exquisite examples from AD 330 to AD 1453, with examples from Constantinople, Ravenna, Venice and elsewhere in the Byzantine Empire from its founding by Constantine the Great to its dissolution when it was overrun by the Ottoman Turks. Jane showed how the empire evolved from the Roman Empire, taking the Roman genius in engineering and other fields and marrying it with Greek artistic endeavour and education. The Empire was a key bridge between the Roman Empire and the rise of Western Europe during the Renaissance. She also showed how important the Byzantine Empire was in Eastern Europe and the conversion of countries like Russia from paganism to Orthodox Christianity. She also showed how Constantinople still is evident in modern Istanbul, and still influences the present-day Eastern Mediterranean and beyond. Professor Robert Gurney The importance of the role played by Byzantium as a link in the great chain of world history is an important theme. With its roots firmly in the Ancient World of Greece and Rome the Byzantine period – AD 330 -1453 – spans the medieval centuries. (Please click on the blue print above to continue reading)
	Thursday 20th June 2024 10.45am and 2.15pm. Simultaneous transmission a.m. only Lecturer: Dr Graham Jones The Art of State Ceremonial Music The UK provides some of the biggest Ceremonial Events in the world ,and arguably the best in the world, but why is that? How do the military prepare for major events such as State Opening of Parliament, State Visits, National day of Remembrance, Royal Weddings or even a State Funeral? (Please click on the blue print above to continue reading)
	Thursday 16th May 2024 at 10.45am and 2.15pm. Simultaneous transmission a.m. only Lecturer: Mary Alexander Dazzling Dufy: An Invitation to a Luminous Feast with Raoul Dufy Raoul Dufy (1877-1953) was a key player in early 20th century avant garde art, design and literary/theatrical circles in Paris. As a widely travelled polymath, Dufy's charismatic personality, wit and curiosity about the world was infectious. His imagination and technical virtuosity - across a range of media including painting and lithography, posters, book illustration, theatrical set design, textiles and fashion, ceramics and large murals - cut across all conventional boundaries. Whether a small intricate woodcut illustrating a love poem, or the truly gigantic 1937 world fair murals depicting the role of electricity in the modern age, the effect is mesmerising. (Please click on the blue print above to continue reading)
	Thursday 18th April 2024 10.45am and 2.15pm. Simultaneous transmission a.m. only Lecturer: Will Korner Art Crime: Myth & Reality This provides an introduction and history to the variety of types of art crime: from (in)famous museum heists and Nazi looting, to antiquities looting and trafficking, to fakes and forgeries and finally to the everyday nature of art and valuables crime. These are all accompanied by case studies that would be balanced between well-known cases to much less known but more detailed ones in which Will has been directly involved. (Please click on the blue print above to continue reading)
	Thursday 21st March 2024 at 10.45am and 2.15pm Simultaneous transmission a.m. only Lecturer: Sandy Burnett Exploring Bach’s St Matthew Passion Musician and broadcaster Sandy Burnett returns to the Arts Society Henley with a special presentation on Johann Sebastian Bach’s Matthew Passion, a masterful work which combines tunefulness, craftsmanship, dramatic power and spirituality in equal measure. (Please click on the blue print above to continue reading)
	15th February 2024 10.45am and 2.15pm. Simultaneous transmission a.m. only Lecturer: Simon Rees Theatre Illusions Theatre has always been known for its capacity for creating illusion and suspending disbelief. Simon Rees draws on centuries of disguises, masks, make-up, ingenious apparatuses, trick trapdoors, smoke, mirrors and bungee-jumping Rhinemaidens, bringing his entertaining account of theatre illusion up to the present day. (Please click on the blue print above to continue reading)
	18th January 2024. 10.45am and 2.15pm. Simultaneous transmission a.m. only Lecturer: Keith Bonser Caravaggio Painter Extraordinaire, a Flawed Genius and… a murderer! How I became a Caravaggisti Keith Bonser's presentation is a very personal account of how Caravaggio came into his life. This journey embraces the story of Caravaggio's life and paintings, and epitomises the ability of Art to inspire anyone. (Please click on the blue print above to continue reading)
	Thursday 7th December 2023. Our Christmas lectures at 10.45am and 2.15pm at The Henley Rugby Club Lecturer: Jane Tapley Dickens and Christmas: Dickens was the first novelist to use the phrase ‘Merry Christmas’ A Christmas version of his life and times. Dickens was often referred to as Jolly Old Christmas because of his highly popular short stories especially written for the festive season. He was also the first novelist to use the words Merry Christmas thus starting a trend that is still popular today. (Please click on the blue print above to continue reading)
	Wednesday 8th November 2023 at 10.30am. Annual General Meeting followed by the lecture. Please note morning only. At Henley Rugby Club Lecturer: Barry Venning With a Little Help from their Friends : The Beatles and their Artists This is a journey through the 60s in music and images, following the Beatles from the Hamburg Reeperbahn in 1960 to Abbey Road in 1969. The Beatles in Hotorgscity, Sweden, in 1963 (Please click on the blue print above to continue reading)
	Wednesday 8th November at 2.15pm at The Henley Rugby Club Lecturer: John Benjamin President's Welcome Talk: Carl Fabergé Following the Annual General Meeting and lunch there will be a special ‘President’s Welcome Talk’. John Benjamin will start his Presidency with a talk on Carl Fabergé. The talk will start at 2.15pm and is open to all TASH members. Again, this talk will be held in the main (larger) room in the Rugby Club. (Please click on the blue print above to continue reading)
	19th October 2023 at 10.45am and 2.15pm at The Henley Rugby Club Lecturer: Angela Findlay The Art of Atonement: How Germany Commemorates WW2 In the context of our World War centenaries, anniversaries and the current debate about statues and monuments, the subject of this talk is hugely relevant. In this country, relatively little is known about Germany’s complex post-WW2 process of ‘coming to terms with’ the atrocities of its recent past and the counter memorial movement that started in the eighties and continues to this day. (Please click on the blue print above to continue reading)
	21st September 2023 10.45am and 2.15pm at The Henley Rugby Club Lecturer: Christopher Bradley Coffee - From Arabia to the Coffee House, The Art and History of Coffee Drinking Long before cappuccinos and skinny lattes, all the world’s coffee traded through the tiny port of Mokha in Yemen. Ethiopia is the traditional home of coffee (Please click on the blue print above to continue reading)
	15th June 2023 at 10.45am and 2.15pm at The Henley Rugby Club Lecturer: Stephen Duffy The 'Incomparable' Empress Josephine
	Thursday 18th May 2023 at 10.45am and 2.15pm at the Henley Rugby Club Lecturer: Peter Medhurst ‘How daintily this Byrd his notes doth vary’: The Life and Music of William Byrd (1543-1623) 2023 marks 400 years since the death of the great English composer, William Byrd, whose music is a marvellous blend of technical skill and emotional intensity (head and heart). (Please click on the blue print above to continue reading)
	Thursday 20th April 2023 at 10.45am and 2.15pm at The Henley Rugby Club Lecturer: Andrew Prince From Downton to Gatsby: Jewellery and Fashion from 1890 to 1929 For the series and film Downton Abbey, Andrew was commissioned to make many jewels for the main characters and this inspired him to create a talk based on this unique period. (Please click on the blue print above to continue reading)
	Thursday 16th March 2023 at 10.45am and 2.15pm at The Henley Rugby Club Lecturer: Dr Geri Parlby The History and Art of the Catacombs of Rome and their Rediscovery during the Reformation This topic covers the origins of the Catacombs of Rome and the extraordinarily varied art that adorns them. (Please click on the blue print above to continue reading)
	Thursday 16th February 2023 at 10.45am and 2.15pm at The Henley Rugby Club Lecturer: Leslie Primo Favourite Paintings: Masterpieces from the Barber Institute of Fine Arts - in the Context of the Image of Black People in Art This lecture will explore my personal favourite paintings from the rich and varied collection of paintings that make up The Barber Institute of Fine Arts Collection. (Please click on the blue print above to continue reading)
	Thursday 19th January 2023 at 10.45am and 2.15pm at The Henley Rugby Club Lecturer: Anne Sebba William Bankes: The Exiled Collector and the Man behind the Creation of the English Country House William Bankes was a 19th century collector of ancient Egyptian artefacts and Spanish paintings intended for his ancestral home in Dorset, Kingston Lacy. (Please click on the blue print above to continue reading)
	1st December 2022 at The Henley Rugby Club 10.45am, repeated at 2.15pm Lecturer: Sandy Burnett Christmas in Bach’s Leipzig: The Christmas Oratorio of 1734/5 Sandy Burnett’s close relationship with Bach’s music stretches back for decades; between 1997 and 2010 he directed a complete cycle of Bach’s sacred cantatas in West London. Bach Haussmann In this illustrated talk he explores how Bach brings the Christmas story alive in his Weihnachtsoratorium or Christmas Oratorio, written for Lutheran congregations in 1730s Leipzig. (Please click on the blue print above to continue reading)