Loaded with symbolism, the colour blue creates meaning, provokes emotion and ignites memory on a personal, and a cultural level, throughout the world. From the scared shade of Ultramarine, to the ancient roots of...

What is the Bayeux Tapestry really all about? A power struggle, dynastic rivalries, broken promises, diplomatic relations in peril, military prowess and the building of a super power? How was this amazing document in...

In 1943, the German SS officers in charge of Auschwitz-Birkenau ordered that an orchestra should be formed among the female prisoners. Forty-seven women and girls were drafted into a hurriedly-assembled band that would play...

Before he was a famous artist - or indeed an artist at all - Vincent Van Gogh was a disgruntled art salesman, a failed suitor, and a would-be teacher. We glimpse Vincent's life through...

This lecture takes the audience on a tour of some of the extraordinary images that existin some 400 churches in England. The art form was in vogue mainly from C13th –C15th and rarely includes...

Georgians of all classes dined out in pubs, coaching inns, French ordinaries andconfectioners. They also ate all kinds of street food and had an almost insatiableappetite for buns. On a journey through London, we...

Beethoven’s deafness is well known but the psychological impact of this wasdevastating and also was far from his only problem. Less well known, is the paralleldecline in his physical health and failure of many...

Shoes have provided essential protection for our feet ever since ancient times but theirdesign has rarely been inspired simply by comfort or necessity. Beautifully decorated,hand-crafted and employing expensive materials, they have also represented importantmarkers...

John Ruskin (1819–1900), whose life spanned the Victorian era, became the mostcelebrated and influential art critic of his age. Author of countless books and a gifteddraughtsman, he was a polymath whose interests ranged from...