Musical instruments are found throughout the paintings of the Dutch Golden Age. Despite this, knowledge of their symbolic meaning, and how they sounded to their original participants, is often lost on modern audiences. The associations of music with love and intimacy, enlivened by the sound quality and tone of the instruments of the period, help unravel their meaning. From Jan Steen’s brothel scenes to the solemn interiors of Vermeer and Pieter de Hooch, this lecture charts the vast meaning and rich significance of music in Dutch art.

Our lecturer Adam Busiakiewicz is an Art Historian, Lecturer and Lutenist. After completing his Bachelor’s Degree in History at University College London in 2010 he held the position of Head of Historical Interpretation (curator) at Warwick Castle. He left the castle in 2013 after winning a full AHRC studentship to pursue a Master’s Degree in Fine and Decorative Art at the Sotheby’s Institute of Art, London. He completed his doctorate in the History of Art at the University of Warwick in 2022 and became a cataloguer in the Old Master Paintings Department at Sotheby's where he remains a Consultant.

The Guitar Player, c.1672 Johannes Vermeer

Albrecht Dürer is among the stars of graphic art, of printmaking, in the Germanic lands. Based in influential Nuremberg, one of the centres of the Reformation and a hub of publishing, Dürer rose to prominence artistically and in the city’s government. Some of his prints established images which still pack a visual punch today. He went to Venice twice in his career and meeting Giovanni Bellini there changed his artistic life. Venice opened his eyes to the Italian Renaissance and guided him to have great aspirations for the art of his homeland.

Our lecturer  

Hilary Williams was a curator and Print Room Superintendent at the British Museum, now Art History Education Officer in the Department of Learning & National Partnerships at the Museum. Lectures for BM and Wallace Collection. Founding Artistic Director of The Arts Society of North Kent Evening. Specialist in 17th century art and has published on Rembrandt. Hilary has vast experience of giving gallery talks, of lecturing and of leading art history tours in UK, Europe, New York and Boston. For the Royal Collection Trust, she has guided Special Interest Private Tours of the State Apartments at Buckingham Palace.

Dürer's self-portrait age 26, Prado Museum

The Trojan war is the central myth of the Greek tradition, and the tale has influenced art and literature down the ages. When was the ancient city of Troy first identified by archaeologists and what do we know about it? Was there really a Trojan War fought over a kidnapped Greek queen? How has the city of Troy been depicted in art and literature ever since? Why does the city and its story continue to cast such a spell in every generation? 

Our lecturer James Renshaw following a degree in Classics from Oxford University, James has taught Classics at secondary school level since 1998, and currently teaches at Godolphin and Latymer in London; here I run the school’s Ancient World Breakfast Club, which has an ethos similar to that of The Arts Society.  Since 1998, James has published a number of textbooks related to the classical world, including In Search of the Greeks and In Search of the Romans. In addition to my school teaching, he has also lectured for the V&A Academy, most recently on their Classical World and its Afterlife and Classicism from the Ancients to the Renaissance courses.

Photo credit- Alamy