Tuesday 24 January 2012 6.00 for 6.30 pm
Lecture “Matteo di Giovanni and Pietro Orioli: Sienese Altarpieces in the National Gallery”
by Prof. Gabriele Fattorini,
 
Professor in the Universita degli Studi di Siena and director of the Museo Diocesano di Pienza, Fattorini is a great expert on Sienese Medieval and Renaissance art and has already introduced Artstur members to the paintings in the National Gallery of Siena. Two altarpieces from the Nat. Gall. in London are really useful to illustrate the peculiarities of the “Quattrocento” Sienese Painting and also the intricate vicissitudes which involved similar panels through the centuries. Both altarpieces originally stood in churches in the Sienese “contado”. Inspired by Simone Martini’s “Assunta di Camollia” (now lost), Matteo di Giovanni’s “Assumption” 1155 is a typical example of the persistence of Gothic tradition in “Quattrocento” Sienese Painting. Painted in 1474 for Sant’Agostino Asciano; the “Saints Augustine and Michael” once at its sides are still in the museum of this village at the south of Siena. Pietro Orioli’s “Nativity with Saints” n. 1849 comes from the little chapel of Cerreto Ciampoli. Painted around 1490-1495, this altarpiece is the work of a pupil of Matteo di Giovanni who was able to become one of the best and most modern painters of Siena at the end of the 15C.

Price: £22 (Friends of Artstur £20)
(Free glass of wine for Friends of Artstur before the lecture – Cash bar for others)
Location: Royal Thames Yacht Club, 60 Knightsbridge, London SW1X 7LF

Wednesday 22 February 2012 6.00 for 6.30 pm
Lecture “America: The importance of being Amerigo”
by Margherita Moscogiuri.
 
Brilliant Florentine journalist and historian – Margherita Moscogiuri has written extensively on the history of the West and Italy in particular. She spent many years in North & South America. Based now between Florence and London, it is a pleasure to welcome her again among our lecturers. From Renaissance Florence to mercantile Seville to a wild new continent: learn the fascinating story of Amerigo Vespucci, who went from merchant to explorer almost overnight, displaying exceptional abilities, courage and cunning. Today, the anniversary of 500 years from his death, it is only fitting that we recognize and celebrate the achievements of a perhaps lesser-known and sometimes maligned explorer, but one whose legacy lies in having been the first person to realize that the New World was precisely that, and not the Indies, as Columbus believed – thus changing the world forever by effectively discovering the Western Hemisphere, while lending his name to two continents in the process.
 
Price: £22 (Friends of Artstur £20)
(Free glass of wine for Friends of Artstur before the lecture – Cash bar for others)
Location: Royal Thames Yacht Club, 60 Knightsbridge, London SW1X 7LF

Price: £20 or £10 for full-time students or teaching/academic staff
Location: The Courtauld Lecture Theatre, Courtauld Institute Somerset House, Strand, London WC2R 0RN

Tuesday 20 March 2012 6.00 for 6.30 pm
Lecture “At the origins of the British Museum: British Travellers to Magna Grecia at the end of the 18C”
by Dott. Elena Lattanzi.
 
A great expert of the archeological treasures which left Italy to fill the collections of great Museums all over the world, Elena Lattanzi has recently been studying Payne-Knight and Townley, two of the 18C British Travellers who created the collections of Italian statues and bronzes outsourced mainly during their Grand Tours in Italy in the 18C. These were eventually donated to the British Museum, as part of their first collections. Prof. Lattanzi is now publishing for the first time a book on a group of small bronzes from the British Museum’s Collection and she will tell us about her exciting researches and findings.
 
Price: £22 (Friends of Artstur £20)
(Free glass of wine for Friends of Artstur before the lecture – Cash bar for others)
Location: Royal Thames Yacht Club, 60 Knightsbridge, London SW1X 7LF

Tuesday 1 May 2012 6.00 for 6.30 pm
Lecture “Beyond the Boundary: The Physicality of Souls in Dante’s Divina Commedia”
by Dott. Alessandro Scafi,The Warburg Institute, School of Advanced Study, University of London.
 
In the Middle Ages, Dante Alighieri gave a poetic answer to a fundamental question that humans have always asked: What happens when we go beyond the boundary of life? What happens when we die? In Dante’s view, as soon as the soul separates from its earthly body and reaches the other world, it develops a body of air. Such a shade, whether perfected in heaven, distorted in purgatory or deformed in hell, is still able to carry the identity of the individual and to express sensitive faculties. This paper examines Dante’s original vision and understanding of the human being and of personal identity, a vision in which he draws on both the classical concept of the shade and the Christian expectation of the resurrection of the body.
 
Price: £22 (Friends of Artstur £20)
(Free glass of wine for Friends of Artstur before the lecture – Cash bar for others)
Location: Royal Thames Yacht Club, 60 Knightsbridge, London SW1X 7LF

Wednesday 30 May 2012 6.00 for 6.30 pm
Lecture “By the hand of an Angel: Fra Angelico’s painting technique”
by Anna-Marie Hilling.
 
Guido di Pietro, or Fra Giovanni da Fiesole, was known as Angelico for his incomparable depiction of Saints and Angels. But how did he actually realize his breathtaking creations? Through illustrations and analyses of some of his masterpieces from the Museum of San Marco, Florence, including the Linaioli Tabernacle recently restored by the Opificio delle Pietre Dure, we will investigate Fra Angelico’s technique of tempera on panel, layer by layer, to understand the articulate structure of his panels, their stunning gold decorations, the secrets of his delicate flesh tones and of his heavenly colouring, which – as Vasari wrote – indeed “appears to be by the hand of an angel”.
 
Price: £22 (Friends of Artstur £20)
(Free glass of wine for Friends of Artstur before the lecture – Cash bar for others)
Location: Royal Thames Yacht Club, 60 Knightsbridge, London SW1X 7LF

Events

OPERA EVENT: La Cenerentola
Bury Court Opera – Wednesday 14 March 2012
 
Located among rolling hills in the Surrey/Hampshire borders, Bury Court is a farm tastefully transformed to a series of gardens, each designed by a contemporary designer and farm buildings converted for event use. In this complex John Coke, the owner, has developed a short opera season in March each year. He encourages young performers with a proven track record to produce an opera of quality. In 2012, La Cenerentola will be performed and we are offering a package on Wednesday 14 March: with transport from London and return, opera and a hot buffet supper (excluding drinks) for a cost of £115 per person (subject to availability).

Price: £115 per person (subject to availability)
Please register your interest in this event and we will confirm that there are tickets available.

Dining Club
 
All members are invited to join the dinners organized on a two monthly basis. The purpose is not only to provide a very pleasant social evening but also to sample some of the best Italian cuisine in London!
 
We ask some restaurants chosen to provide a theme to the selected menu such as region, game, funghi etc. By getting together a group of ten or more we try to get a preferential price so the meals should be good value.

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