February Meeting

From Holy Icon to Humanist Masterpiece, an illustrated talk by Catherine Jenkins MA.

This talk will offer an introduction to the development of European Art with a virtual tour of six paintings in the Sainsbury’s Wing of the National Gallery. We will begin with early paintings on church altarpieces and explore the impact of an influx of icons from the East after the sack of Constantinople in 1204. We will move on to the rediscovery of classical art, highlighting renaissance pioneers of perspective and naturalism, Fra Angelico and Masaccio. The tour will end with masterpieces of the high renaissance by Leonardo and Michelangelo, noting their innovation but also their continued connection with the past.