Tudors & Stuarts: British Art & Design 1500-1700

SHORT COURSE: Discover the fascinating history of art, architecture and decorative arts during one of the most tumultuous and pioneering periods in British history.

From 1500–1700 Britain became Europe’s most successful commercial economy and witnessed an extraordinary flowering of its culture and arts. In architecture, vast Tudor power houses like Hardwick were lavishly decorated with carved wood, paintings, tapestries and textiles. Furniture and embroidered upholstery became more sumptuous, and gold and silverware reached new heights of sophistication. Artists from Holbein to Hilliard were widely admired until Van Dyck pointed painting in a radically new direction. Explore the development of the principal buildings, interiors, furnishings and art of the period, as well as the main styles and tastes of the times.

Thursdays, 27 September – 6 December 2012 (Half term: 1 November), 10:30am - 1:00pm.