Behind the Scenes at the National Gallery – Sian Walters
In 2024 the National Gallery celebrates its 200th birthday. In the run up to this special anniversary, explore some of the nation’s best-loved paintings in a new light, revealing details which cannot be seen with the naked eye and discussing what goes on behind the scenes in the conservation, framing and scientific departments.
Few of the gallery’s works retain their original frames but an expert team will often source and adapt examples which complement the paintings historically, or indeed hand-carve new ones from scratch.
The lecture is on Wednesday, 27 November at 14:15 (afternoon lecture only), in Limpsfield Church Hall. Join us for a hot mince pie and a glass of wine before the lecture.
Henry VII’s State Bed – Jonathan Foyle
In 2010, the elaborately carved, incomplete oak bed frame was removed from the honeymoon suite of a hotel in Chester, to be auctioned as a Victorian relic. The speaker has spent six years studying and attributing it, now featured in press around the world.
Featuring five royal arms, six single roses, and deeply esoteric symbols of fertility, it turns out to be covered in medieval paintwork, and its proportions respect the mural of the lost Painted Chamber of royal Westminster Palace abandoned in 1512. Scientific analyses, documentation and art history agree to demonstrate it is an astonishing national treasure: the marriage bed of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York, made by 18 January 1486.
This lecture is on Wednesday, 29 January at 14:15 (afternoon lecture), in Limpsfield Church Hall. Join us for refreshments before the lecture.
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