Courtauld summer school day 4

Wow it has seemed a long day as I’ve packed things in! Two lectures this morning. We started with portraits with a debate on what a portrait is and isn’t. We then looked at the role of Netherlandish art, the difference between public and private portraits and the place of women in portraiture.

After coffee was the role of the Terra Firma in Venetian art. It was an interesting discussion about whether the influences came from city to country or visa versa the conclusion was that they influenced each other it was not just one way. This gave us a chance to look at some less well-known artists such as Lotto and Pordenone.

This afternoon was a wonderful trip to the British Library to look at books printed in Venice in the 15th and 16th centuries. These had been retrieved for us and we looked at them in a room upstairs. The curator there was really knowledgeable so there were some great discussion between our lecturer and him. It was great to get a chance to handle the books and have a really good look at them.

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