Avignon and the Papacy: Thirteenth to sixteenth centuries

Fascinating study day from the London Art History Society looking at the art of the papacy in Avignon from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century.

Alexandra Gajewski from the Burlington Magazine and a specialist on architecture of this period took us though the history of the city in this period looking at how that history influenced art and architecture.

I don’t know the city at all and now want to visit. There were some wonderful slides of the papal palace, the remains of the bridge and various chapels from around the city. For a brief half an hour, I may have understood the papal schism, which I never did when studying Medieval history at university!

I was fascinated to learn that Simone Martini worked and died in the city and fragments of the frescos he did for the cathedral survive in the museum. Also to see the drawing of Cardinal Jean de la Grange’s tomb which was destroyed in the French Revolution but was probably one the largest and greatest tombs of this period.

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