Art Historian Dr Matthew Whyte offers a new lecture series, which takes the audience on an art-filled journey through the often beautiful, sometimes scandalous, and always fascinating moments in the development of Western civilisation. See series info »

2. Christian Triumph in Late Antiquity

We trace the evolution of Christianity from a mystery cult worshipped in secret to the most predominant cultural force in the West. Despite its popular image as diametrically opposed to pagan culture, this week we explore how Christianity’s formation was as much an adoption of Imperial Roman and Byzantine forms and iconography, concerned as it was with establishing an image of power and control. We will trace how this culture of control extended to the masses through the growing ethos of fear, superstition, indulgence, and salvation which circulated around the year 1000. We explore the development of Romanesque and Gothic churches, with their massive forms and strikingly beautiful sculpture and stained glass, as providing contexts to house masses of pilgrims in search of spiritual sustenance.

1. Tues 17 Sept
The Ideal Body in Ancient Greece & Rome

2. Tues 24 Sept
Christian Triumph in Late Antiquity

3. Tues 1 Oct
Medieval Europe: A ‘Dark’ Age?

4. Tues 8 Oct
The Early Renaissance: A New Art

5. Tues 15 Oct
Real or Vision? The Northern Renaissance

6. Tues 22 Oct
The High Renaissance & the ‘Genius Artist’