Art History Reframed – Autumn 2026
This new lecture series is a journey through six of Europe’s most remarkable cities – Florence, Rome, Venice, London, Paris and Vienna – each explored at the moment it comes most vividly to life. Each lecture invites you to step inside the city and experience its society and atmosphere through an immersive exploration of its aesthetic culture – its art, architecture, and music.
Using its cultural production as our guide, we will uncover how each city understood itself and projected its identity to the wider world. As always, visual art provides us with a window through which we can view these historic places at their most significant turning points. Along the way, music will offer a rich and varied way for us to understand the forms, the atmospheres, and the identities of these places.
From Renaissance Florence to imperial Vienna, from Baroque Rome to modern Paris and industrial London, each lecture reveals a different way of seeing and living in Europe. This lecture series combines art, music, and cultural history, inviting audiences to experience the cities that have shaped the world in which we live today, and to discover how profoundly a sense of place shapes culture, creativity, and imagination.
The lectures can be attended as a series, but are also designed as standalone talks, which can be attended individually.
Purchase 1 ticket for each lecture to get 20% series discount!
Dr Matthew Whyte is an art historian, lecturer and arts professional with over a decade working across the arts and cultural sector. He completed his PhD at University College Cork, with a focus on Early Modern Italian sculpture, and he has lectured in History of Art at University College Cork since 2014. Dr Whyte is Development Manager with Sample-Studios, Ireland’s largest artist studio organisations, where he plays a key role in strategic development and advocacy for art and artists reflecting a sustained commitment to supporting contemporary art, heritage, and the wider cultural ecology.
This new series combines Dr Whyte’s Art Historical expertise with his many years of working in cultural tourism with National Geographic/Lindblad Expeditions, Zegrahm Expeditions, and in a private capacity. He has spent years leading cultural excursions – from the major cities of Europe to the wild ruins of the Outer Hebrides – absorbing and articulating the rich traditions which define our history and culture. Dr Whyte invites audiences to share in these rich experiences through The Great Cities of Europe in Triskel Arts Centre.
