About

Join MonLife Heritage Museums’ exciting new art history course. From van Eyck to van Dyck, Raphael to Reynolds and Pissarro to Picasso, explore how artists’ portrayal of their sitters reflected the art, politics and religion of their era.

Click here to book your ticket

Course Length - 10 weeks of two hour afternoon lectures (one week off on Monday 11th November)
Course Dates - Monday 30th September - Monday 9th December (no class Monday 11th November)
Time - 2:00pm - 4:00pm
Medium - In person at the Drill Hall Chepstow (with the option to catch up on any missed session with recorded online lectures available for a limited period). Click here to book the online version of this course.
Course fee - £110

(Recordings of the online lecture course will be available to members of this course, so that any lectures missed can be caught within 4 weeks, on Zoom)

This series of ten lectures takes us through the history of portraiture. From the time when it became popular in the 15th century, portraiture began to emerge from providing a mere adjunct to religious paintings to become a means to demonstrate power and status. The desire to show individual character and bring sitters to life developed alongside the portrayal of a simple likeness, until we reach the 19th century when style and exploration of new ways of painting meant the sitter’s identity became increasingly subordinate to the process of making art, until we arrive at the challenge of Modernism. 

‘Facing the Past’ is also a chance to look into the eyes of people from other times – were they so different from us?

Image: Detail, Self portrait, Albrecht Dürer, 1500 (Alte Pinakothek, Munich)