ART IN VENICE: THE LION OF THE SEA
Tuesday 28th October 2025
with Douglas Skeggs
Embedded Files
For three hundred years Venice was the most powerful city-state in the Mediterranean, and much of its wealth was put towards ornamenting itself with works of art. Paintings were frescoed onto the ceilings of churches and the facades of palaces along the Grand Canal; canvases were set into gilded altarpieces and the ornate walls of Council Chambers. Art was the outward proof of status, the symbol of the city’s prestige and influence. These golden years of Venice’s history were to produce the works of Titian, Tintoretto and Veronese. Then, when the Republic collapsed and the city fell into decay, it became a treasure house for the artistic imagination. Painters from all over Europe came to Venice to paint its quiet back waters, its crumbling plasterwork, shadowed doorways and sunlit reflections, and the city was reborn as a romantic vision.
Doge Leonardo Loredan
This Study Day will look into the artists who have lived and worked in Venice, their styles, their techniques and how each added his own unique contribution to the artistic legend of the city.
Lecture 1:
“The origins of Venetian art” looks at the dawn of the Venetian style from the gemlike paintings of Carpaccio to the serene altarpieces of the Bellini. From their studio emerged the enigmatic Giorgione, the most poetic of Venetian artists, and then Titian, whose powerful brushwork and vivid imagination had a profound influence on generations of artists after him.
Lecture 2:
“The Golden Age” looks at the high years of Venetian art when Titian’s works were commissioned by every patron in Europe, from the Pope to the Holy Roman Emperor. How his style was then turned and reformed by Tintoretto into turbulent flights of fantasy, the paintings he made for the Scuola Grande di San Rocco flickering with an eerie light. And how the last glories of the republic glow in the ceiling paintings of Tiepolo and the crystal clear cityscapes of Canaletto.
Lecture 3:
“Poets, painters & private lives” looks at the years of decline when the faded beauty of the city was rediscovered by Turner who painted it lost in shimmering light, by James Whistler, Bonnington and John Singer Sargent, by Henry James who set stories of delicate melancholy in Venice, and by John Ruskin who measured every building of the city and published his report in the “Stones of Venice”, one of the most influential books of the 19th century.
Douglas Skeggs read Fine Art at Magdalene College Cambridge and has been a lecturer on paintings since 1980. In that time he has given over 8000 lectures to universities, colleges and art societies. He was the director of The New Academy of Art Studies for three years and is presently a regular lecturer at The Study Center, Christie's course 'The History of Art Studies' and other London courses. Among his more improbable venues for lectures are the bar on the QE2, MI5 headquarters, the Captain's Room at Lloyds, and an aircraft hanger in a German NATO base. Overseas he has lectured in Belgium, France, Germany and Spain, and has taken numerous tours around Europe. He has written and presented various TV documentaries, notably the Omnibus programme on Whistler and the exhibition video on William Morris. Three one-man exhibitions of his paintings have been held in England and Switzerland. He has published five novels, which have been translated into 8 foreign languages, and his book on Monet, River of Light, has sold 30,000 copies in England, America and France.
SCHEDULE FOR THE DAY:
10.00 -10.30 Arrive for coffee/tea
10.30-11.30 Lecture 1: The Origins of Venetian Art
11.30-12.00 Coffee/tea
12.00 -13.00 Lecture 2: The Golden Age
13.00-14.30 Lunch (see choices on the Booking Information Sheet)
14.30-15.30 Lecture 3: Poets, painters & private lives, followed by short Q & A
Members £60.00 each Non-Members £65.00 each
VENUE
Cirencester Baptist Church, a large, airy, modern building and the hall is fully equipped with audio-visual aids and a hearing loop.
HOW TO BOOK:
Email tascdsi@gmail.com to register your interest, along with your name and menu choices.
2. On receipt of an email acknowledging that a place is available, please pay by one of the following methods:
Preferably pay online by bank transfer or at your bank:
Barclays Bank: The Arts Society Corinium
Sort Code 20 68 15
Account No: 83403475
Reference: Your surname followed by DSI
OR by cheque:
£60.00/£65.00 payable to The Arts Society Corinium
Post to: The Treasurer, David Taylor (DSI), 1 Oaklands, Cirencester, GL7 1FA
Your place WILL ONLY be confirmed once payment has been received.
PLEASE NOTE:
In the event of circumstances beyond our control, the Arts Society Corinium reserves the right to cancel or re-arrange this event.
A refund will not normally be given if you cancel your booking; however the booking may be passed onto another person and we will require that person’s name, email and phone number.
If you have any questions, please contact Margaret Butler tascdsi@gmail.com or phone 07809 881562.
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