28 August 2012

Picasso and the Ballets Russes in London

12.45—1.30pm

Picasso significantly visited London for three months in the summer of 1919 to work on the 'Spanish' ballet, The Three-Cornered Hat, which premiered at the Alhambra, Leicester Square, on 22 July. This provided the climax for Picasso's involvement with Serge Diaghilev's innovative company and was a supreme example of how Diaghilev involved the greatest artists of his time to design his productions. A talk by Jane Pritchard, Curator of Dance at the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Free to attend, no booking required.

28 August 2012

Lecture: The Battle for Leonardo: Curating and Connoisseurship

6—7.30pm

For an artist of Leonardo's almost overwhelming fame, there is astonishingly little agreement as to what he actually painted. Thus the choice of Leonardo’s works for the exhibition at the National Gallery in London 2011 received considerable attention (with worries expressed in some quarters as to what was left out).

This lecture by Luke Syson, formerly Curator of Italian Painting before 1500 and Head of Research at the National Gallery in London and responsible for the recent Leonardo exhibition, focuses on three of the most debated paintings: the Madonna Litta in St. Petersburg, the newly restored London Virgin of the Rocks and the Buccleuch Madonna of the Yarnwinder.

In doing so, Syson will consider the role of traditional connoisseurship as set against what we learn from documentary and, in particular, scientific evidence. What was considered a Leonardo in the years around 1500 and how might we answer - or even ask - that question today?

Luke Syson is the Iris and B Gerald Cantor Curator in Charge, European Sculpture and Decorative Arts, The Metropolitan Museum of Art.  

This event is funded by the Association of Art Historians and is a joint initiative between the University of Edinburgh (History of art), Edinburgh Art Festival and National Galleries of Scotland.

Free to attend, booking required.

Call 0131 624 6560