Our annual winter art talks series in January and February of 2025, was:
Arran’s Art of Rome: a personal selection
and here is a little film we made back in November 20024, to promote those talks
The talks concluded in early March, 2025. I’m delighted to say you can now purchase the slide talks as videos, each one a richly-illustrated slide-talk, with hundreds of images, artifacts and details, and of course, voice-over narration, interpreting the amazing art of Rome. There are eight such talks in total and they are available in two blocks of 4 talks each.
Each block of 4 is €25 plus a small booking fee. (approx 6%) Very broadly speaking, Talks 1-2 cover Ancient Rome; Talks 3-4 cover aspects of Medieval Rome; Talks 5 and 6 cover roughly Renaissance art in Rome; and finally Talks 7 and 8 cover the 1600s and the Baroque period, such as works by Bernini and Caravaggio. All of these 8 talks, and some other treats are now available by just pressing the green Buy Now button and then selecting Art Talks. Enjoy! (And you will find a more detailed course description below, if you wish)
Here is a more detailed breakdown for the videos of our Art of Rome talks. The Approximate course outline.
Block One: with Talks 1-4.
Talk 1: monuments and history from the Colosseum, and selected monuments throughout the ncient Roman Forum, including the Arch of Titus and Arch of Constantine, the Basilica of Maxentius, the Temple of Venus and Roma, etc.
Talk 2 some ancient monuments from outside the Forum, including the Ara Pacis and the Pantheon. This talk also includes an imaginary tour of the Capitoline museum, pointing out some of its best Roman antiquities.
Talks 3 an imaginary walking tour, with maps, linking 5 special Medieval churches in Rome rich in historic material, including columns recycled from Roman temples, and beautiful mosaics, in a range of styles. We also discuss medieval papal history and patronage, and deep historic layers in some churches, including (in the case of one church) two whole additional underground layers of archeology, with some surprising revelations!
Talk 4: a visit to two churches in the Trastevere district of Rome, two churches with particularly rich medieval heritage including more beautiful mosaics, and some wonderful half-hidden frescoes by Pietro Cavallini which influenced Giotto, and thus were important in the development of early Italian Renaissance art.
Special limited time offer.
If you purchase Block 1 of the talks, your confirmation email will include, in addition to your 4 art history talks, a complimentary Pdf, with notes and the route of our medieval churches walk, from Talk 3. This PDF is embedded in your confirmation email, along with your 4 videos and your access -passwords. You are welcome to download and print out the PDF although of course, we ask people not to share it electronically. Thank you.
To purchase Block One, containing Talks 1-4, please press the green Book Now button you see onscreen, select the Art Talks option, and then choose the Rome block with Talks 1-4.
Summary of Block Two: containing Talks 5-8.
Talk 5 picks up where talk 4 in the previous series left off, in late Medieval period, and with the transition from beautiful late-medirval art to the early-Renaissance. It includes treatment of works by Giotto, Melozzo di Forli, Antoniazzo Romano, and other artists, including frescos by Pietro Perugino and Sandro Botticelli at the Sistine Chapel, and a wonderful, late-1400s altarpiece by Filipino Lippi, in perhaps my favourite Roman church, Santa Maria sopra Minerva.
Talk 6 deals with the High Renaissance. Its starts with an imaginary walk from Trastevere up to the Tempietto, that tiny but highly influential building c1505 by Donato Bramante. Our talk (and imaginary walk) then brings us down the hill, past the Villa Farnesina and Palazzo Corsini, to the Vatican complex. Here we look briefly at the remarkable story of the building of “new” Saint Peters basilica, from the 1400s onward. which involved some of the greatest architects in history (Donato Bramante, Baldasare Peruzzi, Raphael, Michelangelo, Carlo Maderno, Gian Lorenzo Bernini, etc) After looking briefly inside Saint Peter’s just to consider Michelangelo’s Pieta sculpture, we go inside the Vatican Museum to look at just two famous sights here: Rapahel’s famous series of stanze frescoes, painted for Pope Julius II (and later for Leo X Medici) and Michelangelo’s two works in the Sistine Chapel: his Last Judgement fresco on the end, altar-wall, and his legendary old scenes from Genesis, on the ceiling.
finally Talks 7 and 8 (the second half of Block-2) cover the 1600s and the Baroque period, such as works by Bernini and Caravaggio.
Talks 7 moves the action to the the 1600s period, as it focuses on the sculptural works of Gian Lorenzo Bernini, and the fierce, intense rivalry, in architecture, between Bernini and his contemporary, the and the Baroque architectural genius Francesco Borromini.
Talk 8 the immortal Caravaggio, and where best to see his works in Rome churches. Accordingly this final talk includes an imaginary walking tour around the Campo Marzio area of Rome, bringing us firstly to three separate churches where you can see several of his greatest artworks, still in their original context and setting. This imaginary walking tour around the Campo Marzio features other key site, such as ancient Roman sights like the nearby Temple of Hadrian, and thus bringing us, in some cases, right back to Talk 1 in our series.
Our final Talk-8 finishes with a whirlwind tour around three of my favorite Roman picture galleries, the Galleria Nazionale at two sites (both Palazzo Corsini, and Palazzo Barbarini) and the Pinacoteca (picture gallery) back at the Capitoline Museum. We will show you some of our favourite paintings to look out for in each one.
To purchase Block Two, containing Talks 5-8, please press the green Book Now button you see onscreen, select the Art Talks option, and then choose the Rome block with talks 5-8.
If you’d like to see our free sample talk, introducing a useful overview of Rome, and summarizing the material from all eight of our Art of Rome talks, please watch our free sample talk. (You will know within 10 or 15 minutes whether our style and approach is something that appeal to you). You can find and book straight into into the free sample/ introduction talk, along with all the rest of the our talks, in our Italian Art slide-talks section here.
END.
For information on our occasional overseas art trips to Italy, starting in October 2025, with a 4 day trip to Venice, please see here (and there will be more information coming soon!)
Your Speaker.
The annual winter Art Talks are researched, created and presented by art history graduate and teacher Arran Henderson.
Arran is an art history graduate of Oxford Brooks University, and later on, also graduated in Fine Art from NCAD (the National College of Art and Design) in Dublin. He has lived in Italy (primarily Rome) and studied at (inter alia) the University of Rhode Island, Central Saint Martin’s London, and Trinity College Dublin. Arran has taught art and art history at A-Level, has written for the journal Irish Arts Review and has led walks and talks for many universities and cultural organisations, including Trinity College, the Royal Hibernian Academy, and the National Gallery of Ireland. This series on Rome was the fifth year of Arran’s winter online arts talks. Previous years talks have included series on the Veneto, on Florence and on the Art of Venice.
Arran leading a recent tour at the National Gallery of Ireland (photo by Trevor O’Reilly). Below: Arran at the Colosseum in Rome, October 2024. (photo credit: Michael Armstrong)
Arran Henderson
Dublin Decoded Talks and Tours.
image above: View of the Roman Forum G.P. Panini
Interior of the Pantheon, Rome, Giovanni Paolo Panini c.1734 National Gallery, Washington
Santa Maria in Trastevere, Rome, apse and mosaics, photo ©Arran Henderson
Tempieto, Rome, by Donato Bramante, photo ©Arran Henderson
the Last Judgement, Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo, 1537 -4. image WGA
the Fontana dell’Acqua Felice, also called the Fountain of Moses, designed Domenico Fontana, built 1585-1588, with the church of Church of Santa Maria della Vittoria in background. Photo ©Arran Henderson.
The Calling of Saint Matthew, Caravaggio (1599-1600). image public domain.
Joshua Reynolds, Grand Tourists in Rome. National Gallery of Ireland. photo Arran Henderson.
Previous seasons’ art talks,
For people interested in previous seasons’ art talks, some, but not all of the previous years’ talks videos, are still available for purchase, namely the second half of the January and February 2023 Venice talks, and all 8 of January and February 2024’s Florence art talks. You will find any such material via on the green Book Now onscreen button. (Can you see it?) Once you press the green Book Now button, please select Art Talks, the see the recorded online art talks available from previous years, both our premium and our free, introductory content.
notes on images:
Header image: statue at the Loggia dei Lanza (at Piazza Signoria) with the Palazzo Vecchio and the Uffizi in background (photo by Arran Henderson).
mid-section pictures: Arran Henderson, pictured at Santa Maria Novella; sculpture at the Loggia Lanza, Piazza delle Signoria; 14 century altarpiece of Saint Catherine at the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo (detail)
Portrait of Eleanor of Toledo, wife of Cosimo I de’ Medici, with their son Giovanni, painted by Agnolo Bronzino (Uffizzi)
Bottom images: Annunciation by Leonardo, Uffizi; David by Michelangelo, at the Galleria dell’Accademia.
“a worm’s-eye view” of the Baptistery, Duomo and Campanile, with architecture and sculpture visible by Arnolfo di Cambio, Giotto and Andrea Pisano; a view of the Bargello; Primavera by Sandro Botticelli, at the Uffizi Galleries; the Palazzo Vecchio on Piazza della Signoria.
(all photos by Arran Henderson)