Members: £85
Non-Members: £105
Concessions: £20 (call the office 020 8340 3343)
Spring term 2025: 20 January - 03 March (6 weeks)
Half term: Monday 10 February
The patronage of the Dukes of Burgundy, their court, and the wealthy merchants who traded from and within their lands inspired some of the most talented artists of the period. For example, Bruges, an especially favoured destination of the dukes, and also an international trading centre, was home to such artists as Jan van Eyck, Petrus Christus, Hans Memling, and Gerard David. The dukes’ vast financial resources created one of the most sophisticated courts in Europe. From 1441, the court was based in Brussels, but the impact of Burgundian patronage, with its taste for luxury goods and display, was widespread, stimulating the arts throughout the region. The Burgundian style spans the so-called International Gothic through to Northern Renaissance.
In this course, we will consider how the extravagant lifestyle of the Burgundian court provided opportunities for an opulent Burgundian style to be developed, not only in paintings, but also manuscripts, and the decorative arts.
Julia Musgrave has a Masters in ‘Art, Style and Design: Renaissance to Modernism, c.1450 – c.1930’ from the University of Glasgow. She gained her Ph.D. at the University of York for her research into the social networks of the British art world in the development of the Contemporary Art Society from 1910 to 1939. She is an accredited Arts Society lecturer.
