Note the new time of 5:00 pm for all lectures.
(Details of the forthcoming lecture are given below the table )
The 2021 series of OASA Zoom lectures
| Date | Speaker | Title |
| 8 February | Dr Richard Ormond | Sargent and Spain |
| 8 March 4.30pm | AGM Cancelled | |
| 8 March 5.00pm | Tim Moreton Cancelled | ‘A likeness pleases every body’ – Portraits in literature |
| 10 May 4.15pm 10 May 5.00pm | AGM Prof Geoff Batchen | In Absentia: The Art of the Cameraless Photograph |
| 14 June 5.00 pm | Dr. Dillian Gordon | From Paris to Siena via Avignon? The enduring enigma of the Wilton Diptych. |
| 11 October | Dr. Martin Gayford | Talking to Artists |
| 8 November | Prof. Martin Kemp | President’s Inaugural Lecture Hockney’s Eye. Looking forward to the Cambridge exhibition, ‘Hockney in Perspective’. |
Dr. Dillian Gordon, OBE
From Paris to Siena via Avignon? The enduring enigma
of the Wilton Diptych
Lecture to the Oxford Art Society Associates, 14 June 2021 at 5.00pm
From Paris to Siena via Avignon? The enduring enigma of the Wilton Diptych
The Wilton Diptych is one of the most beautiful as well as one of the most enigmatic paintings ever painted. It was almost certainly commissioned by King Richard II (r. 1377-99), after his marriage in 1396 to Isabelle, the seven-year old daughter of Charles VI of France. But both its meaning and its painter remain a mystery.
This lecture will look at what light the technique, iconography and style can throw on the possible English or French origins of the painter, the significance of the symbolism and the circumstances of the commission in the context of the English and French courts.
Below: Interior of the Wilton Diptych, National Gallery, London. Left wing: Richard II, r.1377–1399, with Saints Edmund, Edward the Confessor and John the Baptist. Right wing: The Virgin and Child with Angels.
This lecture will take place online. Details of ticketing will be posted here soon.
To find out how to download and use Zoom, click HERE
Dr. Dillian Gordon, is a British art historian who was the first woman to be appointed as curator to the National Gallery, London, where she worked, ultimately, as Curator of Italian Paintings before 1460, between 1978 and 2010. There she was involved with curating exhibitions, cataloguing, research and acquisitions. One of two paintings which she identified as part of a six-panel diptych by the 13th century artist, Cimabue, was acquired by the National Gallery. She continues to research and write on Italian paintings of the 13th and 14th centuries. Her book on the Wilton Diptych published, with collaborators, in 2015, reveals discoveries made in the course of its cleaning and conservation.
Background to The OASA Zoom Lecture Programme for 2021
Those of you who are members of the OASA will already have received details of our very exciting programme for 2021. Friends and other visitors to our web pages can see these details here on the OASA Lectures page.
We are very fortunate that three of our lecturers whose talks were cancelled last year have agreed to speak this year and in addition we have been able to secure the services of three further, outstanding, speakers to complete the programme. This includes our illustrious new President, Prof. Martin Kemp, who will deliver his inaugural lecture about David Hockney to us, at the end of the year.
All lectures this year will be given on Zoom, the web-based videoconferencing facility. As you know, this technology has allowed people to keep in touch on a face-to-face basis during the pandemic and for the OASA it offers us the opportunity attend lectures from the comfort of our own homes while we are confined to barracks.
One of the enjoyable aspects of past programmes has been the opportunity to engage in discussion with the lecturer at the end of each talk and this possibility will retained with our Zoom lectures, which will allow us to send in questions via the ‘chat’ facility or ask questions directly at the end of the talks.
Because we are using Zoom, we will of course be able to accommodate a much larger audience than was possible in the past and we shall be looking to attract the interest of students and of members of other art societies to join us
It will be necessary to register on a web page to attend each lecture and we will be letting you know how to do this in a week or so, posting information on this OASA web page and also by email if we have your address.
If you are an OASA member and haven’t received your new membership card, please let Sarah Thorn, our membership secretary know, by sending your mailing and email addresses to her at: sarahthorn63@yahoo.co.uk or calling on: 07811926578
We are looking forward to welcoming you to our new series of lecture and hope to see you there.
Sincerely,
Tony Bron
Chairman of the OASA On behalf of the OASA Committee