Art Appreciation   

Looking under the paint’s surface with the aid of new technologies, enduring mysteries of the art world are being solved and masterpieces are revealing long-held secrets.  One such secret involving Leonardo’s Mona Lisa can finally be put to rest, revealing a second authentic Mona Lisa. We will explore this and other mysteries and discoveries through vividly detailed images and captivating scholarly and forensic work.

How did we come to believe that ancient Greek and Roman art and architecture was meant to be colorless? Despite the evidence of color that has been recorded for centuries, most art historians chose to ignore it, and glorified the purity and idealism of ancient forms in white marble. A current exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art showcases new research aided with new technologies and colorful reconstructions of ancient art that have been rewriting art history. This lecture is an exploration of ancient Greek and Roman art as it was meant to be: gilded and painted with bright colors and dizzying patterns.

Christmas: from keeping Christ in it, to carols filling the air at the mall before Thanksgiving, to preserving holiday traditions that link us back to our past – it can all seem a bit chaotic. But what if you were to look at another era when issues like commercialization, piety and preserved traditions were depicted in paintings?  This lecture focuses on the art of 17th-century Flanders and Holland, including works by great masters like Franz Hals, Rembrandt, Jan Steen, Pieter Breughel and Jacob Jordaens, and how each artist depicts Christmas and the season with plentitude, piety and parody.