British Baroque Study Day
This study day will explore the Baroque age in Britain (c.1660-1720) through a series of three lectures. The Baroque has its origins in Counter-Reformation Italy, and was intended inspire religious passion through a glorious elevation of the senses. By the time it spread to Britain in the seventeenth century, the Baroque style had been adapted to secular use by monarchs and wealthy patrons. Paintings, sculptures, tapestries, woodcarvings and furnishings in exuberant designs and rich materials were brought together a riot of colours and textures. Our study day will visit court and country to look at some of the greatest works of art and architecture of the British Baroque, and meet the people responsible for them.
Illustrated:Chatsworth House
Lecture 1: Royal Baroque
From its origins in the Catholic Counter-Reformation, the Baroque style was closely associated with power and spectacle. At the Restoration court, Charles II drew on continental precedent to fill his palaces with luxurious paintings and furnishings. In our first lecture, we will look at the artists and craftsmen who helped the Stuart monarchs to re-establish a magnificent monarchy, following the austerity and uncertainty of the Civil Wars and Interregnum.
Lecture 2: The Baroque country house
While the court set artistic fashion, many nobles were also keen to establish their own status as patrons of the arts, and many of Britain’s best-loved country houses were built or refurbished in the ‘Baroque’ period. In this lecture, we will visit of the most iconic houses of the age, including Chatsworth, Petworth and Blenheim. We will meet the people who created them, and take in some of the highlights of their sumptuous interiors, gardens and art collections.
Lecture 3: Queens, consorts and courtiers: female art patrons in Baroque Britain
What was the role of women in British Baroque art? In an era when married women’s property automatically belonged to their husbands, could women still be patrons? Female patronage has often been hidden within the historical record, but new research has shown that the patronage of these women has been considerably underestimated. From Queen Catherine of Braganza’s patronage of Catholic artists, to the Duchess of Marlborough’s politically-charged London mansion, we will look at some of the most important works of art and architecture commissioned by women, and consider how they used art to carve out their position in society.
Dr. Amy Lim is an art historian and curator, specialising in British fine and decorative arts from the seventeenth to twentieth centuries. She is curator of the Faringdon Collection at Buscot Park, Oxfordshire, and of the Stanley Spencer Gallery, Cookham and a tutor at the Oxford University Department for Continuing Education. She was recently an exhibition researcher at Tate, contributing to British Baroque : Power and Illusion (2020) and Now You See Us: Women Artists in Britain 1520-1920 (2024). Amy has degrees in History and Literature & Arts from the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. She runs an online art dealership, and has published articles and essays on a variety of art-related topics from gothic garden monuments to female patronage.
Face to face booking with Hilary at the September and October 2026 meetings.
Enquiries to Hilary Arnold on 01483 427183 or hr9arnold@gmail.com