This lecture explores the visual and literary uses of the clock and the varied meanings it could hold throughout the ages
Few people nowadays give more than a second thought to their clocks: practical, sometimes beautiful, devices that form the background noise of our daily lives. But from their introduction in the 13th century onwards, clocks have held a variety of philosophical and social meanings; as a symbol of oncoming death, but also as a metaphor for the soul, and for the good use of time.
This lecture considers medieval manuscripts, poetry, still life and genre paintings, 19th century ideas about power and the working day, and finally, the breaking down of temporal certainties in the 20th centurey, with Dali, Chagall, Harold Lloyd and Christina Marclay.
How to book this event:
Visitors' tickets are £10.00 per person and are available via the Campus West website at www.campuswest.co.uk
THE ARTS SOCIETY ACCREDITED LECTURER
Dr Christina Faraday
Dr Christina Faraday, FRHistS, is a historian of art and ideas, specialising in Tudor and Stuart Britain and the wider 16th and 17th-century world. She is a Research Fellow in History of Art at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, a Trustee of the Walpole Society for British art history, and a BBC New Generation Thinker, appearing regularly on BBC Radio 3 and in other popular media. She is an experienced lecturer, and teaches for the History of Art Department at the University of Cambridge, The Wallace Collection, the National Gallery, London, and for the Institute for Continuing Education, Cambridge, where she is Co-Director of the MSt in History of Art and Visual Culture. Her first book, Tudor Liveliness: Vivid Art in Post-Reformation England, was published in 2023 by the Paul Mellon Centre and Yale University Press. Her next book, The Story of Tudor Art, will be published in 2025.
Please note: I am in the process of constructing my profile, and not all my lectures have full synopses yet. For those without, longer synopses are coming soon, or available on request. If you would like to know more about what will be covered in a particular lecture, please get in touch.
If you have any issues contacting me via the email address listed here, please also try me at christinajfar@gmail.com.
Testimonials from past lectures and courses:
"Dr Faraday's enthusiasm and energy were fantastic - she inspired us all and we couldn't wait for more. Brilliant screen shows, such a variety and all so well prepared ... she knows so much and puts it all over so intelligently and is so easy to understand."
"Absolutely superb course, with brilliant design and fantastic delivery. The content was thoughtfully crafted, and themes and topics built meaningfully upon one another. Dr. Faraday was an outstanding tutor: such an engaging lecturer, and wonderfully engaged. An exceptional course!"
"This was a very high-quality course and must count as one of the best I have attended."
OTHER EVENTS
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At the height of America's Gilded Age, some 450 heiresses gained European titles, restoring ancestral piles with American dollars
69 Parkway
For this three-lecture Study Day Renaissance art specialist Paula Nuttall will evoke the city of Bruges during its late-medieval heyday.


