This talk recreates a visual tour of Italy in the company of J.M.W. Turner. By studying rarely seen drawings from his travel sketchbooks we will take a privileged look into the world of the artist, following in his footsteps through Venice, Rome, Tivoli and Naples. Through his most intimate and private sketches we will recapture the excitement and dangers ofnineteenth-century tourism, and the British love of Italian culture and history. In addition to on-the-spot sketches documenting where he went and what he saw, we will examine Turner’s artistic response to his Italian experiences, tracing the evolution of his ideas from preparatory studies to finished watercolours and oils.
Nicola Moorby is an art historian specialising in British art of the 19th and early 20th centuries. She is Curator of British Art, 1790-1850 at Tate Britain and guest curator of Turner’s Kingdom: Beauty, Birds and Beasts at Turner’s House in Twickenham. Her new book, Turner and Constable: Art, Life, Landscape is published by Yale University Press (2025).
DISCLAIMER: By participating in a BIS webinar or live event you automatically agree to authorise recording of audio and visual content during the event and consent to subsequent use of the recording in the public domain. This recording may include questions, comments and poll responses provided by you during the event in addition to your name, voice, image or likeness. This recording will be made available after the conclusion of the live event as part of the BIS webinar archives, and will remain available indefinitely. If you do not wish to consent to the recording, please do not join the event or contact us to discuss your concerns.
Photo credit: Yale Center for British Art
Members only. Details will be shared by email.
SOLD OUT!
Contact us if you wish to be added to the waiting list
A DRINKS RECEPTION WILL FOLLOW THE TALK
Important Information
DISCLAIMER:
By participating in a BIS webinar or live event you automatically agree to authorise photo and/or recording of audio and visual content during the event and consent to subsequent use of the images, recordings in the public domain. The recording may include questions, comments and poll responses provided by you during the event in addition to your name, voice, image or likeness. The recording as well as images will be made available after the conclusion of the live event as part of the BIS webinar archives, and will remain available indefinitely. If you do not wish to consent to the recording or photo shooting, please do not join the live event or contact us to discuss your concerns.
MEMBERS ONLY.
Following our recent contribution to the acquisition of The Crucifixion by Fra Angelico, we are pleased to share that the Ashmolean Museum, in Oxford, has kindly offered us the opportunity for a private guided visit, including the chance to view this remarkable painting in person.
The visit is addressed to our members only and will be limited to 20 participants.
Additional information:
🖼️ The Crucifixion with the Virgin, Saint John the Evangelist and the Magdalen—painted in the 1420s—is among Fra Angelico’s earliest known panel paintings. Revered for its profound sensitivity and historical significance, the work remained in private hands for over two centuries before being attributed to the great Florentine master in 1996.
Thanks to this important acquisition, the Ashmolean is now the only museum in the UK where visitors can explore the full evolution of Fra Angelico’s artistic career.
🏛️ About the Ashmolean Museum
Founded in 1683, the Ashmolean is the UK’s oldest public museum and the world’s first university museum. Its renowned collections span ancient civilisations, the Italian Renaissance, and modern art—and include the world’s greatest collection of Raphael drawings.
Visit the Ashmolean website HERE
DISCLAIMER: By participating in a BIS webinar or live event you automatically agree to authorise recording of audio and visual content during the event and consent to subsequent use of the recording in the public domain. This recording may include questions, comments and poll responses provided by you during the event in addition to your name, voice, image or likeness. This recording will be made available after the conclusion of the live event as part of the BIS webinar archives, and will remain available indefinitely. If you do not wish to consent to the recording, please do not join the event or contact us to discuss your concerns.
Photo credit: Ashmolean Museum
A remarkable woman living in remarkable times, Livia Drusilla married the future emperor Augustus as a young woman in the dog days of the Roman Republic. Augustus was exacting but doting; Livia retained his love and admiration throughout a long marriage, outliving Augustus to see her son Tiberius established as Rome’s new emperor. Her admirers were manifold. So, over time, were her detractors, among them a sceptical Tacitus, who vilified Livia as ‘a good match for the intrigues of her husband and the hypocrisy of her son.
Matthew Dennison is the author of ten critically acclaimed works of non-fiction, described by his publishers as ‘one of Britain’s finest contemporary biographers’. His books, which include ‘Empress of Rome: The Life of Livia’ and a revisiting of Suetonius’s The Twelve Caesars, have been published in more than twenty languages and serialised in newspapers and magazines in Europe and North America. His forthcoming study of the Bloomsbury Group will be published in 2026.
Important Information
DISCLAIMER: By participating in a BIS webinar or live event you automatically agree to authorise recording of audio and visual content during the event and consent to subsequent use of the recording in the public domain. This recording may include questions, comments and poll responses provided by you during the event in addition to your name, voice, image or likeness. This recording will be made available after the conclusion of the live event as part of the BIS webinar archives, and will remain available indefinitely. If you do not wish to consent to the recording, please do not join the event or contact us to discuss your concerns.