The Arts Society, Isle of Wight, will be presenting a day long series of lectures including a light lunch on The Medici, “Bank Rolling the Renaissance." by Douglas Skeggs on Wednesday 19 October 2022 at The Lakeside Hotel, Wootton Bridge.

The day will comprise 3 lectures, each about an hour long, 2 in the morning then a break for lunch and final lecture in the afternoon.

Douglas will be talking to us about The Medici family “Bank Rolling the Renaissance." The Medici were in many ways an unattractive family. Ruthless in pursuit of profit for their Florentine bank, which had branches in every city of the known world, they were greedy for success, merciless to those who opposed their ambition and vicious in their own internal squabbles. And yet without them we wouldn’t have Botticelli’s “Birth of Venus”, the Fra Angelico frescoes in San Marco, Donatellos “David” or the majestic Michelangelo sculptures in the Medici chapel. The Platonic Academy wouldn’t have been founded and the doors for the Baptistry would never have been cast. This Study Day, composed of three talks, looks into the turbulent history of this extraordinary family.

Douglas Skeggs read Fine Art at Magdalene College Cambridge and has been a lecturer on paintings since 1980. In that time he has given over 8000 lectures to universities, colleges and art societies. He was the director of The New Academy of Art Studies for three years and is presently a regular lecturer at The Study Center, Christie's course 'The History of Art Studies' and other London courses. Among his more improbable venues for lectures are the bar on the QE2, MI5 headquarters, the Captain's Room at Lloyds, and an aircraft hanger in a German NATO base. Overseas he has lectured in Belgium, France, Germany and Spain, and has taken numerous tours around Europe.

The cost for non-members is £45 and a Booking form can be found at the society website at www.theartssocietyisleofwight.org.uk Booking closes midday on Monday the 10th October