‘Art in the Medieval Convent: the Pictorial Life of Nuns in Italy’,

Nuns in the Middle Ages were viewers, patrons, and sometimes makers of art – but material evidence is hard to come by in this country, even for such prominent and prosperous establishments as Shaftesbury Abbey. More survives, fortunately, in continental Europe. In this lecture, art historian John Renner looks into the pictorial culture of convents in late medieval Italy, to reveal the central role of images in the enclosed lives of the nuns.Dr John Renner is a specialist on the art of medieval and early Renaissance Italy, with a research focus on the patronage of the Franciscans in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. After a career in journalism he took an MA in Art History at Birkbeck College (London University) and a PhD at the Courtauld Institute. He now lectures for the Courtauld, the V&A, and several art-historical associations.

Tickets are £10 for Friends, £12 Adults direct from www.shaftesburyartscentre.org.uk