Programme Sep-Dec 2026

THE USE OF LIGHT IN ART

Light is clearly essential to art, whether in depiction and illumination of the subject matter, how it falls upon the artwork being viewed, or even as part of the artwork itself. The theme is intended to illustrate several ways of using or depicting light, covering modelling with light by early Renaissance artists such as Piero della Francesca; Caravaggio, the master of chiaroscuro; the dramatic use of light and shade, and Joseph Wright of Derby’s use of light to emphasise the art of looking. More generally, we look at the symbolism of light in medieval manuscripts, the use of glass to bring light to illuminate Elizabethan architecture, the importance of light in photography and the use of light and electric light in contemporary art.

Wednesday, 9 September 2026, 10.30-12.30, The Arc, Jewry Street, Winchester
Joseph Wright of Derby, Painter of Light and Dark
Illustrated seminar by Emma Matthews
When asked what they know about Joseph Wright, modern museum visitors might say he was ‘of Derby’, or ‘The Painter of the Enlightenment’. This suggests that where he came from was especially important – other painters are not known by both a name and a place.
Saying he painted ‘the Enlightenment’ is also rather singular. No other artist is described like this. My talk will consider how and why these
descriptors came to define Wright’s place in English art history and whether it is the full story.
The recent exhibition of Joseph Wright’s paintings at the National Gallery was titled From the Shadows. This referred both to the emphatic use of chiaroscuro in Wright’s paintings of 1765-73, known as his ‘candlelight’ paintings, and to the exhibition itself, which gave the limelight to this brilliant English painter who emerged from his own shadows.
We will look at some of Wright’s most intriguing paintings and mezzotints and examine whether he was painting the contemporary world of scientific experimentation to show modernity or whether he might have had other aims.

Wednesday 30 September 2026, 10.30-12.30, The Arc, Jewry Street, Winchester
Piero della Francesca and the Renaissance
Illustrated seminar by Dr Michael Douglas-Scott
This lecture will examine the evolving depiction of light in Italian painting from the 15th into the early 16th centuries. It will first focus on the work of Piero della Francesca and his debt to Florentine ideas on perspective, optics and light, in pictorial composition as set out by Alberti in his treatise On Painting, contrasting these with traditional workshop practices. Stress will be placed on the gradual disappearance of gold and the replacement of oil by tempera as a medium, introduced to Italy by Netherlandish painters from the 1450s.
The story will be taken forward through the Venetian Giovanni Bellini and his combination of natural and supernatural light sources in religious subjects, above all in landscape. We will then consider how Leonardo da Vinci, working in Florence and Milan in the last quarter of
the century, took the study of light and dark (chiaroscuro) to a new level of sophistication, applying scientific principles to his painting methods. This led to what has come to be called the ‘High Renaissance’style and the integration of tone with colour, in both Northern and
Central Italy, including Giorgione’s Venice. This revolutionary synthesis triumphed in Rome during the first two decades of the 16th century
under Michelangelo and Raphael, by which time Piero’s achievement was unjustly overlooked.

Wednesday 21 October 2026, 10.30-12.30, The Arc, Jewry Street, Winchester
Light in Medieval Manuscripts
Illustrated seminar by Dr Sally Dormer
From God the Father’s pronouncement ‘Let there be light!’ in Genesis, to Christ’s proclamation ‘I am the Light of the World’ in St John’s Gospel, the Bible mentions light, juxtaposed frequently with its polar opposite, darkness, on multiple occasions. Such references were understood metaphorically in the Middle Ages: light was viewed as a sign of divinity, synonymous with God’s presence, and spiritual enlightenment; darkness symbolised God’s absence, and mankind’s sinful state. St Augustine of Hippo summed up the principle ‘How far the first gleams of your (God’s) light have illumined me and how dense my darkness remains…,’ Confessions XI.2.1. This seminar will explore the rich variety of ways in which light, immaterial and material, was explored in medieval manuscripts: how illuminators sought to bring biblical references of heavenly light to life and represented providersof artificial light, candelabra, chandeliers, and candlesticks.

Wednesday 11 November 2026, 10.30-12.30, The Arc, Jewry Street, Winchester
Caravaggio’s Chiaroscuro: Shining Light on a New Kind of Painting
Illustrated seminar by Sarah Ciacci
In this lecture we will focus on the art of Caravaggio (1571-1610), in particular the revolutionary way he used light and shade, known as chiaroscuro, in his paintings. Caravaggio was a pioneer of the 17th century Baroque style, which reflected a call for artists to create dramatic and theatrical paintings. To achieve this Caravaggio made the chiaroscuro technique moredramatic by radically increasing the contrast of  light and shade, a technique that became known as tenebrism, resulting in very dark shadows juxtaposed with brightly spot-lit areas. This contrast helped focus attention on important details or highlighted moments of psychological intensity, ramping up the drama of the stories he chose to paint. This combination of elements led to some of the most arresting, dramatic and influential paintings in art history, which we will unpick through the lecture. We will also examine the historical and cultural context that led to this new style of painting, such as the politics of the Counter-Reformation and the influence of the theatre, as well as, briefly, the wide-reaching impact of Caravaggio’s style across Europe.

Wednesday 18 November 2026, 10.30-12.30, The Arc, Jewry Street, Winchester
Light as a Medium in Modern and Contemporary Art
Illustrated seminar by Barry Venning
Modern and contemporary art has used light – both natural and artificial – not just to illuminate  artworks, but to be the artwork itself. Dan Flavin, who is usually considered alongside the Minimalist artists of the 1960s and beyond, used fluorescent tubes to transform entire rooms, while Bruce Nauman, Jenny Holzer and Tracey Emin have used them as signage to express ideas, feelings or the workings of language itself. James Turrell manipulates light to create immersive environments that blur the boundary between physical space and perception, between solid form and atmosphere, while Olafur Eliasson uses artificial light, sunlight, mist and reflections to shape entire environments, inviting viewers to become physically and psychologically aware of space, time, and their own sensory perception. Whether powered by the sun or electricity, light in contemporary art often emphasizes experience over object. It invite viewers to slow down, become aware of their senses, and question how vision itself is constructed. Through light, artists redefine how we see, feel, and occupy space.

Wednesday 25 November 2026, 10.30-12.30, The Arc, Jewry Street, Winchester
‘Sun Pictures’: Alchemy, Poetry and Industry in Photography
Illustrated seminar by Martin Barnes
The first half of the talk will cover the invention, history and development of photography with a focus on the technology, but primarily the aesthetics, of light. Early photographs were often described as ‘sun pictures’, and Martin will present the idea that the ‘sun painted her own picture’ through photography.
The second half will examine the work of some specific photographers, in particular a case study of Maurice Broomfield’s industrial photography of the 1950s and 1960s, shot in both colour and black and white. He used the factory floor like a stage set, using dramatic lighting in staged tableaux to present workers and technology of the time in a positive and aspirational light. His work shows that he was greatly inspired by the lighting in Joseph Wright of Derby’s paintings that Bloomfield had studied at the Derby Museum.

Wednesday 9 December 2026, 10.30-12.30, The Arc, Jewry Street, Winchester
‘So glyttering by glass’: Light and the Elizabethan Country House
Illustrated seminar by Dr Gillian White
In 1575 an author called Robert Langham wrote a glowing description of the new lodging built by the Earl of Leicester at Kenilworth Castle for the reception of Queen Elizabeth. It was, he said, ‘so glyttering by glass’, that at night, lit up from within, it shone like the Pharos of
Alexandria, one of the ancient wonders of the world. It was as if, he added, the sun god Phoebus Apollo rested there ‘for hiz eaz’. The
Elizabethan elite had fallen in love with the idea of light, and courtiers vied with each other to build country houses that resembled great
palaces of glass: buildings that have earned the name ‘lantern houses’. At places like the now semi-ruined Kirby Hall, and the long-lost
Holdenby, windows glinted in sunlight or moonlight, providing goodly prospects from without and new opportunities for delight and
domesticity within. How did this passion arise, how was it displayed and what practical issues did it involve? And, in a courtly society that
revelled in hidden meanings, what symbolic resonances might be found in light? After a general survey, we’ll journey north to take a
detailed look at Bess of Hardwick’s great house in Derbyshire, where we can consider the interplay of light, architecture, space and furnishings at ‘Hardwick Hall, more glass than wall’.