Moray, Banff & Badenoch Decorative & Fine Arts Society

A Georgian gem, designed by Robert Adam for the Earls of Dumfries and furnished by Chippendale and others, the seat of the wealthy Marquesses of Bute. Recently the subject of a controversial auction, saved for the nation at the eleventh hour by the Art Fund, with the help of HRH the Prince of Wales.

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, the most influential Italian artist of The Counter Reformation, was more copied, more forged and more imitated than any other painter in the history of art. This lecture examines in detail his colourful, often controversial life in Rome, Naples, Valetta and Sicily and his impact on painters north and south of the Alps from Manfredi and Gentileschi to Rembrandt and Georges de la Tour. Please note that this lecture replaces the previously scheduled lecture by Joanne Kidd on The Medicis

Many towns developed round a market place, the civic and commercial centre of the community, after trading had been banned in churches in the 13th century. Development is traced from small beginnings to the handsome buildings in many city centres.

A feast of historical paintings, portraits, male and female dress, extracts from letters, journals and literature, to explore meanings and historical context. An informative, entertaining and challenging "ideas" lecture, designed to encourage new ways of looking at this fascinating subject.

Paintings of Wine being made and consumed in celebration since the time of Noah, as well as the contribution that "Wine Art" makes to our colourful world. Who has not marvelled at the creativity and beauty of wine labels? Who could forget the wonderful artwork of Ronald Searle that adorned Oddbins' catalogues for many years?

Attitudes towards Scotland, particularly the Highlands, underwent a transformation in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries for both political and aesthetic reasons. By the 1840's, Scotland had become aesthetically fashionable. How and why did this happen?

Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) represents the end of a cultural line dating back to Michelangelo and the Ancient Greeks. A modeller, he revived the heroic figural tradition and brought new and often erotic sensibiltity to bear on it. An analysis of Rodin's development in the context of his life and times.

An exploration of the sacred architecture of Laos, specially the Buddhist temples of Luang Prabang, as well as the French legacy of elegant wooden houses. Also, an examination of silkweaving, an ancient and traditional craft, recently revived.

The cafés, dancehalls and cabarets, the ramshackle studios that spilled down the hillside of Montmartre became inspiration and home to some of France's greatest artists, Renoir, Toulouse Lautrec and Picasso among them. The lecture charts the course of this extraordinary artistic life.

With an increase in the quantity and quality of travel posters in the 1930's, artists who worked in the field include Cassandre, Sutherland, Matisse, Piper and Picasso. It was a rich genre, offering fantasy, excitement and escapism, and providing models for patriotic posters during the subsequent war.