Wednesday 01 May 2019 at 8pm - 9pm

Art Week - Port Talk with Siobhán Cooke - "Decoding the Primavera"

London House, Churchill Room

"Decoding the Primavera"
How the history of art breaks down the meanings of paintings and the hidden codes in many of them.
Have you ever wondered how Art Historians decode the hidden meanings and symbols of paintings? What can breaking a painting’s code teach us about the society which created it?

In her book on Botticelli’s Primavera Gloria Fossi called the work "one of the most written about, and most controversial paintings in the world”. Renaissance paintings are famously full of hidden codes and secrets and the Primavera is perhaps one of the best examples of this.

In this port talk we will examine two of the most intriguing theories on the painting’s real meaning. Does the painting form a secret code for planned political expansion by the Medici or is it an allegory for intellectual and philosophical theories of love?

Come along and hear both cases and put on your art historian hat and help decode the most convincing theory!