Figurative to Abstract Art: Frescos

Onsite at the Ashmolean and online via Zoom.

The great fresco cycles of the Medieval and Renaissance periods are discussed in the first of Alice Foster's series of talks which explore the progression of figurative to abstract art through history. She will look to examples of Giotto in Padua and Pinturicchio in Siena, when clear storytelling was vital in the visual arts to assist those who could not read.

These comprehensive narratives, designed to fill a whole chapel, would cover the life of a saint, or that of someone who was being celebrated for his good works. Extraneous detail was not necessary, nor was complicated symbolic content.

This is the first talk in the Figurative to Abstract Art History talks series led by Alice Foster.