This day consists of three lectures.
Part 1: Cook and the Invention of Paradise - Voyages and Discoveries.
Part 2: Omai, the Exotic and Joshua Reynolds.
Part 3: Invention and Re-Invention: Gauguin’s Portraits and the Myth of Paradise.
James Cook by Nathaniel Dance 1776, National Maritime Museum,
About the Lecturer
Leslie Primo is a graduate with a degree in Art History and an MA in Renaissance Studies from Birkbeck, University College, London. During his studies he specialised in early Medieval and Renaissance studies, including: Italian Renaissance Drawing; Art and Architecture in Europe 1250-1400; Art and Architecture in Europe 1400-1500; Medici and Patronage; Narrative Painting in the Age of Giotto; the work of Peter Paul Rubens, focusing on his paintings of the Judgement of Paris; and Greek Myth in paintings.
Leslie has worked at the National Gallery in London for 15 years, and has also taught a variety of art history courses at Reading University, including: Medieval to Renaissance (a survey course); Reading Pictures – The Hidden Stories in Art (a course on iconography); and Masters of the Renaissance – Leonardo and Michelangelo.