Art and Colour - Day 1 of 5 (in-venue in Winchester) Art and Colour in the Middle Ages

Please select this event if you would like to book Day 1 of the 2026 Jean Bolton Memorial Study course presented by The Arts Society Hampshire and Isle of Wight Area in-venue in Winchester.

Thursday 29th October 2026

Dr Sally Dormer – Art and Colour in the Middle Ages

“Nothing like it could be seen in England either for the light of its glass windows, the gleaming of its marble pavements, or the many-coloured paintings which led the eyes to the panelled ceiling above”. William of Malmesbury’s description of Prior Conrad’s mid-12^th-century Canterbury Cathedral choir confirms the medieval taste for interiors saturated with colour. To evoke the multi-coloured, jewel-studded, splendours of Heaven, as described in the Bible, the walls, ceilings and vaults of churches were sheathed in colourful paint or mosaic, sculpture was painted in a palette of bright hues, and windows filled with coloured glass. High-status secular interiors, furnished with vibrant textiles, also sang with colour, and high-status ecclesiastics and laypeople alike revelled in wearing flamboyant, vivid, garments. Medieval audiences would be disappointed and dismayed by the restrained minimalism of contemporary upmarket interiors and designer outfits!

This study day will consider colour in medieval art from three perspectives, materials, symbolism, and an obsession with blue. Medieval technical treatises detail the breadth of materials used to embellish walls, panels, pages, fabric and leather: minerals like malachite; organic matter extracted from plants, insects and molluscs; and substances as diverse as lead and urine from which pigments were manufactured. Modern technology enables precise identification of these colorants and pinpoints their origins. Colour certainly pleased the medieval eye, but it also conveyed symbolic spiritual and temporal messages: purple signalled imperial or royal power, red was associated with Church feasts of martyr saints; and white embodied purity. Blue was the most revered and celebrated of all, regarded as symbolising the heavenly. Christ’s robes, and those of his mother, the Virgin Mary, were typically coloured blue, and various blues dominated church interiors. Expensive sky-blue sapphires sourced from Sri Lanka and deep purple-blue lapis lazuli imported from Afghanistan were enjoyed by those with deep pockets, while cheaper grey/green blues made from indigo, copper, or cobalt-oxide, were employed by those of more modest means.

Fees

Tickets are £35 per day and include 3 superb lectures plus morning coffee/tea and a light lunch with wine/soft drinks. 

This year we are offering a reduced total fee of £165 (a saving of £10 overall) when you select all 5 days as a bundle. If you are interested in this option please return to the Ticket Tailor box office and select the first option.

The day will run from 10.30am - 3.30pm.

The course is open to anyone - you do not have to be a member of The Arts Society to attend. Feel free to pass the details of any of our events on to others you think may be interested.

All proceeds from this event go to support art in the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Area,

For more details of our events please go to https://theartssocietyhantsiowarea.org.uk/Special/Special.aspx

Once you have purchased your ticket you will receive confirmation by return. The organiser will send a reminder with further relevant information on the Monday before each event.