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AKC Spring Lecture 1: Excavating The Foundations of King's

King's College London was founded in 1829 near other prominent institutions in London to provide an alternative to the monastic universities of Oxford and Cambridge and address the emergence of new academic disciplines. As the first secular university in Britain, University College London was founded in 1826 but King's College London was proposed in 1828 and granted a royal charter in 1829 with the aim of maintaining the connection between religion and useful learning. Only members of the Church of England could be professors or employees and it initially only admitted male students until 1885.

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71 views

AKC Spring Lecture 1: Excavating The Foundations of King's

King's College London was founded in 1829 near other prominent institutions in London to provide an alternative to the monastic universities of Oxford and Cambridge and address the emergence of new academic disciplines. As the first secular university in Britain, University College London was founded in 1826 but King's College London was proposed in 1828 and granted a royal charter in 1829 with the aim of maintaining the connection between religion and useful learning. Only members of the Church of England could be professors or employees and it initially only admitted male students until 1885.

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AKC

Spring Lecture 1: Excavating the Foundations of King’s

 KCL was founded in 1829


 1836 – Charles Dickens talks about the slums of Covent Garden
 Close to R. Society, R. Ac. Of Arts (Somerset house)
o Surrounded by the practice of medicine
 Why a new university?
o Before KCL and UCL were founded, the only universities in England were
Oxford and Cambridge
o 19th century  big explosion of university foundation
o Oxbridge  monastic model (community life)
 philosophy and theology, law and medicine
o New academic disciplines emerge
o Ideal of progress
 Connection to UCL
o UCL was born as an inclusive alternative to Oxbridge, founded in 1826
o First secular university  to exclude religion from the life of institution
o KCL appears as a reaction to UCL secularity
 KCL was proposed in 1828 and granted a Royal Charter in 1829 (before UCL)
o Maintaining the connection between sound religion and useful learning
o Every professor and employee had to be a member of the Church of
England
o Conservative institution
 Duel between Earl of Winchelsea and the Duke of Wellington, to
solve the controversy of admitting Catholics
 Female students were admitted until 1885 (UCL-1878, Oxford-1920,
Cambdrige-1948), only to certain degrees
o AKC was the original award of KCL, first awarded in 1835

Spring Lecture 3: A Gift to the Nation: A Home for the National Gallery

 1824  National Gallery founded


o After decades of discussion about creating a national collection, which
already existed in almost every other major nation in Europe
 Collector who died
 John Ormont, collector and painter, decided to donate 16 masterpieces if the
government provided a proper place
 Originally housed in Angerstein’s house (100 Pall Mall)
 Trafalgar Square had housed the royal stables, under renovation. It was considered
the centre of London, perfect for the National Collection.
 The constitution mentions that the masterpieces would be available for everyone
and for free, especially for British artists
 Galleries designed by E.M. Barry were finished in 1876
 Paintings were evacuated in 1939 to avoid destruction during WWII, kept in the
slate mines in Manod quarry in Wales
 One painting was brought to London every month, each arrival was a news event
 “picture of the month” (the first one was 1942)
 During the war, catalogues were finished
 The conditions in Wales preserved the paintings
 1985 Sainsbury Wing
o 1260-1600 Renaissance altar pieces
o Inspired by Brunelleschi
o Majority made for ecclesiastical and devotional use
 The raising of Lazarus (1517-19) Sebastiano del Piombo
o Incorporating designs by Michelangelo
o Number 1 painting on the catalogue (NG1)
o Rare scene for an altar piece
o Jesus’ last miracle (John’s Gospel), before being arrested and crucified
o Incorporates designs for Michelangelo (Creation of Adam in the ceiling of
the Sistine Chapel)
 The Baptism of Christ (1450s) Piero della Francesca
o A special place was designed for this painting
o Communicates a sense of equilibrium, poise, stillness
 ‘The virgin of the rocks’ (1491-9) Leonardo da Vinci
o Raw, wild, untouched landscape
o Coetaneous with Columbus’ discovery of America
 Noli me tangere (1514), Titian
o Mary Magdalene discovers Christ restored from death
o Light of dawn breaking
o Movement and intersection of objects  heaven towards earth, earth
towards heaven
 The Supper at Emmaus (1601), Caravaggio
o Sudden discovery/epiphany  play with the unexpected
o Christ without a beard  different what expected
 Sunflowers (1888), Van Gogh
o Devotion to a modern artist  notion of the artist as troubled, tragic

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