Synopsis
From the accession of Henry VIII in 1508 to the death of James I in 1625, England experienced a series of dramatic events as the tide of history engulfed the state. The Reformation led to a long period of cultural isolation as the country remained largely untouched by the momentous changes which flowed from Italy and France in architecture, painting and the wider visual arts. Literature, and particularly the theatre, being more mobile in its ability to absorb new ideas, was in a far better position to engage with the Renaissance and it is no surprise that it is a dramatist and poet, William Shakespeare, who stands ‘head and shoulders’ above his contemporaries as a standard bearer for renaissance culture. In a double pair of webinars, Tom Duncan and James Howard will bring to life this remarkable period, drawing on a wide variety of exciting sources, visual and literary – a window on a world awash with remarkable characters and unprecedented developments.