Sicily Visit by Limpsfield Arts Society

26 members of The Arts Society, Limpsfield, enjoyed their 2019 Annual Tour, this year of Sicily, led by Wendy Collett, assisted by Wynne Gifford and with local tour guide, Ludo.

Starting off in scenic Taormina, the group visited Mount Etna, Siracusa, touring Greek temples, particularly in the Valley of the Temples in Agrigento, viewing the fantastic Roman mosaics at the Villa Romana del Casa and visiting the magnificent Monreale Cathedral, with its Byzantine mosaics and Arabic design-work carried out for the Norman rulers.  The group also viewed the awe-inspiring mosaics in the Palatine Chapel in Palermo, again a mixture of Byzantine and Arab expertise, carried out for the Norman Kings, before spending the last day of the tour at Cefalu on the coast and flying back to Gatwick.

Leonardo da Vinci: The Science behind the Art

Guy Rooker, a retired surgeon, gave an illustrated lecture to The Arts Society Limpsfield  on ‘Leonardo da Vinci: The Science behind the Art’.

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) is best known as a painter, although only 20 of his paintings survive.  However, he produced many more drawings of which 30,000 still exist.  He carried round notebooks, in which he drew and made notes of what he saw.  Apprenticed to Verocchio from 1469-72, he was admitted to the Confraternity of Painters in 1472.  An all-round genius, he was taught perspective and figure techniques.  He was fascinated by light and shade, exploring linear perspective to obtain depth.  His ‘Last Supper’ outstrips all earlier versions of the subject by other artists.

Leonardo studied anatomy and keenly assessed how parts of the body worked.  He sat and drew students carrying out dissections, saw how muscles operated, even looking at bones in the neck and how eyes worked.  His most famous drawing, ‘Vitruvian Man’, shows man as an harmonious design in geometric perfection, a microcosm of the universe.  He was fascinated by hands and facial expressions and designed flying machines and tanks.

The Golden Lyre of Ur & Arts Society Lunch

96 members enjoyed the Arts Society Limpsfield’s annual lunch and heard Jennifer Sturdy, a former language teacher, give an illustrated lecture on a 3 year long project to make a replica of the oldest known stringed instrument, ‘The Gold Lyre of Ur’, dating from 2500 BC.

Unlike a harp, a lyre has strings of equal length.  The Mesopotamian civilisation was situated between the Tigris and Euphrates in modern day Iraq.  The project started in 2003 with research into early stringed instruments.  Previously, in 1929, Leonard Woolley excavated what was known as the Queen’s Grave in Ur, where the queen was buried with 68 bejewelled retainers, who probably took poison to accompany the queen to the afterlife. 

The golden lyre, unearthed with a smaller silver lyre, was originally made of cedar-wood covered with gold and semi-precious stones. The golden lyre was large, being 5 foot wide and 5 foot high.  The replica was made of local cedar, pink limestone and bitumen, inlaid with lapis lazuli and other semi-precious stones.  Unfortunately the replica was destroyed in the Gulf War.

David Rosier, author and Qing Dynasty expert, gave an illustrated lecture to The Arts Society Limpsfield on ‘The Dowager Empress Cixi: Ruling from Behind the Yellow Silk Screen’.  The Dowager Empress Cixi was the effective ruler of China between 1861 and 1908, firstly in partnership with Ci’an during Tongzhi’s minority and then after Tongzhi’s death in 1875 and that of Ci’an in 1881 on her own until 1890, during the minority of Guangxu.  Until 1898 she was in retirement, building the new Summer Palace and then effectively in control again from 1902 until her death in 1908.

Cixi’s rule was during a very difficult period for China.  The Western colonial powers and Japan were trying to open China to free trade.  In the Taiping Rebellion (1850-1864) 30 million people died.  The 2nd Opium War took place from 1856-1860, the Sino- Japanese War in 1894-5 and the Boxer Rebellion in 1900.  The Qing Emperors who did rule in the 19th Century were weak and ineffective.  Cixi tried to update and modernise China from ‘behind the yellow silk screen’ and under American influence from 1900 to 1908 planned a constitutional monarchy.  However it was too little, too late and imperial rule ended in 1911.

Twenty children from Holland Junior, Hurst Green Primary and Godstone Village Schools enjoyed a visit to Titsey Place, the local historic country house.

Following an interesting guided tour and summary of the history of Titsey by two of our guides -Belinda Martin and Karen Cottle – the children were introduced to some of the paintings in the house. They focused on four paintings in particular by Canaletto to learn in greater detail about their art and ways of painting. 

A visit to the lovely Walled Gardens was followed by afternoon tea and a celebratory cake paid for by the Society. A number of committee members also attended. 

Many thanks to the Titsey Estate for opening the House and gardens without charge and especially to Irene Elsey for organising this special event. 

An interesting introduction for the children to the Arts!

Our President Pauline Hopkins was invited to attend 50th Anniversary Service for The Arts Society.  Here is her report of this wonderful event.

On 16th May I was very privileged to attend the 50th Anniversary of The Arts Society at Westminster Abbey. We were very fortunate as to be given seats by the High Altar opposite where the Royal Family normally sit but this time it was the Duchess of Gloucester, the Patron, Loyd Grossman the President, June Robinson, the National chairman, Florian the CEO and further along Simon Callow, the actor. Near Simon was seated Rachel Fay, Patricia Fay’s daughter and this sent me down memory lane. I thought back to the early years when we used to meet in the Lecture Theatre of the V&A a very small group with the Executive Committee and Patricia Fay.

The Service began with The Bidding given by the Very Reverend Dr John Hall, the Dean of Westminster. Readings were given by Simon Callow the actor, the musician and broadcaster Cerys Matthews and the poet Mike Garry. The Address was given by the Right Reverend Christopher Herbert who is also a ‘NADFAS’ Lecturer and this address was very amusing embracing his affiliation with The Arts Society and his role in the church. The Anthem was commissioned for the Service by The Arts Society and the music was inspired by the triptych of The Virgin and Child Enthroned with Saints in 1338 by Bernardo Daddi.

There were 2,000 members in the congregation and I wore the brooch given to me when I was made an Honorary Member of the Australian Decorative and Fine Arts Society, so representing Australia and as well our own Society, Limpsfield. Memories flooded back as to when 39 years’ ago I became Visits Secretary of our society and of course when I attended the inaugural meeting of Limpsfield DFAS 43 years ago.

At the end of the Service we were asked to wait until indicated to leave. We walked the full length of the Abbey to the West Door past all the seated congregation and they must have wondered who these people were! A truly memorable day.

Nearly 300 people attended the Exhibition of Arthur Keen prints organised by the Limpsfield Decorative & Fine Arts Society and Oxted & District History Society at the Millennium Room, next to St. Peter’s Church, Limpsfield held on 5-7 April and enjoyed the tea, coffee and home-made cakes provided by volunteers. Many visitors returned for further viewing.

 
Arthur Keen (1861-1938) FRIB, was an architect and accomplished draughtsman who lived in Station Road East and subsequently in Uvedale Road. He designed the Oxted & Limpsfield War Memorial Hospital and Limpsfield Village Hall. An amateur archaeologist and historian, he spent the last 7 years of his life drawing the beautiful old buildings in and around Oxted & Limpsfield. The Exhibition included 60 of his best works and was organised by Hank Arnott and Brian McEvoy of the Arts Society, Chris Pendred of the History Society and Stephen Jones who owns the prints. There were also three 19th Century maps of Limpsfield Parish on display, including one from 1869 which has recently been copied in digital format (thanks to Limpsfield Parish Council) and the plan is to make this available to view on-line.

Limpsfield Decorative and Fine Arts Society was formed in 1975 and its first meeting was on 28 May. A number of the founders including our first Secretary are still in members and we took the opportunity of the anniversary to thank them for their perspicacity and energy. In addition to a normal full programme of lectures and visits we organised in 2015 four special events to celebrate the anniversary. We also produced a commemorative history booklet written by our President Pauline Hopkins and our Chairman Brian McEvoy with recollections from a founding committee member Daphne Mackay.  You can read the booklet online by going to Documents

Anniversary Spring Lunch with Sir Richard Stilgoe

Sir Richard Stilgoe gave a talk that was both light-hearted and profound and then, with Angus Morton singing, wowed us at the piano at the Anniversary Lunch. It was a joyous occasion, more like a party than a lunch, that raised a lot of money for the worthy charity founded by Sir Richard, which uses the performing arts as its motivating force – the Orpheus Centre.

Dinner at The Reform Club, 102 Pall Mall, London

Dinner at the Reform was as delightful as we anticipated with wonderful food and wine in the spectacular gold and red surroundings of the Library. It is a beautiful building with a rich cultural history. Founders and early committee members were well represented at the tables and were thanked. Mrs June Robinson, the newly elected National Chairman of NADFAS on her first official event, was our guest of honour. Jonathan Blanchard-Smith, former Chairman of the Reform Club, gave an amusing and informative speech.

Have You Had It Long Madam?

It was just as well we booked the Barn Theatre, Oxted, to show “Have You Had It Long Madam?” with Paul Atterbury and Hilary Kay, otherwise we would not have been able to cope with the numbers of members and guests. The two performers talked about what it was like to be on the Road Show and how it developed over the years. They described some of the weird, wonderful and  bizarre events they had experienced, illustrated by film clips, stories and delicious gossip. It was enormous fun and very popular with members and non-members alike.

Titsey Place. Guided Tour and Afternoon Tea

Guy Innes kindly offered us exclusive access to Titsey Place for the day as a way of saying thank you to LDFAS volunteer guides. They organised a well constructed programme of tours of the house and gardens for 120 members. Click on an image below to see a slide show of a selection of photos from the 40th Anniversary Events

To see pictures of our Anniversary Year go to the Gallery

Picture: Sir Richard Stilgoe addressing our Anniversary Spring Lunch