Talks
Christopher RidgwayCaste Howard (`Building it` or `Art collecting` or `Castle Howard and Brideshead`)
Itinerary:
See overlay (Events Calendar)
Dr Christopher Ridgway has been Curator at Castle Howard since 1985, with responsibility for the internationally important art collections that were assembled by successive generations of the Howard family ever since Castle Howard was built by Sir John Vanbrugh in 1699.
He is Co-Chair of the Yorkshire Country House Partnership, a pioneering collaborative research project between the stately homes of Yorkshire and the University of York. He sits on the Board for the National Trust for Scotland, and the Attingham Trust Council, and is also Adjunct Professor in the History Dept at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth.
Christopher Ridgway
Dr Christopher Ridgway has been Curator at Castle Howard since 1985, with responsibility for the internationally important art collections that were assembled by successive generations of the Howard family ever since Castle Howard was built by Sir John Vanbrugh in 1699.
He is Co-Chair of the Yorkshire Country House Partnership, a pioneering collaborative research project between the stately homes of Yorkshire and the University of York. He sits on the Board for the National Trust for Scotland, and the Attingham Trust Council, and is also Adjunct Professor in the History Dept at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth.
He has lectured widely in the UK and overseas on the history of Castle Howard, its architecture, collections, and landscape, on which he has also published extensively. He is co-editor with Robert Williams of Sir John Vanbrugh and Landscape Architecture in Baroque England; and he is currently at work on a book-length study of the gardens and landscape, entitled The Landscaping of Castle Howard, as well as a study on the relationship between the fact and fiction with Castle Howard and Brideshead.
How Was Castle Howard Built?
A detailed account of the momentous decision by Charles Howard, 3rd Earl of Carlisle, to employ Sir John Vanbrugh and Nicholas Hawksmoor to create his new palace and gardens in Yorkshire at the beginning of the 18th Century.
“Gathered by Amateurs”: 300 Years of Art Collecting at Castle Howard
Focusing on the magnificent art collections of Castle Howard, this talk charts the objects purchased and displayed in the house over the past 300 years, and considers recent dispersals, as well as the significance of these collections today.
Harridans and Heroines: The Women of Castle Howard
A talk that challenges the way we look at great houses and estates. The women of Castle Howard were not merely decorative figures, languishing from boredom or ill-health. They were dynamic, combative individuals, who wrote, painted, pursued political careers, as well as superintending a large family home.
Castle Howard and Brideshead: Fact, Fiction and In-Between
Used as a spectacular location for not just one but two screen versions of this famous story, just what is the relationship between Evelyn Waugh’s famous novel, Brideshead Revisited, and the Howards of Castle Howard?
All lectures are fully illustrated with powerpoint, and last approximately 55-60 minutes.