Learning Curve 2025: Emotions in 17th-century art

Join us for our upcoming Learning Curve Lecture Series Emotions in 17th-century art. Learn how art communicates emotion in this four-part lecture series led by Dr Lisa Beaven.  

To communicate their desired emotion to the viewer, 17th-century artists had to overcome the unique challenge of translating emotions into facial expressions and body language for accurate representation in their paintings. To do this successfully relied on the skills of the artist, but also on what the viewer brought to the encounter and their ability to recognise the emotions they were seeing. 

Delve into how horror, fear, humour and love are represented in iconic works by Caravaggio, Nicholaes Maes, Nicholas Poussin and Peter Paul Rubens. Discover the reasons for the creation of each work – who commissioned them, where they were hung, and why they sought to provoke a strong emotional response in the viewer.