Take a Closer Look: Online Art Appreciation Courses 2025

Take part in these very special online courses – wherever you are.

Scheduled for winter, spring and autumn 2025, these 8-week art appreciation evening courses are the perfect way to learn more about art. Discover little-known works from the Gallery’s collection, get to know old favourites in more depth, and explore other great collections of the world with our expert Art Historians and guest speakers.  Each course will take place online using Zoom webinar and will include time for a question and answer session where you can put your questions and comments to the facilitators. 

All sessions are recorded and made available to participants for three weeks afterwards to allow you to catch up, or watch again.

Each course has a 1 week break in the middle. See exact dates below.

Spring 2025:

The Meaning of Myths: Classical Stories in Western Art with Dr Sarah Wilson 

Tuesdays, 18.00-19.15
25 March to 20 May 
(25 Mar, 1, 8, 15, 29 Apr, 6, 13, 20 May – note there is a break on 22 April)

Tickets available now.

• Tickets: €150
• 20% discount for Friends of the Gallery
• 10% discount Over 65’s/unwaged/students
• Special offer until 13 January 2025: Further 10% discount when all three courses booked together.

Buying this course as a gift? 

Once you have purchased the ticket, contact [email protected] to confirm the name of the recipient, and we will ensure they are sent all correspondence. If you would like us to send them an e-mail confirming that this was purchased as a gift for them, we can also do this.

About the course: 

For thousands of years, Greek and Roman myths have been instrumental in shaping Western art. These stories, centred on anthropomorphic gods and larger-than-life mortals, have functioned as a societal language. They provided generations of artists, from Benvenuto Cellini to Jacques-Louis David and Gustav Klimt, with a shared vocabulary. Myths continue to captivate us with tales of adventure, magic, tragedy and romance, yet at their core, they express elements of universal experience, moral guidelines, and admonishments.

This eight-week art appreciation course will examine some of the most enduring Classical myths in Western art, including representations of Daedalus and his ill-fated son Icarus, the untouchable Danaë, and the terrifying yet intriguing figures of Medusa and Circe the Sorceress. Taking inspiration from key works in the National Gallery, we will explore the diverse forms and visual metamorphoses of mythic iconography from antiquity to the twentieth century.

About the tutor:

Dr Sarah Wilson is an art historian specialising in Roman antiquity and religious identity. She has an undergraduate degree in Fine Art (DIT) and completed her postgraduate studies in Art History (UCD). She has developed several lecture series for the National Gallery of Ireland that encompass a broad range of topics from Classical influences to Japanese and Aboriginal art.

Course Outline

Week 1, 25 March: Meet the Gods

For the ancient Greek and Romans, the cornerstone of their mythology was the pantheon of the twelve Olympian gods. After experiencing resurgence during the Renaissance, their lives, loves and rivalries became a rich source of inspiration for countless works of art. Perhaps one of the most inscrutable stories for modern audiences is that of Cronus, the Titan who devoured his own children. However, in the world of classical mythology, beauty frequently springs from horror. Cronus would ultimately set the stage for the birth of one of the most revered goddesses in both ancient religion and art – Aphrodite.

Week 2, 1 April: Transformative Trysts

Transformation, or metamorphosis, is one of the most recurring and symbolically rich themes in Greek and Roman mythology. It was frequently employed by Zeus; one of mythology’s most notorious philanderers. His seduction of Danaë and Leda became a favoured subject for seventeenth century artists, who drew inspiration from antiquity to create works that were highly sensuous and, at times, provocative. Michelangelo, Titian, and Rembrandt set the standard for these passionate interpretations, a mantle later taken up by Gustav Klimt. However, not all artists embraced the charged atmosphere of these depictions. Claude Lorrain favoured the bucolic and pastoral, setting a precedent for classical landscape painting, where nature, rather than mythic drama, took center stage.

Week 3, 8 April: Taken: Persephone and Europa

Take a look at classical mythology, and you will be struck by the number of stories that begin with the abduction of a woman. It was a device frequently employed to suggest transition; the ending of one life and the beginning of another. Working in the seventeenth century, Bernini embraced the theme of transfiguration, transforming hard marble into soft flesh. But it was Titian’s violent The Rape of Europa that set the bar for artistic excellence and left the next generation engaged in a vicious competition for position. Beneath these narratives of female abduction is one of male rivalry, as the great artists of the seventeenth century jostled for recognition.

Week 4, 15 April: The Fall of Icarus

This week is all about humanity; its contradictions, ambitions and raw vulnerabilities. In the story of Daedalus and Icarus, all the grandeur of myth is stripped away. Daedalus, whose genius breathed life into art, constructed a dazzling labyrinth to contain the Minotaur. During the Victorian period, the Minotaur was largely seen as an incarnation of man’s brutality. However, during the twentieth century, he was transformed by Picasso from a ferocious monster to a pitiful figure, an avatar of the artist’s own romantic entanglements. As for Icarus, Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s understated masterpiece, A Landscape with the Fall of Icarus demonstrated the world’s cold indifference to those who reach too high and fall.

BREAK on 22 April

Week 5, Troy and the Idealised Nude

The Trojan War is arguable one of the most important events in classical mythology, serving as the inspiration for the epic poetry of Homer and Virgil. From this legendary conflict sprang countless myths and a rich artistic tradition that spanned centuries. Featuring a beauty contest between three goddesses and the exploits of the greatest warrior ever to exist, the Trojan War provided artists with endless opportunities to depict idealised nudes. In the ancient world, male nudes were considered an expression of universal ideals. The nude retained its position until the early twentieth century when it was challenged by artists such as George Bellows and Lucian Freud.

Week 6, 6 May: Wicked Women: Medusa, Clytemnestra and Circe

Monster. Murderess. Femme fatale. Nothing is more appealing than a good villain. It was perhaps the Baroque masters, Caravaggio and Cellini, who best captured the horror and potency of Medusa’s legend. Towards the end of the 1800s, artists such as the Pre-Raphaelites became increasingly drawn to legendary women whose strength and cunning shaped their fates. Yet, as with most things in classical mythology, very little is black and white. Each of these women, though initially feared, has been reinterpreted over time as symbols of agency, defiance, and in some cases the consequences of male transgression.

Week 7, 13 May: Printing the Past: Disseminating Greek and Roman Culture

Ovid’s Metamorphoses, the 1st century epic, remains one of the most influential pieces of literature to this day. We are delighted to welcome Dr Caroline Campbell to speak on this epic work, where she will discuss certain important episodes, in particular Diana and Actaeon, and how these episodes were interpreted by artists. Sarah Wilson will briefly explore the evolution of printmaking in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, highlighting its pivotal role in artistic innovation. Prints provided artists, such as Andrea Mantegna and Hendrick Goltzius, with a powerful medium to experiment with classical forms and share their creative developments. These affordable and easily transportable works helped fuel widespread enthusiasm for mythological themes, making classical imagery more accessible than ever before.
Guest Speaker: Dr Caroline Campbell, Director, National Gallery of Ireland.

Week 8, 20 May: Gods Made Real: Kings and Emperors

Many of the motifs of power, with which we have becomes so accustom to, can be traced back to the classical world. Perhaps one of the most recognisable forms is the equestrian statue, epitomised by the Roman bronze of Marcus Aurelius and revived during the Renaissance by Donatello. In Ireland, traces of our Imperial legacy can be found through the remains of these statues. Taking inspiration from Francis Wheatley’s The Dublin Volunteers on College Green, 4th November 1779 and John van Nost the Younger’s Statue of George III as a Roman Emperor, this week will consider the adoption of Roman imperial and equestrian imagery by monarchs.

Autumn 2025:

For the love of Modernism: Ireland’s relationship with Modern Art from the 1920s to 1980s with Jessica Fahy

Tuesdays, 18.00-19.15
7 October to 2 December
7, 14, 21 Oct, 4, 11, 18, 25 Nov and 2 Dec (note there is a break on 28 October)

Tickets available now.

• Tickets: €150
• 20% discount for Friends of the Gallery
• 10% discount Over 65’s/unwaged/students
• Special offer until 13 January 2025: Further 10% discount when all three courses booked together.

Buying this course as a gift? 

Once you have purchased the ticket, contact [email protected] to confirm the name of the recipient, and we will ensure they are sent all correspondence. If you would like us to send them an e-mail confirming that this was purchased as a gift for them, we can also do this.

About the course: 

The art appreciation course will examine the relationship between the Irish state and the advent of Modernism in the visual arts. It can certainly be described as a difficult adjustment with a reluctance by the Irish state and the art institutions to support Modernist artists. 

In the first few decades of the Free State and Irish Republic many artworks were see as unaccomplished or even corrupting due to the rejection of the Academic style by the artist. The ideas around ‘proper’ art were not just about expected levels of skill in naturalism or realism but also moralistic. It would seem that the Irish public were not trusted to make up their own minds or to be able to understand or be confronted with this new art. Yet on an international stage, it was often the most avant-garde artist chosen to represent Ireland - arguably as this new nation wanted to be seen as a modern and progressive country. 

The first Rosc exhibition in 1967 brought works by the most important artists from around the world to Dublin, and included ancient Irish artworks, but no contemporary Irish Artists. Living artists were eventually included, which was followed by a boom in state-funded commissions, which were not always well received by the public - an opinion still heard today.

About the tutor:

Jessica Fahy is a freelance Art Historian. She is on the lecturer and guide panels for the National Gallery of Ireland, UCD Access and Lifelong Learning Centre and the Hugh Lane Gallery. She gives talks and tours across Ireland, abroad and online on all areas of Western Art from the 14th century to the present day.  She is a regular contributor on RTÉ radio for Arena. She has a MLitt in Art History from UCD where she also received her undergraduate degree with English as her joint major. She completed her MA in Italian Renaissance Art at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London in 2007.