Lunchtime Lecture: The Christmas Story in Late Medieval and Renaissance Art

This lecture tells the Christmas story through a selection of well-loved paintings by Italian and Flemish artists, including Botticelli, Fra Angelico and Jan van Eyck, together with many less well-known images. Join Paula Nuttall, as she guides us from the Annunciation to the Nativity, the Journey of the Kings and the Flight into Egypt, in a lecture which explores and explains the rich symbolism of Christmas imagery, and introduces some unfamiliar aspects of the story, such as the Midwives and Joseph’s stockings.

Dr Paula Nuttall is an art historian specialising in the Renaissance and has taught on the V&A Academy's Medieval and Renaissance course since its inception in 1993. She studied at the Courtauld Institute, writing her Ph.D thesis on artistic relations between the Netherlands and Italy, on which she has published widely.

To see our full Autumn 2022 Lunchtime Lecture Programme, click 'Download Programme' on the right of this screen.