Roy Strong Interviewed by Richard Barber

Art historian and former director of the National Portrait Gallery Sir Roy Strong takes a fresh look at the artists of the Stuart era and the people they painted and finds dramatic changes in attitude.

Strong describes the change from the still medieval aesthetic of the Elizabethan age to one based on the Catholic baroque of European art. Strong says the obsession with the artists has tended to obscure the fact that they are fashioning images of a new dynasty, the Stuarts, and of a burgeoning and assertive aristocracy. However, Strong says that what we are seeing is a new image and not the reality. The talk will be illustrated with pages from the book.

Strong is one of the UK’s best-known art historians. He was director of the National Portrait Gallery between 1967 and 1973 and of the Victoria and Albert Museum between 1974 and 1987. Here he talks to historian Richard Barber. Barber has written several books on medieval history and literature including The Knight and Chivalry, winner of the Somerset Maugham Award.