Sir Loyd Grossman

Tickets will go on sale to Platinum Friends at 10am on Tue 27 Jan, with Gold Friends booking from 10am on Wed 28 Jan, Friends booking from 10am on Fri 30 Jan and on general sale at 10am on Tue 10 Feb.

We are delighted to welcome Sir Loyd Grossman to talk about the subject of his book The Artist and the Eternal City: Bernini, Pope Alexander VII, and the Making of Rome. 

By 1650, the spiritual and political power of the Catholic Church was shattered. Thanks to the twin blows of the Protestant Reformation and the Thirty Years War, Rome - celebrated both as the Eternal City and Caput Mundi (the head of the world) – had lost its preeminent place in Europe. Then a new Pope, Alexander VII, fired with religious zeal, political guile, and a mania for creating new architecture, determined to restore the prestige of his church by making Rome the key destination for Europe's intellectual, political, and cultural elite. This afternoon talk will explore more of the history of this fascinating city. 

Sir Loyd has a lifelong interest in history, the arts and heritage, receiving a PhD from the University of Cambridge and serving on the board of a number of cultural institutions including English Heritage, the British School at Rome and the Public Monuments and Sculpture Association. He is Chairman of The Royal Parks, Chair of the Royal Society of Arts, President of The Arts Society and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. He is well-known as a writer and presenter for a wide range of television programmes including Through the Keyhole, MasterChef, Behind the Headlines, History of British Sculpture, Loyd on Location and Build Britain. He also wrote and presented a series, Composers at Home, for BBC Radio 3.