In this month’s talk Stephen Ashley will suggest that there was a lot more to Renaissance sculpture than just Michaelangelo and the Florentine gang. In particular he makes the case for the truly amazing terracotta sculptures that permeated the whole of Europe at that time and which have been largely ignored ever since the Greek revival of the late 18th century.

Note: This talk replaces that in the original programme by Bernard Lockett on “Social and Political Satire of Gilbert and Sullivan”.

Speaker biography

Of Welsh and Canadian as well as English extraction, Stephen grew up in the Vale of Evesham. He trained and practised as a chartered surveyor before going walkabout for a while in Italy. He then found, somewhat to his surprise, that he had become a specialist journalist in the construction industry press where he stayed for 15 years. After a number of years as the founding editor of a journal involved with energy use in buildings he was promoted to be an editorial director in the industry’s leading publishing house.

Seeking a better work-life balance, Stephen brought his family back to Mid-Wales where he went back to working as a general practice building surveyor for 25 years until his retirement. Somewhat to his surprise, he finds himself just as busy as before!

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