WOMEN IN THE PICTURE BOOK TALK 3

Fri 27 Nov 2026, 11am-12pm

This talk is in-person in the Headley Lecture Theatre and online via Zoom.

Tickets are £10. Booking is essential.

Please note tickets will be available soon.

With Catherine McCormack, author, independent academic & critic

This is the third of four talks with the author Catherine McCormack inspired by her celebrated book, 'Women in the Picture: Women, Art and the Power of Looking'. Taking our Aphrodite exhibition as a starting point, McCormack will look at how the goddess of love has shaped and continues to shape definitions of female identity.

In this third talk, the author examines how images of idealised motherhood in the figure of the Virgin Mary have continuously conditioned expectations for women who mother, and the domestic expectations that have shaped their position in society.

A drawing by Raphael of a mother kneeling and tenderly embracing her young standing child, in chalks

A mother embracing a child, Raphael, c. 1513

A 14th-century painting of the Virgin and Child with gold frame by artist Ceccarelli

The Virgin and Child, Naddo Ceccarelli, c. 1347

A colourful painting of a mother holding a child sat on the sandy dunes of a beach

Dorelia and child seated on the Dunes, Augustus Edward John, c. 1909-1912

Other talks take a similar approach in opening up three more cultural archetypes of female identity that are rooted in art history but resonate far beyond into gender politics both past and present.

Talk 1, 2 Oct: The Female Form
Talk 2, 30 Oct: Monsters & Temptresses
Talk 4, 11 Dec: Tragic Heroines

About the author

Women in the Picture book cover by Catherine McCormack

Catherine is an author, independent academic and critic. Her most recent book is Women in the Picture: Women, Art and the Power of Looking She has held teaching positions at University College London, Sotheby’s Institute of Art and the University of Oxford. Catherine has a PhD in Art History from UCL where she has worked as a Teaching Fellow and in 2016 she won the University of York’s international postdoctoral writing prize.

Part of the Museum's Love and Legacy season of events.

BOOKING

This event takes place onsite in the Headley Lecture Theatre and online via Zoom

Tickets are £10 each

Tickets coming soon

If you have any questions, please email us at publicprogrammes@ashmus.ox.ac.uk