14th March 2012
THE ART OF 'THE DA VINCI CODE'
A closer look at the artworks that inspired the fertile imagination of Dan Brown
The Da Vinci Code is one of the biggest blockbusters in recent publishing history. It has sold millions of copies worldwide and inspired a phenomenally successful Hollywood movie. Inevitably the book has sparked heated debate among historians, art experts and theologians many of whom have dismissed author Dan Brown's 'facts' and his central claim that Jesus had a child with Mary Magdalene and the Holy Grail is their bloodline.
Throughout this lecture we will be considering just how much truth there is in The Da Vinci Code and whether its rich cocktail of 'artworks, architecture, documents and secret rituals' really can be said to be based on historical fact.
Dr Geri Parlby, BA (Hons), MA (Courtauld), PhD, FRSA
Geri is a former Fleet Street journalist and film PR. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and has a first class honours degree in History and Theology a Masters in History of Art from the Courtauld Institute and a Theology doctorate from Roehampton University.
She has been lecturing for the past eight years and now heads up the Visual Arts distance learning programme for Exeter University and is principal lecturer on NADFAS South West Area's History of Art Foundation Certificate.