Practitioners of the oldest profession did not regularly find themselves on canvas but Linda Smith, our lecturer on the topic of ‘Great Tarts in Art’, took us on a pictorial romp through the late seventeenth century and to more recent times. Charles II imported the French custom of introducing his mistresses into Society. Barbara Villiers might have been rude, vulgar and promiscuous but she was made Duchess of Cleveland for her efforts. A contemporary favourite became Duchess of Portsmouth but it was Nell Gwynn who graduated from the London stage to become the most popular model of British values of the time. Paintings of Restoration beauties, often showing them as shepherdesses, reveal a fashion for languishing eyes and the hint of a double chin. Into the next century we find Stubbs painting a respectable family group, prior to the wife wandering from the stable and producing a son who later became the prime minister Lord Melbourne. Gainsborough portrayed the durable mistress of the ambassador to France, as well as a courtesan who divided her loyalties between the Prince of Wales and some of the French revolutionary hierarchy. At the top of the tree the fees were high. Kitty Fisher, painted by Nathaniel Hone and of nursery rhyme fame, charged a nightly rate of 100 guineas; a syndicate had a sort of annual time share for 2000 guineas. Careers tended to be relatively short but Elizabeth Armistead ruled the roost for ten years and was painted by Joshua Reynolds after marrying into the aristocracy. A contemporary used blackmail when past her prime : the Duke of Wellington refused to pay up. There was a darker side. Hogarth saw related disease as a metaphor for the wider corruption in eighteenth century society; the urban world captured by Manet in France suggested uncertainty and a lack of depth in relationships; Lautrec lived amongst poor prostitutes and showed sympathy for their life in the shadows; Grosz’ 1920’s ‘fat cat’ patrons symbolised the rot in European civilisation. Even Lady Hamilton died in poverty.

Qin Shin Huangdi was obsessed with immortality and sent teams throughout China to search for thee elixir of life. He died in 210BC. As a teenage king he began the 56 square kilometer walled burial ground outside Xian, using 700,000 conscripts and completed it 30yrs later. Dr Anne Birchall, the first western archaeologist to visit the site after its discovery in 1974, reminded us that the first Emperor of China has left us with a number of questions as well as answers. Although the Qin dynasty was short lived it brought all of China together and founded a style of government that survived until the 20th century. As well as military success, the Emperor built palaces, roads and sections of the Great Wall of China; he standardised coinage, script and measures. Xianyang was the first capital. He encouraged writings in agriculture, divination and medicine, but ordered that all previous books be burned using outspoken scholars as tinder. Large enough to house three jumbo jets, the underground vaults contain evidence of the emperor's plans for the afterlife: thousands of warriors, wearing terracotta leather jerkins, probably painted in green with rustic red or trendy lilac. Weapons including crossbows, arrows dagger axes and swords, wooden chariots and pottery horses, all alongside aids to relaxation- acrobats, musicians and bronze waterbirds. Dr Birchall emphasised that although the warriors faces and headgear had a variety of features they are only ten different factory assembled (with personal touches). She told how there are as yet many more areas for excavation and the story is not yet complete.

Angela Cox's talk on the 150 year history of the National Portrait Gallery was entitled "From Humble Beginnings". Humble in some ways-opening with just 56 portraits, enough to fill the entrance hall and one floor of a London house-but grandiose in others: the paintings must have a strictly moral purpose; the sitter should be famous, for a suitable reason; he or she should have been dead for at least ten years so as to ensure that their fame was lasting and not merely transient; furthermore each image must be authentic and contemporary- none of those imaginary images created several centuries on: this must be the real thing! And to make sure that these rules were followed trustees were appointed from the good, including two future prime ministers Gladstone and Disraeli, both of whom attended diligently for the rest of their lives. The portraits must be in any medium provided that they fulfilled the basic requirements: oils and watercolours of course, and oil pastel; miniatures; sculptures; an exquisite self portrait by George Stubbs on a ceramic base made by Josiah Wedgwood; even a slightly gruesome collection of death masks. And photographs-which is a whole lecture in itself because as photography developed it started to raise the questions as "Why paint?" and "What is a likeness?" As portraiture developed to meet these new challenges so the Gallery's rules and functions developed to meet new ages and thinking. By the mid 20th century the old rules were found to be too restricting and irksome. The sciences and women were sorely unrepresented in the collection. The 10-year rule was preventing too many potential acquisitions. Things had to change. From the 1980's the Gallery started actively commissioning work. Horizons broadened. Recent work includes portraits of Viv Richards, Frank Bruno and other sportsmen, and an exuberant glass mosaic bust of designer Zandra Rhodes. The beginnings may have been humble, but 150 years on the National Gallery is justifiably proud.