Red Robes and Rare Treasures: Cardinals in Early Modern Europe with Dr Lisa Beaven

Thursday 11 Sep 2025, 2:00 PM – 3:30 PM

What was it like to be a cardinal in early modern Europe? In reality there was huge diversity among cardinals as some were extremely wealthy while others were relatively poor, but all were pressured to display their wealth, and many lived in great style in their Roman palaces and villas. Their collections included exotic animals, mummies, musical instruments, antiquities, luxury clocks, and of course art. This lecture will provide an overview of some of more unusual items they owned, wore or displayed.

Dr. Lisa Beaven is Adjunct Senior Research Fellow at La Trobe University, Australia. From 2014-18 she was a post-doctoral research fellow in the ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions at the University of Melbourne. Her research interests are concentrated on seventeenth century Italian art patronage and collecting as well as landscape painting and environmental history and she has published widely on these topics. Her book, An Ardent Patron: Cardinal Camillo Massimo and his artistic and antiquarian circle: Claude Lorrain, Nicolas Poussin and Diego Velazquez was published by Paul Holberton Press, London and CEEH, Madrid in 2010, and she is editor (with Angela Ndalianis) of Emotion and the Seduction of the Senses, baroque to neo-Baroque (2018), and (with David R. Marshall and Laurie Benson) of Emerging from darkness: faith, emotion and the body in the baroque (2023).

Your ticket includes tea or Market Lane coffee served before the presentation, and time to browse our exclusive range of books, gifts, and homewares at TJC Emporium.

This event is presented on-site at The Johnston Collection. Please see your ticket for details. NOTE: Tickets for this event do not include access to our house museum, Fairhall. Guided tours of the current exhibition can be booked separately.

This event is supported by The Colin Holden Charitable Trust.

Image: Ottavio Leoni, A Cardinal's Procession, 1621. Gift of Damon Mezzacappa, 2012. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Book Tickets

Adult $25.00

$ 25.00 ea

Student/Concession $23.00

$ 23.00 ea