News of our Candlemas Lecture

3 February 2026

“The Virgin Mary from the perspectives of women scholars:

Anna Jameson, Marina Warner, and Miri Rubin”

An illustrated lecture on Marian Art

by Professor Diane Apostolos-Cappadona

Every year we organise a lecture around the time of Candlemas in memory of our late colleague Dr Cathy Oakes, who was an art historian with expertise in medieval Marian iconography.

We are delighted to announce that our 2026 event will take place on Tuesday 3 February at 7pm GMT (1:00pm US CT; 2:00pm US ET; 20:00 in France). We are especially honoured that our guest speaker will be the highly esteemed art historian Diane Apostolos-Cappadona, Professor Emerita of Religious Art and Cultural History at Georgetown University, Washington D.C., USA.

Professor Apostolos-Cappadona will discuss the history of the study of Marian art since the initial publication of Mrs. Jameson’s Legends of the Madonna in the Fine Arts (1852) to Dame Marina Warner’s now classic volume Alone of All Her Sex: The Myth and the Cult of the Virgin Mary (1976) and Professor Miri Rubin’s more recent Mother of God: A History of the Virgin Mary (2009), highlighting the influence of feminist studies in the imaging and interpretation of Mary in visual culture.  

In order to register for the free Zoom link, please send an email to Catherine O'Brien at the following address: info@marianstudies.ac.uk