Hello, I'm Lucy Worsley, chief curator at Historic Royal Palluses.

You're listening to our podcast that explores the history and stories of our six palaces.

These talks are a collection of some of our best live events.

I really hope you enjoy listening.

In this talk, a panel of experts consider the iconic work of the old masters on display at Hampton Court Palace.

Desmond, Shaw Taylor, on my left, in the blue corner,

like many of the most outstanding art historians in this country studied English

literature at Oxford and took an M.A. in the history of art at the court old. Desmond's done

brilliant work, which I hope some of you have experienced the fruits of at the Dulwich Picture

Gallery and more recently with the Royal Collection.

And he's here with his Van Dyke hat on tonight.

So he's going to be the man to ask questions about Van Dyke too.

Sheila McTai on my right.

She received her PhD from Yale and has taught at Columbia before leaving the benighted land of America to come to London where she now lives and teaches at the Courtauld Institute.

But Sheila has written extensively and is currently, I think, working on two projects

that involve Caravaggio, so she's very much got a Caravaggio hat on. And James Hurd is an artist

and lecturer who divides his time currently between Rochester, England and Antwerp, and James has been heavily involved and much the

enlightenment of many in adult education among his many other activities.

And he is here, I think, principally to talk about Rembrandt,

but I'm hoping that everyone will chip in on everyone else's subjects.

And because this is actually, we haven't told you this,

but this is actually the pilot for a new TV show called Meet the Masters.

...