Dr Lydia Hamlett

Dr Lydia Hamlett
Associate Professor, University of Cambridge Professional and Continuing Education (PACE)

Biography

I am Academic Director and Associate Professor of History of Art and Visual Culture at PACE and a Fellow and Director of Studies in History of Art at Murray Edwards College. My main area of interest is in British visual culture of the (long) seventeenth century and this is reflected in both my research and teaching.

As Academic Director at PACE I have strategic oversight of the teaching and learning we undertake across History of Art and Visual Culture. My role is to ensure that our teaching is research-led and of the highest quality whilst also being accessible and inclusive.  I want to make sure that our courses meet the needs of our diverse part-time students, encouraging everyone to enjoy and get the most out of their studies.

I was a awarded a PhD from the University of Cambridge in 2007, and before joining the team at PACE I held research and curatorial positions at National Trust, Tate and University of Cambridge Museums. I came back to Cambridge as a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow in the Department of History of Art in 2014. 

Research topics

My main area of research is in British visual culture of the long seventeenth century with a special focus on mural painting. Other academic interests include Baroque art theory, notions of the sublime, Italian renaissance visual culture and the history of collections, in particular the Women’s Art Collection at Murray Edwards College. I have a strong passion for teaching and advocacy for art history for a wider public, having worked in research, museums and heritage. I am a founder member of the British Murals Network, an advisor on ArtUK’s digitisation and engagement programme and a member of the Higher Education Committee at For Art History.

Publications

Books

  • ‘Baroque: The Longinian Turn in Early Modern Visual Culture’, in P. Cheney and P. Hardie (eds), The Oxford Handbook of the Sublime (Oxford University Press, 2025), 2025
  • Mural Painting in Britain 1630-1730: Experiencing Histories (Routledge 2020), 2020

Journal articles

  • ‘Not just a Pretty Face: Women’s Heroic Experience in The Heroides, Book Illustration & Mural Painting in Britain, 1700–1720’, Women's Writing, 30:3, 226-257 (Taylor & Francis Online, 2023), 2023
  • Review of ‘The Painted Hall: Sir James Thornhill's Masterpiece at Greenwich’, Georgian Group Journal (December 2020), 2020

Book chapters

  • ‘Painted Architecture in the British Baroque’, in S. Frommel and P. Lombaerde (eds), A Challenge for Painted Architecture in Early Modern Times architecture on canvas and fresco painting (Brepols, 2024), 2024
  • ‘Allegorising the space between architecture and craft: mural painting 1630–1730’, in M. Hayes and A. Tierney (eds), Between Design and Making: Architecture and craftsmanship, 1630–1760 (UCL Open Access, 2024), 2024
  • 'Painted Interiors' in T. Barber, ed, British Baroque: Power and Illusion (Tate 2020), 2020
  • ‘Mural Cycles in Britain and Continental Influences’, in S. Hoppe, H. Laß, H. Karner (eds), Gemalte Herrschaft – Barocke Deckenmalerei an Europas Höfen um 1700 (Hirmer Verlag 2020), 2020

Courses Taught