The National Gallery London – Winter, Advent & Christmas through the Four Senses Hermeneutic
with Mary Attwood
Saturday 13th December 2025
10.30am – 12.45pm with optional lunch 1.00 – 2.00pm
£40
“The four senses hermeneutic were firmly rooted in a model of knowledge (which ) presupposes the primary reality of the immaterial, invisible spiritual world which is directly mirrored by our material world, and thus it can be known through its sense perceptible images.”
Dr Angela Voss
During this half day visit to The National Gallery, London, we will explore a small selection of paintings which present themes of Winter, Advent and Christmas. As a guide in our approach to engaging with some of these exquisite works of art, we will consider the four senses hermeneutic / of interpretation.
The four senses hermeneutic is an ancient and half forgotten framework which can enlighten our understanding of sensations, thoughts, intuitions through an engaged attention we often feel when encountering works of art, yet have lost the language with which to express it. As a result we often ignore the more intangible responses when in front of a work of art and miss something of great importance. Rather than only staying with a literal interpretation of a work of art, the four senses offer a means through which we might gain clarity, a sense of revelation and an inner and outer seeing.
The four senses comprise:
The Literal Sense – taking the painting at face value, its literal meaning
The Allegorical Sense – exploring the allegorical meaning of an image, what else is it referring to in terms of its story or myth. It is ‘like’ / simile.
These first two senses are often where much interpretation of art stops.
The Tropological Sense – a deepening of meaning and response, turning inwards to question, where the soul turns to ask what does it mean for me? Metaphorical and moral meaning.
The Anagogical Sense – includes all of the other senses, and where a deepening is lifted and connected to a higher ontological understanding.
The paintings of Winter scenes, Advent and Christmas we will be discovering are each unique. As the four senses awaken the imagination, we will journey through darkness, cold, a turning inwards for reflection and stillness, a sense of hope, light, and love. These works of art no longer remain literal objects to be analysed, but lived experiences.
We will meet just inside the entrance to the Sainsbury wing at 10.30am. This visit will take place on Saturday 13th December 2025 and will run from 10.30 am to 12.45 pm. At 1pm there is an optional lunch where we will discuss any observations and questions you might have and enjoy a lovely meal!
Numbers will be limited. £40 per person. Lunch is not included in this price.
To purchase a ticket, please visit Mary’s website here.
About Mary Attwood
Mary is an art historian, author, business creative and producer. She is co-founder and director of The Centre for Myth, Cosmology and the Sacred, and co-founder and director of Channel McGilchrist. She holds a BA hons degree in the History of Art from UCL and Birkbeck, where she focused on late medieval and renaissance Art and Architeture. She holds an MA with distinction in Myth, Cosmology and the Sacred from CCCU where she researched renaissance art and art’s effects in general on the viewer/ beholder. Taking as broad an epistemological approach as possible, she studied the meaning/s of art, specifically quattrocento Florentine Renaissance art, in the contexts of ancient Greek philosophy, the neuroscientific approach of McGilchrist’s hemisphere theory, archetypal psychology and Renaissance artistic approaches.
Mary’s teaching and research seek to offer a renaissance of humane values through a broader understanding of art, not as an object to be analysed, but as a bridge between seemingly disparate ways of understanding the world and our place in it.
