Friday Focus - The Head of the Hero-King: Face-to-Face with Robert Bruce (Part 1)
Friday Focus - The Head of the Hero-King: Face-to-Face with Robert Bruce (Part 1)
Date: Friday 22 November 2024
Time: 13:00 - 13:30
Venue: Online
Category: Public lectures, Hunterian
Speaker: Dr Martin MacGregor
Website: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/friday-focus-the-head-of-the-hero-king-face-to-face-with-robert-bruce-tickets-972048993707?aff=oddtdtcreator
A collaborative project between The Hunterian, Glasgow Life, History at the University of Glasgow and Face Lab at Liverpool John Moores University has created a 3D head of Robert Bruce: Robert I, King of Scots from 1306 until his death in 1329.
Dr Martin MacGregor (Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Glasgow) will offer an historian’s reflections on the project and its subject. The talk will explore what the physical model of the head and written sources tells us about Bruce the man and king. Touching on his restoration of a sovereign Scottish crown and Scottish freedom; his physical and mental strengths and fallibilities; his death, and his afterlife in which he made light of death and continued to find ways to advance the causes which came to define his life.
Particular emphasis will be placed on the debate on whether or not Bruce suffered and died from leprosy.
In collaboration with Historic Environment Scotland, and to commemorate the 750th anniversary of the birth of the hero-king, the head is now on display at Dunfermline Abbey until 7 December 2024.
The Friday Focus talk programme features a different speaker each week, sharing a deeper insight into our exhibitions and collections, and work going on behind the scenes at The Hunterian. We hold the talks every Friday at 1pm online over Zoom. Talks are approximately 20 minutes long with time for questions afterwards.
Find out more about our upcoming Friday Focus talks.