Speaker Notes
Sir Richard Temple founded the Temple Gallery in 1959 as a centre for collectors and for the study, restoration and exhibition of ancient icons and sacred art. Over the years he has published many catalogues and scholarly articles. He is the author of Icons and the Mystical Origins of Christianity (1990, now in its fourth edition) and Icons: Divine Beauty (2004) When You Hear a Dog Bark, his account of Vipassana meditation retreats in South Asia, is privately available. He was recently awarded a PhD by the Princes School of Traditional Arts for his thesis The Esoteric Tradition and Peter Bruegel the Elder. Interested in ancient sacred traditions, he has studied Neo-Platonism; Christian Hesychasm and the emergence of Christianity from Hellenistic culture. (www.templegallery.com)