Tuesday, October 2, 2018, Menschel Hall, Harvard Art Museums
In this lecture titled "Animal-Shaped Vessels from the Ancient World: Contexts & Meanings," leading scholars offer perspectives on the social and symbolic importance of the vessels featured in our special exhibition “Animal-Shaped Vessels from the Ancient World: Feasting with Gods, Heroes, and Kings,” on view September 7, 2018 through January 6, 2019.
Robert Koehl, professor of classical and oriental studies at Hunter College (CUNY), gives an overview of the history of animal-shaped vessels in the Near East and Mediterranean during the Bronze Age. He examines the specific species of animals represented and address the different ways that zoomorphic vessels were used, focusing on their social and ritual significance.
Kimberley Patton, professor of the comparative and historical study of religion at Harvard University, considers why vessels were shaped as animals—the heads of animals in particular. Delving deep into the human past through the archaeology of religion, she reveals the long history of human/animal symbolic interdependence, including through representations and reanimations, the manipulation of animal remains, metamorphosis, sacrifice, and the creation of composite beings.
Following their presentations, Koehl and Patton joins in conversation by the exhibition’s curator, Susanne Ebbinghaus, the George M.A. Hanfmann Curator of Ancient Art, and head of the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at the Harvard Art Museums.
Support for the lecture is provided by the M. Victor Leventritt Fund, which was established through the generosity of the wife, children, and friends of the late M. Victor Leventritt, Harvard Class of 1935. The purpose of the fund is to present outstanding scholars of the history and theory of art to the Harvard and Greater Boston communities. In addition, crucial support for the Animal-Shaped Vessels exhibition has been made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the Human Endeavor. In addition, the Harvard Art Museums are deeply grateful to the anonymous donor of a gift in memory of Melvin R. Seiden and to Malcolm H. Wiener (Harvard A.B. ’57, J.D. ’63) and Michael and Helen Lehmann for enabling us to mount this exhibition and to pursue the related research. This work was also made possible in part by the David M. Robinson Fund and the Andrew W. Mellon Publication Funds, including the Henry P. McIlhenny Fund.
