Events

Dr. Michael D. Danti, FSA (PhD, University of Pennsylvania 2000) will give the Spring 2017 MEMS Colloquium Lecture, cosponsored by the Dresher Center Humanities Forum, Ancient Studies, Political Science, and Visual Arts. Danti has 25 years experience directing archaeological projects in the Middle East, including excavations and surveys in Syria, Iran, and Iraqi Kurdistan. From 1991–2010, his research focused on the Early Bronze Age site of Tell es-Sweyhat near Raqqa and Aleppo on the Euphrates River.  He is Assistant Professor of Archaeology at Boston University, Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London, and a Consulting Scholar, University of Pennsylvania Museum. His work includes archaeological research on the recent looting and destruction of antiquities in Iraq and Syria. Danti serves as a consultant for the U.S. Department of State.  He will discuss ancient and medieval archaeological sites and treasures which have been destroyed or affected and report on what he and his colleagues are doing to address this cultural heritage crisis.

Professor Danti is the Academic Director of ASOR Cultural Heritage Initiatives, an international, collaborative effort to respond to the destruction of cultural heritage in Syria and northern Iraq. ASOR has assembled a team of scholars with professional connections to leading academic and cultural institutions in Syria, Iraq, the United States, Canada, England, France, Germany, Lebanon, and Jordan. Groups of concerned citizens in Syria and Iraq have been taking action, and ASOR formed alliances and partnerships with these groups.

Free concert.  To reserve a ticket follow the link.

This free First Friday concert series on the Walters’ Sculpture Court features a different group of dynamic faculty and student performers from the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University each month.

In medieval Europe, the walled garden with fragrant flowers, herbs, sweet breezes, bird songs, and a gurgling fountain was idealized as a place of delight for the senses and escape from the tumult of everyday cares. Such aspects of life inspired works of art that stirred all the senses—sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch—and that are the focus of the ground-breaking international loan exhibition A Feast for the Senses: Art and Experience in Medieval Europe, at the Walters from October 16, 2016 to January 8, 2017.

The exhibition brings together more than 100 works representative of the late medieval period—roughly the 12th to the 15th century—to explore how the senses enhance the experience of art. . . and how art triggers sensate experience. Included are stained glass, precious metals and gemstones, ivories, tapestries, paintings, prints, and illuminated manuscripts from public and private collections in the U.S. and abroad.

This exhibition runs from October 16 2016 through January 8 2017

A Feast for the Senses: Art and Experience in Medieval Europe has been organized by the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, in partnership with the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota.

This exhibition received major funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the human endeavor; the Institute of Museum and Library Services; the National Endowment for the Arts; and anonymous donors, with additional support from the Gary Vikan Exhibition Fund, Nanci and Ned Feltham, and the Helen Hughes Trust. The accompanying catalogue was made possible by an anonymous donor. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, or the National Endowment for the Arts.

This exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.

Asian Studies Lecture 

 

 “Reflections in a Yoshiwara Mirror: Representing the 'Beauties of the Azure Towers' in Print,” Professor Julie Nelson Davis, Professor of the History of Art (Modern East Asian), University of Pennsylvania.

 

Abstract: In 1776 publishers Tsutaya Jūzaburō and Yamazaki Kinbei issued The Mirror of Yoshiwara Beauties, Compared.  Featuring sumptuous illustrations by two leading painters, Kitao Shigemasa and Katsukawa Shunshō, this album exploited full-color multiple block printing to represent the glamorous “beauties” of the licensed pleasure district, the Yoshiwara.  This presentation will explore issues of collaboration between the publishers and painters as well as their larger social and economic network. By reading the album against guidebooks to the district, this talk further addresses how images and text operated to promote the fantasies of the quarter for its audiences.