Many of us first encounter the art of the ancient Greeks through their vases. Though familiar to us, these apparently simple, functional objects often mystify and even baffle both the young and the old. In this lecture, Peter Schertz demystifies Greek vases by exploring how they were made and used, who made them and the significance of both their shapes and their decoration.
Archives
“It Comes to Life!” Hollywood’s Mummies
Ancient Egypt and specifically mummies have offered highly creative inspiration for feature movies. This presentation will provide film history background on the art and characteristics of this sub-genre and attitudes regarding “exotic” views of Ancient Egyptian culture. Excerpts from movies will be shown. Excerpts of The Mummy (1932) with Boris Karloff shown. The entire 74 min movie may be shown contingent on paying an extra fee for performance rights.
Please contact Jeffrey Allison for details.
Caligula in Color
Briefly explore the life and reign of one of Rome’s most notorious emperors, Caligula! This talk will focus on new insights gleaned from a recent international symposium and research conducted on ancient coloration and the sculptural technique of a 1st-century sculpture of Caligula in the VMFA collection.
Available Feb 2013 – Jul 2014
Face Value: Portraiture in American Art
Portraiture in American art ranges from folk to classical and from realism to impressionism. Delve into these stylistic variances with a visual exploration of painted portraits of Americans by Americans. Explore works in significant portrait collections across America, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Pennsylvania Academy of Art. and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.
The Pursuit: Frederic Remington and the Buffalo Soldiers
Few artists are as closely associated with the American West as Frederic Remington (1861 – 1909). Best known for his illustrations, bronze sculptures, and paintings of cowboys, he also found a favorite subject in U.S. Cavalrymen, especially the hard-riding soldiers of the 9th and 10th Regiments, known also as Buffalo Soldiers. This lecture explores Remington’s images of these renowned African American regiments and, in particular, his striking canvas, The Pursuit(1896 – 98) in the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts’ collection.
“Loving Comrades”: Artists and Soldiers in Civil War America
This lecture explores the different ways American painters — from New York-based Winslow Homer to Richmond-based William D. Washington — responded to the divisive violence and moral discord of this country’s Civil War. It also addresses their career shifts in the immediate aftermath of war as its lingering effects led to different kinds of reconstruction.
Keeping Up Appearances: Art and Culture in the Edwardian Period
Experience the culture, art, and fashion of this sumptuous era as you take a journey on both sides of the Atlantic — from the castles and manors of landed lords in England to the estates and mansions of wealthy tycoons in America — to see how the “other half” lived.
Henry Box Brown: Famous Fugitive, Trans-Atlantic Performer
Henry Brown escaped from slavery by shipping himself in a box from Richmond to Philadelphia. This bold feat was only the first act of a remarkable career. “Resurrected” from the box as Henry Box Brown, he appeared at antislavery meetings as a singer and speaker. In 1850, Brown produced a moving panorama, a kind of giant painted scroll presented in a theater, called Mirror of Slavery and toured it around New England and then across the Atlantic. Trace this remarkable journey with Jeffrey Ruggles, former Curator of Prints and Photographs, Virginia Historical Society, and author of The Unboxing of Henry Brown, Library of Virginia, 2003.
Great Road Style: The Decorative Arts Legacy of Southwest Virginia
Travel down the Great Philadelphia Wagon Road on a cultural heritage discovery trip through Southwest Virginia & Northeast Tennessee. During this illustrated PowerPoint lecture, encounter the friendly country forms of pie safes and crazy quilts, colorful pottery decorated with dabs, splashes or cobalt blue flowers, high-style furniture made by a Philadelphia-trained cabinetmaker and beautiful wool and linen coverlets woven at home on large barn looms. Settled last in Virginia, this was the frontier and witness to a great migration of new Americans from Europe and the British Isles who poured down the Valley of Virginia during the last half of the 18th and first years of the 19th centuries. Artisans followed settlers and tradition combined with evolving market preference to create a lively mix of decorative arts that became Great Road Style.
An American Silence: Walker Evans and Edward Hopper
The photographer Walker Evans and painter Edward Hopper were part of the generation of American artists who tore themselves away from European ideals at the start of the 20th century. Join Jeffrey Allison as he explores these artists who celebrated America without filter focusing on common people in common lives and places. Within those scenes lie a powerful silence in which directness creates a visual anxiety as we wonder what has just happened and what will happen next.