Opening Celebration—Animal-Shaped Vessels from the Ancient World: Feasting with Gods, Heroes, and Kings


Join us to celebrate the opening of our latest special exhibition, Animal-Shaped Vessels from the Ancient World: Feasting with Gods, Heroes, and Kings, on view September 7, 2018 through January 6, 2019.

The exhibition brings together nearly 60 elaborate vessels of animal shape from collections in the United States and Europe. While the songs, speeches, and prayers that enlivened ancient feasts are now largely lost to us, these vessels have survived, offering a glimpse into the rich symbolism and communal practices that found expression in the multifaceted world of feasting.

Following an introduction to the exhibition by curator Susanne Ebbinghaus, professor Michael Dietler (University of Chicago) will lecture on the highly valued and universal role played by alcohol over millennia—and by the highly imaginative containers used to enjoy this “liquid material culture.”

Thursday, September 6, 2018

Open Galleries 5–9pm
Lecture 6pm

   

 

Harvard Art Museums
Menschel Hall
32 Quincy Street
Cambridge, MA

 
 

#partyanimals

 

The opening celebration is free and open to the public, but tickets to the lecture are required. Tickets are available beginning at noon on Wednesday, August 29, at the Harvard Box Office, located in Farkas Hall, 10-12 Holyoke Street, Cambridge. Tickets may be picked up in person or reserved online or by phone for a small processing fee. Limit of two tickets per person.

Complimentary parking available in the Broadway Garage, 7 Felton Street, Cambridge.

 

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.

Crucial support for the 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.

Image: Rhyton with the forepart of a griffin, Achaemenid, 5th–4th century BCE. Silver, partially gilded. The British Museum, London, Bequeathed by Sir Augustus Wollaston Franks, 1897,1231.178 (124081). © The Trustees of the British Museum. All rights reserved.



 
           
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