Intimate Stories: Narrative in Ancient Visual Culture

Catalog description

Images tell stories that carry us to imaginary worlds. A story in pictures engages us deeply, opening the doors of fantastic places and times. In antiquity public monuments displayed visual narratives that animated public spaces, enthralled audiences and delivered state ideologies. This course involves reading narrative imagery from the Middle East and East Mediterranean including magical hunt scenes in prehistoric caves, political tales on Mesopotamian relief sculpture, visions of paradise in Egyptian tombs, Aegean frescoes and Assyrian reliefs of exotic landscapes. Using contemporary perspectives on art, we will explore the material power and everyday significance of pictorial representations as intimate spectacles. Enrollment limited to 19 first year students.