Lecture
Lady Hamilton, Naples, and Neoclassical Fashion in the Eighteenth Century
Amelia Rauser, Professor of Art History, Franklin & Marshall College
This talk will explore how the heady atmosphere of eighteenth-century Naples fueled the fashion for neoclassicism, including the high-waisted white dresses that became fashionable in the 1790s. The tableaux vivants or “attitudes” that Emma Hamilton performed for visiting artists and dignitaries in Naples ignited a longing for an embodied, even libidinal neoclassicism quite different from the cold formalism we might now associate with the style. Sponsored by the Custard Institute for Spanish Art & Culture. Seating is limited, advance registration required.
$10; free for members, SMU faculty/staff/students, and other non-SMU faculty/staff/students
Gallery Talk
The Legacy of Vesuvius: Bourbon Discoveries on the Bay of Naples
November 8, 2024 @ 12:15 pm – 1:00 pm CST
Free – $12
Meadows Museum gallery talks feature art research and perspectives from local guest speakers. Today’s presenters are P. Gregory Warden, Mark A. Roglán Director of the Custard Institute for Spanish Art and Culture, Meadows Museum, and Agnieszka Anna Ficek, Custard Institute Postdoctoral Fellow, Meadows Museum.
The program is free with regular museum admission: $12 for adults, $10 for seniors 65 and over, $4 for non-SMU students, free for members, free for youth under 18*
*Free museum admission for youth 18 and under is made possible by a grant from Fichtenbaum Charitable Trust, Bank of America, N.A., Co-Trustee.
Lecture
Double Lecture on New and Old Discoveries at Herculaneum
November 14, 2024 @ 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm CST
In this double lecture, sponsored by the Custard Institute for Spanish Art & Culture, we delve into the discoveries at the ancient site of Herculaneum.
Kenneth Lapatin, Associate Curator of Antiquities, J. Paul Getty Museum
“The Villa dei Papiri at Herculaneum: Early Excavations and New Discoveries”
Since it was first explored in the eighteenth century by work crews under the direction of a Swiss military engineer employed by the Bourbon king of Naples, the so-called Villa of the Papyri at Herculaneum has yielded more sculpture than any other private residence from classical antiquity, as well as frescoes, ivories, and its famed library of papyrus scrolls. This presentation surveys the history of the excavations and the finds recovered, from the 1750s up to the present day, when cutting-edge technologies like laser scans, machine learning, and artificial intelligence are enhancing our knowledge about this extraordinary Roman luxury villa and its inhabitants.
Brent Seales, The Stan and Karen Pigman Chair of Heritage Science, Professor of Computer Science, University of Kentucky
“Unlost: Recovering the Text of the Unopenable Herculaneum Scrolls”
The Herculaneum papyrus scrolls, buried and carbonized by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE and excavated in the eighteenth century, preserve classical texts from the shelves of the only library to have survived from antiquity. In 1999 attempts to unwrap them were permanently halted, leaving more than four hundred scrolls still unopened. However, recent advances in high-energy physics and artificial intelligence have made it possible to read these ancient texts for the first time in two thousand years, rendering them “unlost.”
Sponsored by the Custard Institute for Spanish Art & Culture. Seating is limited, advance registration required.
$10; free for members, SMU faculty/staff/students, and other non-SMU faculty/staff/students
Lecture
An Eruptive History of Mount Somma-Vesuvius
December 5, 2024 @ 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm CST
Heather DeShon, Professor of Earth Sciences, SMU
The 79 CE eruption of Mount Vesuvius continues to capture our imaginations, but modern Vesuvius is only the tip of a more complex volcanic region with its own rich earth history. This talk provides an overview of the evolution of hazard and the ongoing risk associated with the Mount Somma-Vesuvius volcanic system, placing the 79 AD eruption within its longer geological history that extends to this day. Sponsored by the Custard Institute for Spanish Art & Culture. Seating is limited, advance registration required.
$10; free for members, SMU faculty/staff/students, and other non-SMU faculty/staff/students
