Please do not reply to me; I am only the messenger.  (RSVP details below.)

Marta Zlotnick

Registrar

Dumbarton Oaks

 

 

A Roman Holiday at Dumbarton Oaks

Sunday, April 26, 2009

 

Dumbarton Oaks has an area of studies and an art collection for Byzantine rather than Roman, but the two cultures were intimately related. Constantinople was sometimes styled the New Rome, and the Byzantines were often called Romans by their neighbors.

 

Spring is the season for a Roman holiday. Beatrix Farrand, who designed much of the famous gardens at Dumbarton Oaks, incorporated a Roman touch in the form of an amphitheater. In a spring spirit, Dumbarton Oaks is pleased to offer visitors something more fleeting: one afternoon in which to hear about Rome.

 

Our mini-symposium will comprise two talks, both illustrated. One, by Kathleen Coleman, Professor of Latin at Harvard University, will be on Orchestrated Violence: The Role of Music in the Roman Amphitheatre.  Professor Coleman, beyond having produced invaluable commentaries on Statius and Martial, has lectured and written widely on Roman spectacle, particularly in amphitheaters and arenas. Her presentation will include a musical illustration.

 

The other talk, by Ruth Bielfeldt, Assistant Professor of History of Art and Architecture at Harvard and author of a recent book on Orestes on Roman sarcophagi, will be entitled Blinks of Light Rays of Perception: Roman Lamps as Agents of Light and Life. Dumbarton Oaks, which published recently a book on Lighting in Early Byzantium, will have a temporary exhibition to show how brightly the lamp of scholarship burns in Georgetown.      

 

PROGRAM

 

12:00   Garden Tour: Lover’s Lane Pool / Museum Galleries Open

 

1:30     Introduction by Dumbarton Oaks   Director, Jan Ziolkowski

 

1:45     Ruth Bielfeldt, Assistant Professor of History of Art and Architecture, Harvard University, “Blinks of Light, Rays of Perception: Roman Lamps as Agents of Light and Life”

 

2:45     Coffee Break

 

3:15     Kathleen Coleman, Professor of Latin at Harvard University, “Orchestrated Violence: The Role of Music in the Roman Amphitheatre”

 

4:15     Wine and Cheese Reception

 

Event is free.  Please RSVP to [log in to unmask]

Questions?  Email [log in to unmask] or call 202-339-6984.

 

Dumbarton Oaks

1703 32^nd Street NW

Washington, DC 20007

www.doaks.org