Yet little is known about the people using the vases or the artisans who produced these remarkable works of art. Join archaeologist Thomas Carpenter on Thursday, March 5, 2015, at 7:30pm at the Villa Auditorium as he sheds light on the region’s native people in a talk examining the imagery on monumental vases from the 4th Century BC and the funerary assemblages in which they were found.
Richly decorated with complex imagery and narrative scenes, a number of the vases depict figures in local dress, indicating the distinctive ethnicity of the Apulians, while others draw upon Greek tragedies and point to a deep, sometimes abstruse, interest in Greek myths and theatre. Thomas Carpenter, a professor of classics at Ohio University specializing in Greek archaeology, religion, and iconography, and most recently co-editor of the book The Italic People of Ancient Apulia: New Evidence from Pottery for Workshops, Markets, and Customs, will speak to the ways in which these large figure-decorated vases served as proud statements of identity.
This lecture complements the exhibition Dangerous Perfection: Funerary Vases from Southern Italy, featuring thirteen of these elaborately decorated Apulian vases, on view at the Getty Villa through May 11, 2015.
Tickets are free, but a reservation is required. Reserve online or by calling (310) 440-7300.