Reading Between Word and Image Lecture Series: “The Sacred Art of Ethiopia” with Gary Vikan
Monday April 4, 2016
The Program in Scripture and the Arts is proud to present the third and final speaker in its 2015-2016 speaker series, Gary Vikan speaking on “The Sacred Art of Ethiopia.” Professor Vikan, the Benedict Distinguished Visiting Professor at Carleton College, was also the director of the Walters Art Museum for 18 years and brings a wide range of expertise to his brief visit to Boston University. Professor Vikan will engage with how Ethiopian Christian art is distinctive from that of Byzantium and “western” Christianity in style and iconography as well as in the ritual of its use, how Jesus has been understood and portrayed in Ethiopia, and who the great Ethiopian artist Fere Seyon was in this context. He will discuss the history and character of Ethiopian Christian art—icons, manuscripts, and crosses—from its first tentative appearance on fourth-century coinage to the eighteenth century. The lecture will draw heavily on objects in the Walters Art Museum collection in Baltimore, which is the finest of its kind outside of Ethiopia, but will also address other works, including the great “Holy Land” architectural complex at Lalibela.
Co-Sponsored by the Boston University Center for the Humanities.
Free and Open to the Public with reception to follow
When: Monday April 4, 2016 at 5:30 pm, lecture with reception to follow
Location: 147 Bay State Road, The Boston University Judaic Studies Center, room 201
Transportation: Closest T stop is the B Line on the Green Line at Blandford St.
Closest public parking lot is at 665 Commonwealth Ave, at the corner of Granby St. and Commonwealth.