Posted by vrcvanderbilt on Wednesday, February 14, 2018 in Events, HART, Lectures, News, VRC.

Although the Parthenon is the most famous building of the ancient Acropolis, the Erechtheion was the most sacred, housing multiple cult places and shrines. The famous Caryatid porch, which employed six statues of ideal maidens as architectural supports, is the most distinctive–and enigmatic–part of the building.

In an AIA lecture on Tuesday, February 20, at the Nashville Parthenon, Katherine Schwab, professor of visual and performing arts, Fairfield University, and Vanderbilt’s Mireille Lee, assistant professor of history of art, will analyze the hairstyles and dress of the caryatids themselves to help elucidate the ideological functions of the statues and the building as a whole. The presentation, “Classical Coiffures and Couture: Hairstyles and Dress of the Erechtheion Caryatids,” begins at 6 pm with a screening of a documentary produced by Schwab, in which she recreated the hairstyles of the caryatids using Fairfield student models. Following Schwab’s presentation, Lee will speak about the dress of the caryatids and their significance to the building as a whole.

Free and open to the public, this lecture is cosponsored by Humanities Tennessee, the Nashville Society of the Archaeological Institute of America, and The Conservancy for the Parthenon and Centennial Park. Those who plan to attend the AIA lecture are encouraged to call the Nashville Parthenon at 615.862.8431 to reserve a seat.