Parthenon North Metope 24
© K.A. Schwab

Wednesday, October 18, 2023

7:30 PM

The Athenaeum is excited to present Dr. Katherine Schwab, an expert in the authentic aesthetics and representations of ancient Greek sculpture. In her lecture, which begins at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, October 18, Schwab will explore the evidence for color on ancient Greek sculpture and the use of both new and old technologies to aid our understanding of their original polychromatic appearance.

The loss of original paint has skewed our cultural memory of all Greek statuary. After a brief review of select antique examples, Schwab will focus on a few of the original Parthenon metopes. These 92 carved metopes, or marble panels, displayed major mythological battles prominently positioned above the Doric columns on all four sides of the Parthenon. Schwab says that new discoveries have led to a position to better understand these nearly life-sized compositions that formed the public face of Athena’s temple on the Athenian Acropolis. These technical achievements will be shown in her drawings and through virtual reality.

Schwab is a professor of art history & visual culture in the Department of Visual and Performing Arts at Fairfield University in Connecticut. She is also Director of the Classical Studies Program, Curator of the Plaster Cast Collection for the art museum and Founding Director of the Arts Institute at Fairfield. She received her BA from Scripps College, MA from Southern Methodist University, and PhD from the Institute of Fine Arts/New York University.

A specialist in ancient Greek art and archaeology, her research focuses on the Parthenon sculptural program, especially the metopes. Scans of her metope drawings are on permanent display in the Acropolis Museum in Athens A nationwide traveling exhibition of her original graphite drawings, An Archaeologist’s Eye: The Parthenon Drawings of Katherine A. Schwab, (2014–2018), was organized by the Fairfield University Art Museum, Creighton University, and the Timken Museum in San Diego. Her publications appear in journal articles and multi-authored volumes. She was an expert consultant on a new virtual reconstruction of ancient Athens. A selection of her graphite drawings is available in a limited-edition print series.

Schwab’s other primary scholarly interest is the meaning and function of ancient hairstyles worn by the Caryatids of Erechtheion temple on the Athenian Acropolis. With students as her models for hairstylists who arranged their hair according to the Caryatids’ look, she directed a film, The Caryatid Hairstyling Project (2009), which led to a textural collaboration with her colleague Dr. Marice Rose as well as an exhibition, Hair in the Classical World, at the Fairfield University Art Museum (2015).

Tickets: $15/20/5

The lecture will be in person at the Athenaeum Music & Arts Library. There are no physical tickets for this event. Your name will be on an attendee list at the front door. Doors open at 7 p.m. Seating is first-come; first-served. This event will be presented in compliance with State of California and County of San Diego health regulations as applicable at the time of the lecture.

Masks optional. If you have a fever, cough, or flu-like symptoms, please stay home.