Art History Lecture | Decoding Portraits from Antiquity: Mesopotamia and Egypt | Presented by Katherine Schwab | Athenaeum Music & Arts Library | La Jolla (September 2)

Decoding Portraits from Antiquity: Mesopotamia and Egypt | Katherine Schwab Art History Lecture

Athenaeum Music & Arts Library
1008 Wall StreetLa Jolla, CA 92037

Tuesday, September 2, 2025
7:30 PM

How is power revealed? Kingship in portraiture is usually made with enduring materials such as bronze and stone that survive for millennia. Sargon, king of the Akkadian empire, is likely the subject of one of the finest and most costly bronze portraits from Mesopotamia. Through their royal workshops, rulers from Egypt established and controlled distinctive images in stone during the Old and New Kingdoms, perpetuating a youthful and virile image. While these were the standards, exceptions emerged during the Middle Kingdom and again during the succession of queens in the Amarna period of the New Kingdom, most notably with the presentation of the celebrated and beautiful Nefertiti. Beauty and high status, however, were not always the goals.

About Dr. Katherine A. Schwab:

Katherine Schwab received her BA from Scripps College, her MA from Southern Methodist University, and her PhD from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. She is Professor Emerita of Art History & Visual Culture at Fairfield University, former curator of the Plaster Cast Collection at the Fairfield University Art Museum (1991–2024) and was Founding Director of the Arts Institute established in 2023.

While specializing in ancient Greek art and archaeology, her research focuses on the Parthenon sculptural program. Scans of her metope drawings are permanently displayed in the Acropolis Museum. The original drawings formed a traveling exhibition in the United States from 2014 to 2018, including at the Timken Museum of Art. Her research extends to the Caryatid Hairstyling Project (film, 2009; exhibition Hairstyles of the Classical World, 2015) and historic plaster casts of ancient sculpture. Her drawings and photographs formed three separate exhibitions at the Greek Consulate General in New York City.

Schwab was a member of the Managing Committee of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens and returns annually to Athens for her research. Recently retired, she resides in San Diego and continues to conduct research in her focus areas.

Tickets: $16/21