‘Spindle and Shrine’By Susan Williams | |
 Archeologist Nancy Klein (above left) and curator Adriana Calinescu examine ancient Greek containers which will be part of the exhibit. Above right, gold siren pendant and gold tablet with spell; left, bronze mirror handle in the form of a siren. Opposite page bottom left, bronze statuette of Athena; above in text, plaque in the form of a shield; bottom right, painted bowl with woman spinning.
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Objects 21st-century museum browsers will admire in “The Spindle and the Shrine: Daily Life of Women in Classical Times,” a new exhibit that opens at the Indiana University Museum of Art in Bloomington on Saturday, Oct. 7, are at least 2,000 years old. So
me date back as far as 450-430 B.C.—an eternity ago—and yet, was the world of women in ancient Greece and Rome so very different from that of women today?
Show collaborators Adriana Calinescu, Thomas T. Solley Curator of Ancient Art at Indiana University, and Nancy Klein, visiting assistant professor of classical studies, believe the exhibit will bring thoughtful browsers to a better understanding of women in ancient life. Classical times represent a world in which women held priesthoods and organized their own festivals. They socialized outside the home and performed as mimes, jugglers, flute players and acrobats in broad forms of street entertainment. And yet, even with s ix of the 12 Olympic deities being women, Greece and Rome were exceedingly patriarchal cultures that believed the home was the center of a woman’s world. “The Spindle and the Shrine: Daily Life of Women in Classical Times” is organized into three thematic areas: “Goddesses, Monsters and Muses,” “Women in Public,” and “Women in Private,” which invite intriguing comparisons between women in the ancient world and women today. The exhibit juxtaposes items representing an artistic ideal of beauty—painted vases, silver libation bowls, bronze statuettes—with those of personal adornment in quest of an ideal—glass perfume bottles, cosmetic cases and golden pendants —and with those of daily household reality—a spindle for weaving, lighting devices, market weights and measures. In all, more than 250 pieces, many never displayed before, have been gathered for the exhibit, both from the museum’s impressive collection of ancient art, from selected pieces loaned from other museums and private collections, and from IU’s Department of Classical Studies. Several events have been scheduled to complement the exhibit, including lectures from IU faculty, and a noon talk, “Beauty Matters,” by Peg Zeglin Brand, assistant professor of gender studies and philosophy. The opening lecture, “What Greek Sculpture Can Tell Us about Women,” by Brunilde Sismondo Ridgway of Bryn Mawr College, will be Friday, Oct. 6, at 5:30 p.m. in the School of Fine Arts Auditorium, 015. Located on Seventh Street in Bloomington, the IU Art Museum is open Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. -5 p.m., and Sunday from noon-5 p.m. It is closed on Mondays and major holidays. All exhibits are free. For a complete list of exhibit events, including teachers’ and children’s workshops, visit the IU Art Museum’s Web site at: http://www.indiana.edu/~iuam |
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Publication date: September 29, 2000
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