Spring 2024 Warnock: Doorscapes and Guardians of the Underworld: Block Museum - Northwestern University
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Spring 2024 Warnock: Doorscapes and Guardians of the Underworld

a wall with three Egyptian figures, two of whom have animal heads, and hieroglyphics surrounding
Egyptian demons from Tomb of Nefertari, New Kingdom, 19th Dynasty, reign of Ramesses II, ca. 1279-1213 BCE. Tomb of Nefertari (QV66), Valley of the Queens, West Thebes.
Conversations
May
22
5:00 PM-6:30 PM

Event Details

Date & Time:

Wed May 22, 2024
5:00 PM-6:30 PM

Location:

The Block Museum of Art
40 Arts Circle Drive
Evanston, IL 60208

Audience:

Open to the public

Details:

Doorscapes and Guardians of the Underworld: a comparative visual approach to the imagery of the ancient Egyptian and Etruscan demons

Spring 2024 Warnock Lecture, presented by the Department of Art History

 

In many religious cultures, ancient and modern, the otherworld is not an empty place. The ancient Egyptian and Etruscan depictions found in tombs show that access to the Beyond was guarded by divine beings that acted as agents of protection of the liminal spaces between this and the other worlds, or of the passages between different areas of the netherworld. In this lecture the demonic guardians and the landscapes within which they are imagined to be living are analyzed and compared by illustrating the worldviews and worldmaking of the ancient Egyptians and the Etruscans, and in relation to the symbology of gates and doors as places of judgment and protection.

Lecture: 5–6:30pm

Reception: 6:30–7:30pm

RSVP

Programs are open to all, on a first-come first-served basis. RSVPs are not required, but appreciated, as they help us anticipate attendance numbers.

 

About the Speaker:

Rita Lucarelli is Associate Professor of Egyptology in the Department of Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures, and Faculty Curator of Egyptology at the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology, University of California at Berkeley. Her numerous publications address ancient Egyptian demonology and the reception of ancient Egypt in the contemporary world, especially in Afrofuturism.'

Contact The Block Museum of Art for more information: (847) 491-4000 or email us at block-museum@northwestern.edu