ÁñÁ«ÊÓÆµ

Flora et Fauna: Nature in Ancient Mediterranean Art and Culture

Museum of Art Museum of Art

Exhibition: Flora et Fauna: Nature in Ancient Mediterranean Art and Culture

A ornate pottery vase shaped like a ram's head

Dates:

March 06, 2025 - March 07, 2026

Location:

Walker Gallery
Featuring works from the collection of the ÁñÁ«ÊÓÆµ Museum of Art spanning nearly two thousand years —from approximately 1300 BCE to 400 CE—Flora et Fauna examines how ancient Mediterranean societies understood and depicted the natural world. Illustrations of nature and local environments came to define the identities of many cultures, serving as symbols, decorative designs, and stand-ins for gods. Nature also inspired the imagination to create exotic animals and plants that became part of ancient mythologies. This exhibition explores how flora and fauna sustained societies and were passed both literally, through cultivated plants, pets, and livestock, and figuratively, through the development of pictorial imagery, from one culture to another.
This exhibition is curated by Professor James Higginbotham, Associate Professor of Classics on the Henry Johnson Professorship Fund and Associate Curator for the Ancient Collection.