Please join the Department of Art & Art History in welcoming Professor Steven Tuck (Classics and Art History, Miami University of Ohio).
He will present the annual Ruffin Lecture in the Fine Arts this Thursday, February 7, at 6PM in Frazier Jelke B.
Tuck will be speaking about the grotto of the Roman emperor Tiberius at Sperlonga, south of Rome.
It was a cave turned into an elaborate and unique “banquet hall,” filled with sculptures depicting scenes from the Odyssey, including the blinding of Polyphemus and Scylla attacking Odysseus’ ship. These statues are colossal—think minivan-sized or larger.
As the cave was only discovered and excavated in the 1950s, the sculpture and the related dining space and villa are quite open for interpretation.
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| Reconstruction of the Polyphemus group from the Sperlonga grotto |