Public Programs @ the Institute
Series: Ancient Seminar
Susanne Ebbinghaus, George M.A. Hanfmann Curator of Ancient Art and head, Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art, Harvard Art Museums
Approaching Celtic Art Across the Atlantic
Thursday, October 30, 2025, 6:30pm
In the Iron Age, Roman, and early medieval periods (c. 800 BCE to 1200 CE), people in central and western Europe created elaborate objects decorated in a series of interlinked styles that have come to be called Celtic art. As preserved, Celtic art mostly plays out on jewelry, arms and armor, horse trappings, chariot components, and feasting equipment. In early medieval times, it enhanced objects associated with the church. Planning the first major exhibition on Celtic art in the United States offers an opportunity to reflect on the ornament and function of these objects as well as their history of research, reception, and revival. What is the relevance of this topic on this side of the Atlantic, where Classical antiquity has tended to eclipse other early European pasts and popular views of the Celtic rarely go back to pre-medieval times?
Susanne Ebbinghaus is George M.A. Hanfmann Curator of Ancient Art and head, Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art, Harvard Art Museums. She oversaw the reinstallation of the museum’s ancient art galleries (2014) and has (co-)organized exhibitions on sculptural polychromy (2007), animal-shaped vessels (2018), and Egyptian funerary portraits (2022). She also edited a book on ancient bronzes (2014). With excavation experience at multiple sites, she now participates in the Archaeological Exploration of Sardis, Türkiye. She received M.Phil. and D.Phil. degrees from Oxford University.
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