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Ovid over Lunch (Part I)

In a detail of a Renaissance painting, the figure of Daphne flees her pursuer Apollo, looking back over her shoulder. Her arms are raised above her head, in the process of transforming into the branches of a laurel tree.

April 22, 2021
12:00 PM


Take a poetic trek through ancient Roman poet Ovid’s Metamorphoses and the Smart Museum’s exhibition Lust, Love, and Loss in Renaissance Europe. 

Presented in collaboration with the Poetry Foundation, this two-part lunchtime series takes us into the strange and oddly familiar world of human relationships in ancient Rome and Renaissance Europe. Together, we’ll investigate themes of trauma, transformation, and love through the lens of Ovid’s poetry. 


FREE. To help build a community of participants, capacity is limited and advanced registrations is required. You are welcome to attend one or both sessions.


Schedule

Part I: Poetry Workshop
Thursday, April 22, noon

Join Maggie Queeney and Dorian Nash for a lunchtime reading and discussion of excerpts of Ovid’s poetry alongside a contemporary poem influenced by Metamorphoses. Then, we will write our own poems exploring our connections to myth and transformation. 


Part II: Drawing Workshop
Thursday, April 29, noon

Join Erik Peterson for a lunchtime session that includes readings from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, a drawing workshop, and a hands-on art project that celebrates the transformations of Spring.


Asynchronous offering

On your own time, stream a conversation between exhibition curator Nora S. Lambert and Dorian H. Nash. This virtual tour explores the various ways in which artworks in Lust, Love, and Loss in Renaissance Europe draw on literary sources including Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Boccaccio’s Decameron, and the Bible.


Image: Master of the Apollo and Daphne Legend, Daphne Fleeing from Apollo (detail), c. 1500, Oil, formerly on panel, transferred to canvas. Smart Museum of Art, The University of Chicago, Gift of the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, 1973.45.