Thursday, April 4 ■ 7:00 p.m.
Carnegie Community Room
St. Charles Public Library
Through the centuries and around the globe, artists have interpreted death and the afterlife in diverse and stunning ways. David Stark from the Department of Museum Education, the Art Institute of Chicago, will draw on striking illustrations from Egyptian tomb sculptures, ancient Chinese “spirit figures” and Greek funerary sculptures, all of which demonstrate how beliefs in life after death transcend time and geography. In later centuries, Christian depictions of souls at the time of the Last Judgment appear in medieval church sculptures and Renaissance altarpieces, culminating in Michelangelo’s “Last Judgment” fresco in the Sistine Chapel of the Vatican. This lecture will include works from the Art Institute of Chicago’s newly reinstalled galleries of Greek, Roman and Byzantine art, in addition to treasures from museums and historic sites around the world.
