The Silk Road and Beyond: Travel, Trade, and Transformation

The center of a vast network of trade joining East and West, Venice has gone from the hardworking commercial capital of a large empire to a city of dreams. Although the city was built on islands and canals for protection, its relationship to the sea has influenced its art in complex ways. Trade in luxury goods created vast wealth and encouraged sumptuous styles of painting, sculpture, architecture, and decorative arts that came to be regarded as specifically Venetian. In this special seminar on May 19 at 10:00, three distinguished scholars of Venetian art and culture explore the relationship between Venice and the cultures of the Silk Road.

This seminar features Patricia Fortini Brown, Department of Art and Archaeology, Princeton University; Stefano Carboni, curator of Islamic art, Metropolitan Museum of Art; and Julian Raby, lecturer in Islamic art and architecture, St. Hugh's College.

Reservations: Required
Event Code: EAIL0519

Zal Courting Rudabah Leaf from a Shahnama. Persia, c. 1580. Gift of Ann McNear.