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Member Lecture: Myth and Marble—Ancient Roman Sculpture from the Torlonia Collection

Fri, Mar 14 | 1:00–2:00

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Statue of Cupid and Psyche (MT 174), second half of 2nd century CE


Roman, Imperial Period. Torlonia Collection. © Torlonia Foundation. Photo by Lorenzo De Masi

From large-scale figures of gods and goddesses to portraits of emperors and magnificent funerary monuments, this exhibition brings to North America, for the first time, a selection of 58 rarely seen ancient Roman sculptures from Italy’s storied Torlonia Collection.

Nearly half of these sculptures, which range in date from the 5th century BCE to the early 4th century CE, have been newly cleaned, conserved, and studied specifically for this exhibition, offering a rare opportunity to experience their first public presentation in decades.  

Join exhibition co-curator Katharine A. Raff for an exclusive overview of this historic show.

About the Speaker

Katharine Raff, a light-skinned woman with red hair, stands near a stone banister in a black suit and green shirt.

Katharine A. Raff is the Elizabeth McIlvaine Curator, Arts of Greece, Rome, and Byzantium at the Art Institute of Chicago, where she has worked since 2011. Her research focuses on ancient Roman art, with a particular emphasis on sculpture, including portraits, ideal sculptures, and funerary monuments, and the contexts in which such objects were made, used, and viewed over time. 

Her recent projects include the reinstallation of the Art Institute’s permanent gallery of Roman art (2024); and Collecting Stories (2019), an installation on ancient artworks and their modern afterlives. Katharine was the editor and primary author of the 2017 digital scholarly catalogue Roman Art at the Art Institute of Chicago (2017), and she has also published on the museum’s holdings in Greek, Etruscan, and Byzantine art. She holds a PhD from the University of Michigan and has received fellowships from the United States Fulbright Program and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

If you have any questions about programming, please reach out to museum-programs@artic.edu.

Closed captioning will be available for this program. For questions related to accessibility accommodations, please email access@artic.edu.

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