Tagged: Art

The Saxophone and ‘The Odyssey’

Relating to the study of The Odyssey by CC101 every fall, here is an interesting fact: great saxophonist Chris Potter draws inspiration from the Greek epic for his music. In the article discussing the matter, Potter is quoted as saying: I read it [the Odyssey] in high school and thought it was cool but didn’t […]

Festina Lente: ‘Conserving Antiquity’ Exhibition

  From January 30 – July 7, 2013, the upcoming Festina Lente exhibition will offer an unconventional behind-the-scenes opportunity to survey the Greek and Roman holdings in the Davis Museum’s permanent collections. Featuring vases and vessels of all sorts and designs, relief portraits and standing figures, mosaics, coins and jewelry, human and animal forms, the scope of […]

‘Writers and Artists at Harvard’ by Helen Dendler

This month’s issue of Harvard Magazine features an essay by Porter University Professor Helen Vendler, about how important it is to understand, attract, and evaluate applicants whose creative talents might otherwise be overlooked. This is relevant to all universities, including Boston University, and it relates to the principles of the Core Curriculum. Here is an […]

Six Quotes: Kleiner on the Acropolis

“When you go into the Acropolis, why are all the great buildings off to the left? In the archaic day there was the greatest temple erected right before you. This was the temple the Persians burned down and which prompted Pericles and the Athenians to rebuild.” “Despite the agony on the centaur’s face, the whole […]

Analects of the Core: Hawthorne on the burden of the past

Yesterday I went out at about twelve, and visited the British Museum; an exceedingly tiresome affair. It quite crushes a person to see so much at once; and I wandered from hall to hall with a weary and heavy heart, wishing (Heaven forgive me!) that the Elgin marbles and the frieze of the Parthenon were […]

Analects of the Core: Emerson on manners and early Greek art

There are men whose manners have the same essential splendor as the simple and awful sculpture on the friezes of the Parthenon, and the remains of the earliest Greek art. — Ralph Waldo Emerson

BPL trip rescheduled

Due to a scheduling conflict, the Core in the City trip to the Boston Public Library, meant to take place tomorrow afternoon (Friday) has been postponed tor Tuesday, October 4th, from 5-7 PM. If you’d like to attend, please RSVP directly to Prof. Lockwood at  tlock@bu.edu. The tour will meet in the Core office, CAS 119, […]

Layers upon Layers

All works of art are built from the works that have preceded them, in a series of creative reinterpretations that allow artists to explore new possibilities. As Core scholars, we are familiar with this flow of creation, but this week it took on a more literal meaning when the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam found a new […]

Analects of the Core: Assyrian bas relief

Today’s visual Analect is an Assyrian bas relief from the collection of the Bowdoin College Museum of Art, in Brunswick, Maine: “Winged Figured with Embroidered Tunic and Shawl”, from Northwest Palace, Nimrud, Iraq. Gypsum, 90 9/16 x 58 13/16 x 6 7/16″, 883-859 BC. Gift of Dr. Henri B. Haskell M 1855 (1860.2). Students may […]

Peter Hawkins on Birk’s Dante

Prof. Kyna Hamill writes… On Wednesday, March 7, the Core welcomed Prof. Peter Hawkins of Yale Divinity School for a talk about Sandow Birk’s modern illustrations (2004) of Dante’s Commedia. Hawkins’ lecture was the last of a four-part series on “Insight and Inspiration,” in which speakers explored instances where themes from the Core texts can […]