Faustina the Elder, 2nd century
C.E.
If the Roman senate had had its way and if the emperor Antoninus Pius had not declined so modestly, the months of September and October would have been named after him and his wife Faustina. It is never too late for commemorations, however, and this fall Faustina will be celebrated in a special exhibition titled The Moon and the Stars: Afterlife of a Roman Empress, at the Mount Holyoke College Art Museum. An opening reception, to be held at the museum on September 30, from 8 to 9:30 pm, will feature toga-optional dress. The show will continue through December.
A spectacular over-lifesize marble head of Faustina--with her distinctive braided hairstyle--will be the focus of this exhibition, the second in a series designed to highlight objects in the museum's collection. The Moon and the Stars examines the ritual, social, and political values embodied in Faustina's form, asking how the memory of public women is shaped by those who are left behind and what roles these female images serve.
As cocurators, Bettina Bergmann and I worked closely with students to investigate the depictions of ancient women, and how Faustina in particular became a powerful persona whose influence persisted long after her death. One of the most admired of all empresses, Faustina died in 141 CE, only two years into Antoninus's reign. She was accorded a grand funeral and was immediately promoted to the status of diva, or goddess. Paradoxically, her image "came to life" at her death. The emperor's devotion to his late wife resulted in an unprecedented number of coin issues, architectural dedications, and portraits in various media.
A third of the more than sixty objects in the show are drawn from the museum's collection and include several new acquisitions on view for the first time. Among the loans are a dramatic marble head of Antoninus Pius from Bowdoin College, a third-century bust of a woman made of precious stone from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, marble portraits of women from the collection of Jacqueline Miller Rosenthal '71 and her family, an Italian Renaissance maiolica plate, and a spectacular Roman necklace with coins of Faustina and others. Altogether, it's an impressive array of works of art that teach, inspire, and dazzle the eye.
In an adjacent gallery, visitors can see a videotape commissioned especially for the exhibition that demonstrates the re-creation of Faustina's coiffure by a New York stylist, an undertaking that produced insights into the way her hairstyle was actually done as well as the challenges faced by sculptors interpreting it in stone. New studies about Roman hairstyles have revealed a great deal about both trends in fashion and more subtle (and often political) implications of male and female coiffures.
This newly acquired portrait of Faustina seems to have found a natural home here at Mount Holyoke College, representing as she did (and does) the image of a powerful
woman who exerted a lasting impact on history and culture. In what may have been a prescient moment in 1846, Mary Lyon wrote of the "intelligence, energy, and enterprise" of the determined young women she was dedicated to educating: "I would rather have a lady of hard marble than one of soap-stone."
In conjunction with The Moon and the Stars: Afterlife of a Roman Empress, Elizabeth Bartman, an independent scholar who lectures and writes on topics of Roman art, will deliver this year's Amy M. Sacker Memorial Lecture on September 30 at 7 pm in Gamble Auditorium. Her topic is "How to Read a Roman Female Portrait."
Wendy Watson, curator of the Mount Holyoke College Art Museum, authored this article.
Leandro Soto created The Soul of
Coffee in celebration of the library's new cafe.
Many of us have childhood memories of librarians who seemed to relish putting a finger to their lips and saying, "Shush!" Susan Perry, MHC director of library information and technology services, and her staff certainly defy the librarian stereotype--by encouraging discussion, relaxing (and during exams, even sleeping), and eating (if one is neat) in the library.
If you go to the library now, you will even see a striking art installation--with video and sound--on view in the atrium. Perry--working with students, faculty, and staff from dining services and buildings and grounds--has gone even further, creating a library cafe. An opening reception, to be held Tuesday, September 28, from 4 to 5 pm, will include an artist's talk by Leandro Soto, who created the art installation in honor of the cafe.
Several years ago, some students came to Susan Perry requesting that she introduce a study area where food could be served. At the time, there was no space to create such an area, but Perry kept the idea in the back of her mind. She began noticing that other colleges and universities were introducing successful combination study/eating places in their libraries. In January, John Lemly, English professor and theatre department chair, and Leandro Soto, visiting artist/lecturer, approached Perry about having an art installation by Soto in the library. Their visit coincided with suggestions from many parties that the library finally try a coffeehouse. Soto saw a link between the cafe and an installation to Obbatala, one of the Afro-Cuban deities (orishas) whom he has been incorporating into his recent works. An art installation and a cafewere born.
For one thing, space had become available when the reserves were moved to the circulation area. The former reserve room, Perry decided, would make an ideal space for a group study area with food, and she decided to give the cafe a one-year trial. Dining services is staffing the cafe, which will be open for snacks and study weekdays from 3 to 5:30 pm and from 7 to 9:30 pm. During other regular library hours, the cafe space will be available for group study and discussion only. For starters, the cafe will serve Starbucks coffee, Tazo teas, assorted soft drinks, juices, biscotti, fresh-baked cookies, and packaged snacks.
Soto is hoping to have an Afro-Cuban musical group perform at the opening, during which he will also discuss his installation. The work was created to mark the beginning of the academic year as a welcome to "new energies," according to its creator. It includes many discarded library books; drawings in ink on rice paper; used coffee bags; video; a little cabinet, which is full of things such as cigars, white toys, pencils, and pictures from Havana University; and a picture of Inmaculada (the Virgin Mary).
"All objects and materials belong to American culture, but have been converted into new metaphors," according to Soto. "I force myself to use only objects that I encounter in the United States as part of the concept of integration of cultures. My intent is to blend the traditional Afro-Cuban culture of my distant homeland with the more immediate objects and iconography of my present life. This is connected with emigration, diaspora, and exile." A native of Cuba, Soto is an internationally acclaimed artist and designer. Afro-Cuban mythology continues to occupy a central place in Soto's art, and his mixed-media work is an offering to Obbatala, the Afro-Cuban god of white things, such as snow, who rules libraries, universities, and temples.
"To Susan Perry's credit, she has encouraged the library--through performances, receptions, and exhibits-- to be more genuinely 'lived-in,' says Lemly. "That makes the life of the mind, reading, less set apart--less reserved for a 'sanctuary-like' library."
The Ionian Singers, a thirty-member British a cappella group, will make its United States debut at Mount Holyoke's Abbey Chapel on the evening of Saturday, September 25. The event is part of the Massachusetts International Festival of the Arts (MIFA) 1999 - 2000, for which MHC serves as a venue. According to Richard Dyer of the Boston Globe, "The Massachusetts International Festival of the Arts specializes in bringing attractions to central Massachusetts that you would be more likely to encounter in a small high-class European festival than in even a major American cultural center like Boston."
Under conductor Timothy Salter, the acclaimed chamber choir performs widely in Great Britain and Europe for festivals and music societies and regularly undertakes overseas tours. For its first appearance in the United States, the group will sing period and contemporary Renaissance-style music, performing selections by Renaissance composers William Byrd, Thomas Morely, and Thomas Tomkins, as well as English folk song arrangements by Salter and several contemporary works in the Renaissance tradition. The choir typically seeks out a less familiar repertoire, performing and recording a substantial amount of music that is unavailable elsewhere. Musical director Timothy Salter is a composer, conductor, and pianist who teaches at London's Royal College of Music. His compositions include instrumental, chamber, orchestral, and choral music. Recordings by the Ionian Singers have received critical acclaim.
Tickets for the September 25 concert are $5 for students and those eighteen and under, $15 for general audiences. Senior citizens receive a 10 percent discount at the Mullins Center box office at UMass. Tickets may be purchased at the Mullins Center box office, through Ticketmaster (413-733-2500), and at Mount Holyoke starting two hours prior to the show.
The MIFA Mount Holyoke series will also feature a lecture titled "Trouble in River City: Petersburg and the Clash of Traditions in Queen of Spades" by David Shengold (October 7); a concert by Irakere, Cuba's leading jazz ensemble (November 7); performances of God Smells Like a Roast Pig, a one-women play written and performed by Melinda Lopez (February 23 - 26); and performances of Chaos, a science fiction opera by Michael Gordon and Matthew McGuire (March 8 - 11).
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