What is the role of the visual arts in establishing and sustaining heroic status through which societies define and articulate their values? By encouraging viewers to contemplate the conception of the hero in the visual arts across the centuries—from early Greek coins and pottery to nineteenth-century paintings and prints—the exhibition invites critical reflection on the potential for images to shape the narratives of communal identity of which they are a part.
This Teaching Gallery exhibition is curated by Susan Ludi Blevins, postdoctoral teaching fellow in the Department of Art History & Archaeology in Arts & Sciences, in conjunction with the courses “From Hercules to Harry Potter: Picturing Heroes in Ancient Greece, Rome, and Beyond” and “Roman Art and Archaeology” both offered in spring 2017.
