Capturing Persepolis—From the Camera to the Canvas

The ancient Achaemenid city of Persepolis in southwestern Iran has long fascinated the minds and memories of visitors to the site. Whether foreign dignitaries visiting the king in antiquity, early modern explorers, or photographers, artists, and archaeologists of the recent centuries, each have viewed the monumental great terrace, grand columned halls, and masterful sculptural program through a unique lens. Three such perspectives are preserved in the collection of the OI Museum: the nineteenth-century albumen prints of the Armenian-Iranian photographer Antoin Sevruguin, the twentieth-century photographs of the OI’s Persian Expedition in Iran, and the paintings of the American artist Joseph Lindon Smith, commissioned by James Henry Breasted in 1935. Join us for our July Gallery Talk, led by Kiersten Neumann, OI Museum curator, as we explore the ways in which Persepolis has been experienced and captured throughout the ages.

Links to this live Zoom will be sent to all registrants closer to the event date.