A photo of a fragment of the satyr's frieze bowl

Fragment of the satyr’s frieze bowl, once in the collection of Ernst Herzfeld, today in Basel, Antikensammlung Picture credit: photo by Gunvor Lindström

Greek Art from Hellenistic Persia

A Journey Through Art, Collecting, and Politics

Gunvor Lindström

ISAW Visiting Research Scholar

This lecture will take place in person at ISAW.

Registration is required at THIS LINK.

In her lecture, Gunvor Lindström presents her book project, conducted during her stay at ISAW. She takes as her starting point a large stone bowl decorated with satyr's frieze from Denavar in Iran, which she has reconstructed from fragments scattered across museums and collections on three continents. Through the biographies of the fragments and the famous scholars and connoisseurs who incorporated them into their collections, she embarks on a varied journey through the art history and historiography of Hellenistic and Parthian art. This journey also explores 19th-century decorative arts and museum presentations, ultimately navigating the political history from the First to the end of the Second World War.

Gunvor Lindström is a Visiting Research Scholar at ISAW for the 2024-25 academic year. A Classical Archaeologist with a focus on Hellenism in the Ancient East, she has led significant research projects in Central Asia, Iran, and Mesopotamia, specializing in the Achaemenid, Hellenistic, and Parthian periods. She earned her Ph.D. from the Free University of Berlin with a dissertation on seals from Hellenistic Uruk and joined the German Archaeological Institute (DAI) in 2004. At DAI, she directed notable projects, including the excavation of a Hellenistic sanctuary at Torbulok in Tajikistan and studies of statues from Kale-e Chendar/Shami in Khuzestan. Dr. Lindström is also committed to public outreach, having curated the exhibition Alexander the Great and the Opening of the World, which toured Europe in 2009-2010. She has served as the speaker of the "Sanctuaries" research cluster at DAI and is a committee member of the Hellenistic Central Asia Research Network (HCARN).

The lecture will be followed by a reception.

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