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Art Talk Live: Crying Fowl—The Scary Truth about Ancient Sirens

This small round clay vessel has a narrow opening at the top and a flat bottom. It is decorated with three figures in dark silhouette over a light background, showing a woman between two bearded sirens. Rosette ornaments fill the space between the figures.
The Otterlo Painter, Greek, Black-figure aryballos: Two heraldic bearded sirens with woman, c. 600–575 BCE. Terracotta. Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of Edward W. Forbes, 1950.162.

Gallery Talk

This event was recorded. Please view the talk here.

In this talk, curatorial fellow Frances Gallart Marqués will take a close look at small Greco-Roman objects that depict sirens: hybrid creatures that straddle the line between beast and human, fear and desire, and life and death.

Led by:
Frances Gallart Marqués, Frederick Randolph Grace Curatorial Fellow in Ancient Art, Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art

This free talk will take place online via Zoom. To join, follow this link: https://harvard.zoom.us/j/92249164811 (pre-registration not required).

For instructions on how to join a meeting in Zoom, please click here. If you have any questions, please contact am_register@harvard.edu.

Art Talks Live offer an up-close look at works from our collections with our team of curators, conservators, fellows, and graduate students. Presented live via Zoom on every other Thursday afternoon at 2pm, these short talks—along with our Art Talks video series—investigate artists’ materials and techniques, reveal our latest discoveries, offer a fresh look at old favorites, and explore big ideas using the collections of the Harvard Art Museums.

Please check our Harvard Art Museums from Home page for a full list of online programs and a rich array of digital content on offer while the museums are closed. Receive regular updates by subscribing to our newsletter, or follow us on Facebook and Instagram.