"Victories, Orbs, & Angels: Byzantine Coins from the Collection" at UR Museums

Location:
28 Westhampton Way
University of Richmond, VA 23173

Note:
On view from January 30 through November 15, 2009, in the Lora Robins Gallery of Design from Nature. On display are more than twenty-five coins from the museum's permanent collection that demonstrate how Roman pagan motifs were adopted on bronze and gold Byzantine Christian coins from the beginning of the fifth century to the eleventh century. The Byzantine Empire ruled over various areas surrounding the Mediterranean Sea from the fall of Rome in 476 until 1453 when the Ottoman Turks conquered the capital Constantinople, which is now Istanbul. Early Byzantine Christian emperors, who ruled under the conviction that they were manifesting God's will to unify His people, inherited a general population that was largely illiterate, pagan, and did not speak the same language as society's elite. As a ubiquitous currency amongst all classes, coins became the perfect means for emperors to not only promote Christianity but to emphasize their divine authority. The coins in Victories, Orbs, & Angels show the adaptation of Roman pagan symbols into Christian motifs. Programming Thursday, January 29, 2009, 7 to 9 p.m.
7 p.m., Lecture, - "The Appropriation of Pagan Roman Motifs in Christian Byzantine Coinage" by Kelly Hughes, '09, art history and classical civilization double major, University of Richmond,
and the 2008-2009 Collections Assistant, University Museums, and curator of the exhibition 8 to 9 p.m., Reception and preview of Victories, Orbs, & Angels: Byzantine Coins from the Collection - Lora Robins Gallery of Design from Nature Tuesday, February 10, 2009, 6 to 7 p.m. Lecture, Brown Alley Room, Weinstein Hall
"Collecting Medieval Art in America: William Randolph Hearst and The Metropolitan Museum of Art"
Christine E. Brennan, Collections Manager, The Department of Medieval Art and The Cloisters, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York