Those who have seen The Ivory Mirror: The Art of Mortality in Renaissance Europe are well acquainted with a startlingly macabre array of images of death and decay. The upcoming symposium held in conjunction with The Ivory Mirror, “Last Things: Luxury Goods and Memento Mori Culture in Europe, ca. 1400-1550,” is organized by guest curator Stephen Perkinson, Peter M. Small Associate Professor of Art History, and offers an opportunity to explore more fully this lesser known dimension of the Renaissance.

The Museum looks forward to hosting speakers from around the world to discuss late medieval and Renaissance ivory carving, luxury goods, kunstkammer collections, anatomical studies, literary texts, and tomb sculpture. The symposium will begin on Friday, November 3 at 3:00 p.m. in Kresge Auditorium, with an introduction by Perkinson and the keynote lecture by Peter Barnet, curator emeritus of medieval art at The Met Cloisters. A reception at the Museum will follow the lecture. This event is an opportunity to listen, learn, and discuss ideas related to the art of mortality with some of the world’s leading experts.

The symposium continues on the following day from 9:00 a.m to 5:00 p.m. For additional information about the speakers and the symposium schedule, please visit the symposium website.

Sebastian Gilligan-Kim, Class of 2019