Dare to Experience "Life, Death & Revelry".

PositionFarnese Sarcophagus on exhibition at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

"Life, Death & Revelry" takes a close look at one of the most-treasured works of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, Mass.--the Farnese Sarcophagus, widely considered the most-important ancient Roman sarcophagus in America. This immersive installation explores the piece's history, including new scholarship, and features artwork inspired by the Sarcophagus, a 3D digital projection by artists-in-residence Paul Kaiser and Marc Downie of OpenEndedGroup.

'This exhibition [on view through Sept. 3] traces this artwork's journey from ancient Rome to 19th-century New England, and allows us to place it in conversation with a contemporary new media artwork," says Christina Nielsen, curator of the collection. "In this way, we follow the lead of Isabella Stewart Gardner, whose dynamic gallery installations allowed works of art to speak to each other across time and place."

The four-sided intricately carved marble object--with its glorious images of cavorting satyrs and maenads--is a masterwork of classical art. Created by Roman sculptors around 225 A.D., the Farnese Sarcophagus originally was used as a coffin. Prior to Gardner's purchase of it in 1898, it changed hands over thousands of years, inspiring generations of artists, collectors, conservators, and viewers.

"Special exhibitions allow us to see works in the museum's collection in a new light," notes Director Peggy Fogelman. 'We [are] able to dive deep into the rich history behind the Farnese Sarcophagus and the universal themes it engages, [as well as be] inspired by the current-day interpretations of living artists."

For "Life, Death & Revelry," the monumental 7,500-pound object has been carefully restored and rigorously studied by the museum's conservation team and, for the first time in more than 100 years, moved from its place between columns in the Palace courtyard into Hostetter Gallery so that it can be viewed from all four sides. As part of the exhibition, new...

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