Spring 2021 Digital Research Seminars

Filmed as part of the Spring 2021 Digital Research Seminars presented by scholars affiliated with the O’Donnell Institute’s Center for the Art and Architectural History of Port Cities in Naples.

5 March 2021

ELIZABETH MOLACEK

Dr. ELIZABETH MOLACEK

The Edith O’Donnell Institute of Art History

An American Creation: Early Collections of ‘Classical’ Art in U.S. Museums

Recent research on museum collections has called for increased focus on the context of collecting, the economic factors, and the individuals whose point-of-view are reflected in what is considered part of the canon.

This talk examines the earliest collections of classical art in American museums, arguing a cultural product/creation of scholars working across the Atlantic, to create a picture of the classical past fit for their contemporary American public. By examining the relationships between early American ‘influencers’ and their counterparts in Rome—in particular a group of Italian art dealers—we are able to understand better the ways that collections of classical art in the U.S. should be viewed as artifacts, which convey specific notions of the past.

BIO

Dr. Elizabeth Molacek is an art historian whose research, teaching, and curatorial work focuses on the material culture of ancient Greece and Rome. She is a specialist in Roman wall paintings and mosaics. Her current research examines museum collections in the United States, both ancient and modern, tracing painting fragments from excavation, through the art market, and to their eventual collection-home in the U.S.