YALE UNIVERSITY ART GALLERY

Yale’s art from the ancient Mediterranean world comprises over 13,000 objects from the Near East, Egypt, Greece, Etruria, and Rome that range in date from the Neolithic through the early Byzantine periods. The collection is perhaps best known for its important finds from the Yale University excavations in the 1930s at Dura-Europos in Syria, and Gerasa in Jordan. Paintings and sculpture from Dura’s Jewish, Christian, and pagan houses of worship and the more than 7,500 artifacts of daily life found by the archaeologists present a vivid picture of life in an ancient Roman city, while the mosaics from Gerasa represent the best of early Byzantine church mosaic production in Jordan. (Please note: In order to protect these delicate objects, artifacts from Dura are not currently on permanent display.)

In other areas, highlights of Near Eastern art include Assyrian stone reliefs from the palace of the ninth-century B.C. King Assurnasirpal II, and over one thousand vessels and clay figurines in the Whiting Collection of Palestinian Pottery. The Gallery’s Egyptian collection is shared with Yale’s Peabody Museum of Natural History, with which it rotates objects for exhibition, and includes Predynastic pottery, stone sculpture, and small bronze figures. In Greek art, the Rebecca Darlington Stoddard Collection of Greek and Italian Vases numbers nearly 1,000 objects and is a principal strength, supplemented in recent years by gifts and purchases intended to improve an already representative selection of works. Recent acquisitions in Greek, Etruscan, and Roman art have concentrated largely on marble sculpture, especially portraits, bronzes, and Greek vases. Yale’s collection of ancient glass is among the best in the United States.

		Susan B. Matheson susan.matheson@yale.edu Susan B. Matheson, the Molly and Walter Bareiss Curator of Ancient Art and Chief Curator, oversees the Gallery's collections of ancient art. She has organized exhibitions on Dura-Europos, Greek vases, and neo-classical and Gothic Revival art, and was co-curator of I, Claudia: Women in Ancient Rome. Her publications include Polygnotos and Vase Painting in Classical Athens, and she has written and lectured extensively on ancient glass, vases, and sculpture at Yale. Among her current projects is an exhibition on old age in Greek and Roman art. Download curriculum vitae

		Lisa R. Brody lisa.brody@yale.edu Lisa R. Brody, Associate Curator of Ancient Art, received her B.A. from Yale in 1991 and her Ph.D. from the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University in 1999. She has excavated in Portugal, Greece, and Turkey, as well as on the Old Campus of Yale University. She has taught art history and classical archaeology at numerous institutions, including Notre Dame, Oregon State University, and Queens College, CUNY, and her publications include Aphrodisias III: The Aphrodite of Aphrodisias. She is currently working on an exhibition about the ancient city of Dura-Europos. Download curriculum vitae

Baur, Paul V. C., ed. Gerasa: City of Decapolis. New Haven, 1938.

Baur, Paul V. C., ed. The Rebecca Darlington Stoddard Collection of Greek and Italian Vases. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1922.

The Excavations at Dura-Europos, Preliminary and Final Reports. New Haven: Yale University Press; Los Angeles: University of California Press; Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1929–2001.

Grossmann, Richard A. Ancient Glass: A Guide to the Yale Collection. New Haven: Yale University Art Gallery, 2002. Download PDF (file is 1.1 MB)-->

Matheson, Susan B. Greek Vases: A Guide to the Yale Collection. New Haven: Yale University Art Gallery, 1988.

Matheson, Susan B. Dura-Europos: The Ancient City and the Yale Collection. New Haven: Yale University Art Gallery, 1982; revised, 2001.

Matheson, Susan B. Ancient Glass in the Yale University Art Gallery. New Haven: Yale University Art Gallery, 1980.

Scott, III, Gerry D. Ancient Egyptian Art at Yale. New Haven: Yale University Art Gallery, 1986.