Norma Jean Calderwood Lecture: Gardens for All Seasons—The Persian Garden Carpet Tradition

This event requires registration; see further details below.

Garden imagery has a long history in Iranian art as a metaphor for Paradise and as a symbol of royal leisure. The garden image appears in almost every aspect and medium of Islamic art from Spain to Sumatra. However, the large carpets woven in Iran with the layout of a chahar bagh, or traditional four-fold Persian garden, show us the largest and probably the most familiar application of the concept. In this illustrated talk, Professor Walter B. Denny will discuss the enduring tradition of garden carpets in central Islamic lands—tracing their history, their use indoors and out, and their importance in the spectrum of Islamic artistic media.

Speaker:
Walter B. Denny, Distinguished Professor of the History of Art and Architecture, Emeritus, University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and Chair of the Visiting Committee, Department of Textile Conservation, Metropolitan Museum of Art

Walter B. Denny specializes in the art of the Islamic world. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard and taught at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst for 53 years. From 1970 to 2000, he served as honorary curator of Islamic carpets at the Fogg Museum, and from 2007 to 2017, he was a senior consultant in the Department of Islamic Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Recently retired, Denny continues to consult and give lectures on a variety of topics in the United States and abroad.

Free admission, but seating is limited and registration is required. You can register by clicking on the event on this form, beginning Sunday, November 3, after 10am.

The lecture will take place in Menschel Hall, Lower Level. Doors will open for seating at 5:30pm.

Limited complimentary parking is available in the Broadway Garage, 7 Felton Street, Cambridge.

This lecture will be recorded and made available for online viewing; check back shortly after the event for the link to view.

The Harvard Art Museums offer free admission every day, Tuesday through Sunday. Please see the museum visit page to learn about our general policies for visiting the museums.

Support for this lecture is provided by the Norma Jean Calderwood Lecture Fund. The Norma Jean Calderwood Lecture Fund honors a longtime friend of the Harvard Art Museums who pursued graduate study in Islamic art at Harvard and who for many years taught Islamic and Asian art at Boston College and at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

The Harvard Art Museums are committed to accessibility for all visitors. For anyone requiring accessibility accommodations for our programs, please contact us at am_register@harvard.edu at least 48 hours in advance.