Monument, Movement and the Ritual Body: Ancient Indian, Roman and Greek Art
From The Observatory
Date
October 10, 2025
Location
The British Museum, London
Pricing
Free
Area
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Join one of Britain's leading art historians, Prof Jaś Elsner, for a new look at the religious context of some of the great monuments of antiquity.
From Greece to India, monumental culture in the ancient world across Europe and Asia was a visual and architectural orchestration of devotion. Building on his 'Empires of faith(Opens in new window)' project from his time as Senior Research Keeper in the Middle East department at the British Museum, Elsner's talk will range across Greek, Roman and Indian art, exploring how monuments such as the Parthenon and the Great Stupa at Amaravati were made for ritual activity including processions and devotional movement around the space; how their imagery evoked these forms of worship; and how they gave devotees cues for ways in which to offer appropriate veneration. The work of art in this ancient model was a stage through which worshippers walked as they gazed in a process of embodied devotion.Key Speaker: Jaś Elsner
Participants
The British Museum
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