Destroying Images: Current Iconoclasm in Context

Public Lecture by James Simpson, Chair, Department of English and Donald P. and Katherine B. Loker Professor of English, Harvard University

The destruction of iconic images and monuments—iconoclasm—carried out today by extremists representing a wide range of political and religious views, makes many recoil in horror. This response, however, is in part derived from the fact that our Western cultures have themselves been fiercely iconoclastic. James Simpson will discuss the six classic phases of iconoclasm in European history and highlight the role that museums have played in protecting objects from major iconoclastic events. From this history, he puts current iconoclasm into perspective.

Co-sponsored by the Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology and Harvard Semitic Museum