videos + essays
The Gwoździec synagogue: the lost art of painted wooden synagogues
A glimpse of the lost art of painted wooden synagogues popularized among Eastern European Jewish communities in the 17th and 18th centuries
Byzantine Iconoclasm and the Triumph of Orthodoxy
Learn why the Byzantines argued about images for over a century.
Submerged, burned, and scattered: celebrating the destruction of objects in South Asia
Not all tangible cultural heritage is in need of preservation, and sometimes a community requires, even celebrates, the destruction of cultural objects.
Making and Mutilating Manuscripts of the Shahnama
Manuscripts have complex lives—learn about the mutilation, dispersal, and framing, of two important Iranian manuscripts
Folio from a Shahnama, The Bier of Iskandar (Alexander the Great)
Alexander, the Mongols, and the great epic of Iran.
The Court of Gayumars
Producing this lush miniature involved many Persian artists—and likely some familiarity with Chinese sources.
Destruction as Preservation: Ai Weiwei’s Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn
How can the destruction of an artifact also be an act of preservation?
Rewriting history: damnatio memoriae in ancient Rome
There are many examples of damnatio memoriae throughout the history of the Roman Republic and Empire.
Erasing Art: Rauschenberg’s Erased de Kooning drawing
Metaphorically therefore, it could be argued that Rauschenberg was erasing not just a drawing, but this very idea of artistic, masculine authorship.
Iconoclasm in the Netherlands in the Sixteenth Century
Controversy over the nature of religious images was not new in the sixteenth century.
“Creative iconoclasm”: a tale of two monasteries
Two medieval Spanish monasteries make their way to the United States, and survive to be reconstructed — barely.
