Davide Salvo, PhD, adjunct professor of classics, and Joshua Russell, PhD, assistant professor of animal behavior, ecology and conservation (ABEC), led a field trip to the Cleveland Museum of Art to see the exhibition “Medieval Monsters: Terrors, Aliens, Wonders” as part of Salvo’s CLS 219: Animals in the Ancient World course. Seven students from ABEC, classics and art history courses participated in the trip.
Organized by the Morgan Library & Museum, this groundbreaking exhibition exploring the complex social role of monsters in the Middle Ages is the first of its kind in North America. The exhibit displays the pages of more than 60 manuscripts from the Morgan’s superb collection of illuminated manuscripts covering devotional, liturgical and secular functions dating from the 800s to the late 1500s. Some of these sumptuously decorated works belonged to well-known patrons such as Henry VIII of England. The exhibition also includes works drawn from the Cleveland Museum of Art collections, such as tapestries, sculptures and other carvings.
The field trip was funded by the Institute for the Study of Human-Animal Relations (ISHAR) and the Classics Department.
Submitted by: Davide Salvo, PhD, adjunct professor, Classics
