Asian Art and History Silk and Its Consequences The Effect of the Silk Trade from East to West
Judith A. Lerner, Ph.D., Research Associate, New York University
In the last century before our Common Era, silk cloth from China first reached Rome and ignited a craze so intense that, periodically, some emperors banned or restricted its purchase to prevent draining Rome’s currency reserves. The wearing of silk was deemed “effeminate” as upper-class women and prostitutes alike swathed themselves in the fabric, which could be so finely woven to be almost transparent. Silk’s exotic and distant origin added to its appeal. The caravan route from China and across Central Asia was the first great distance that silk traveled from China to the Mediterranean world and Rome; the alternative via the sea was equally fraught. Join lecturer and art historian Judith Lerner as she focuses on these routes, the traders who plied them and the results of such trade.
Image: Court Ladies Preparing Newly Woven Silk, Northern Song Dynasty, early 12th Century CE. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston: 12.886, Chinese & Japanese Special Fund.
Judith A. Lerner
Judith A. Lerner
Judith A. Lerner is an art historian specializing in the history and visual culture of Iran and Central Asia from the Achaemenid to the early Islamic periods. She received her M.A. in art and archaeology from Columbia University and her Ph.D. in ancient art from Harvard University’s department of fine arts.
Her long-standing interest in the Iranian world and its artistic influence in the ancient Near East and in Central Asia led to a shift in her research to exploring the artistic and cultural interchange among societies along the so-called “Silk Road.” To this end, she co-curated the seminal exhibition Monks and Merchants: Silk Road Treasures from Northwest China, Gansu and Ningxia, 4th -7th Century (2001) with Annette L. Juliano and subsequently published extensively on the funerary art of the Sogdian (East Iranian) communities in China.
Another strong interest is the glyptic art of Iran, Bactria and Sogdiana, and she has published numerous articles on this, as well as the monograph Seals, Sealings and Tokens from Bactriato Gandhara (4th to 8th century CE) (2011). Living in Iran in the late 1970s inspired her continued work on the revival of pre-Islamic motifs in late 18th- and early 20th-century Persian art, the most recent being a curator of the ISAW exhibition Eye of the Shah: Qajar Court Photography and the Persian Past (2015).
Judith also serves as a co-editor of the Journal of Inner Asian Art and Archaeology, which is devoted to the art, archaeology, language and history of the regions stretching from the Iranian plateau to western China and from the Eurasian steppes to the northwest of the Indian subcontinent.
Enrich your experience of the arts by joining Friends of Artis—Naples and/or Leadership Circle. You’ll enjoy private previews of new exhibitions, invitations to exclusive social events, discounts and more.
Artis—Naples is Southwest Florida’s leading cultural resource, thanks to the generous support of loyal donors like you. Help us continue to provide art and educational opportunities for all ages.
Whether you’re enjoying our cultural campus during our free Community Days, making new friends in a Lifelong Learning class, or attending an off-campus music performance, we hope to see you soon.
