The Index of Medieval Art's Maria Alessia Rossi Opens Exhibition in Thessaloniki, Greece
On May 25, 2023, the exhibition No Woman's Land. From Princeton to Mount Athos and Meteora in 1929, organized by Julia Gearhart of Visual Resources and Maria Alessia Rossi of The Index for Medieval Art, opened at the Mount Athos Center in Thessaloniki, Greece. Rossi attended the opening ceremony.
The exhibition features historic photographs from the expedition undertaken by three traveler-artists from Princeton to Mount Athos and the Meteora in 1929. The collection of images was serendipitously discovered when items were moved out of the “Expedition Room” — where the archives of the department archaeological expeditions were stored — on the third floor of McCormick Hall in 2017. After the identification of the film, two hundred and fifty-four photographic prints and eighty-one glass lantern slides in the Visual Resources Collection were also found to be material retained from the expedition. In the course of further research, nine watercolor paintings in the Graphic Arts collection of Firestone Library, attributed to Richard Stillwell, actually appear to be the work of Vladimir Perfilieff from this trip.
This exhibition in Thessaloniki represents the latest in a series of projects centered around these images; Gearhart and Rossi have collaborated on several prior presentations and lectures along with curating an exhibition in McCormick Hall in 2019.
The current exhibition will be on view through September 16, 2023.
Maria Alessia Rossi, Art History Specialist at the Index of Medieval Art, at the opening ceremony of the exhibition No Woman's Land. (Photo courtesy of Maria Alessia Rossi)