Concealing/Revealing: Depictions of the Enslaved in Late Antique Interiors

A large furnishing textile from late antique Egypt, now held at the MFA Boston, serves as a point of departure for considering representations of enslaved individuals in the period’s art. The fabric depicts a nearly life-sized person pulling back a striped curtain, a meta-commentary on the fabric’s function as a furnishing in what would have been a richly appointed household run through enslaved labor. Contextualizing evidence from documentary texts, material culture, and architecture, this lecture situates these individuals in the late antique household, tracing the ways their labor was revealed, concealed, parodied, and amplified in elite interiors.

Elizabeth Dospěl Williams is Penny Vinik Chair of Fashion, Textiles and Jewelry at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, responsible for global collections from ancient to contemporary. She was previously Curator of the Byzantine Collection at Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection in Washington, D.C., where curated special exhibitions including Rich in Blessings: Women, Wealth, and the Late Antique Household (2023) and Woven Interiors: Furnishing Early Medieval Egypt (2019).

Read more about Dr. Williams on the MFA website.