R.W. Moriarty Science Seminar: The Deep Time of Renaissance Painting

Dr. Chris Nygren is coming to the Carnegie Museum of Natural History on Thursday, January 14, 2027, for a talk titled The Deep Time of Renaissance Painting. It's part of the R.W. Moriarty Science Seminar, the museum's speaker series on nature, culture, and the future of life on Earth, which pairs the museum's own research staff with invited experts and is sponsored by Highmark.

The talk centers on a 1530 work by the Venetian painter Sebastiano del Piombo, who chose a large hewn stone as his surface and, in doing so, set off about 150 years of painting on stone. Nygren blends ecocriticism with art history to explore the ecological, religious, and cultural contexts in which the genre emerged. Along the way, he uncovers the hidden labor of stone masons, the international and colonial circuits of exchange that moved materials across borders, and the philosophy of the time. It's a look at the physical stuff of art—the stone itself—and the wider world that put it there.

If you're not already familiar, the Carnegie Museum of Natural History is one of the four Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh. This session is part of the R.W. Moriarty Science Seminar, which brings together the museum's research staff and guest speakers to talk about the intersection of nature and culture. The museum's connection to the broader Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh means you're in the middle of one of the city's biggest cultural hubs when you head over.

The talk runs from 6 PM to 7 PM in the Art Theater at the museum, 4400 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15213-4007. It's also available online via Zoom, so you can join from home if you can't make it in person. Admission is free and you don't need a museum ticket to get in, but you do need to register whether you're attending at the museum or on Zoom.