Aspasia Place Setting
Judy Chicago
Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art
On View: Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, 4th Floor
MEDIUM
Runner: Cotton/linen base fabric, woven interface support material (horsehair, wool, and linen), cotton twill tape, silk, stiffened cotton/linen fabric, “polished cotton” fabric, silk thread, metallic cord, cotton, thread
Plate: Porcelain with overglaze enamel (China paint)
DATES
1974–1979
DIMENSIONS
Runner: 52 x 30 in. (132.1 x 76.2 cm)
Plate:14 x 15 x 1 in. (35.6 x 38.1 x 2.5 cm)
(show scale)
ACCESSION NUMBER
2002.10-PS-11
CREDIT LINE
Gift of The Elizabeth A. Sackler Foundation
CAPTION
Judy Chicago (American, born 1939). Aspasia Place Setting, 1974–1979. Runner: Cotton/linen base fabric, woven interface support material (horsehair, wool, and linen), cotton twill tape, silk, stiffened cotton/linen fabric, “polished cotton” fabric, silk thread, metallic cord, cotton, thread
Plate: Porcelain with overglaze enamel (China paint), Runner: 52 x 30 in. (132.1 x 76.2 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of The Elizabeth A. Sackler Foundation, 2002.10-PS-11. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 2002.10-PS-11_plate_PS9.jpg)
IMAGE
overall, 2002.10-PS-11_plate_PS9.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2013
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RIGHTS STATEMENT
© Judy Chicago
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we welcome any additional information you might have.
Could you tell me more about Aspasia, and the reasoning behind them attending the Dinner Party, as well as the place setting? Thanks.
Aspasia was politically active in 5th century BCE Athens and is best known as the mistress and an advisor to Pericles, an influential general and statesman who led Athens into its Golden Age. She met Pericles through her work as a hetaira, a type of highly trained courtesan who was paid to accompany men to intellectual events and expected to participate in political and philosophical discussion. Hetairai were known to have more freedoms than average Athenian women. Aspasia is acknowledged by ancient writers as an accomplished teacher of rhetoric; she may have managed a house of hetairai, the administration of which would have included educated women.
Aspasia's plate recalls a blooming flower which Chicago links to fertility. The "earth-tones" are meant to suggest Classical art.
In Aspasia's place setting, the side bands on the runner relate to the friezes on Greek urns and are embroidered in the satin and stem stitch. The front and back contain draped linen forms which relate to the togas customarily worn by the Greeks and often held in place by a clasp like those depicted in the embroidered pins.
