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Now through Sunday, March 8, 2026, the ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø±¬ÍøÕ¾ College Museum of Art (BCMA) presents the exhibition Flora et Fauna: Nature in Ancient Mediterranean Art and Culture. Featuring 85 objects from the BCMA’s collection, and spanning nearly two thousand years—from approximately 1300 BCE to 400 CE—Flora et Fauna examines how ancient Mediterranean societies understood and depicted the natural world. Featured objects and media include ancient coinage, statuettes, sculpture, clay vessels, jewelry, and more.

Illustrations of nature and local environments came to define the identities of many cultures, serving as symbols, decorative designs, and stand-ins for gods. Nature also inspired the imagination to create exotic animals and plants that became part of ancient mythologies. This exhibition explores how flora and fauna sustained societies and were passed both literally, through cultivated plants, pets, and livestock, and figuratively, through the development of pictorial imagery, from one culture to another.

This exhibition is curated by Professor Jim Higginbotham, Associate Professor of Classics on the Henry Johnson Professorship Fund at ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø±¬ÍøÕ¾ College and Associate Curator for the Ancient Collection. About the exhibition, Higginbotham notes: 

“Plants and amimals are among the oldest inspirations for figural art. Sometimes overlooked in scenes where human representations are included, elements from the natural world complete the composition while often supplying crucial context. I hope with Flora et Fauna to highlight the place of plants and animals in the ancient imagination.”

Flora et Fauna brings to life the way in which ancient Mediterranean societies drew inspiration from and utilized images inspired by nature. A vivid example is a replica cauldron (pictured) that demonstrates how the bronze object (ca. 620 BC-600 BC, Greek) may have existed in its original ancient context. Projecting outward, protomes consist of the head and torso of a human or animal subject and were used to decorate the sanctified cauldrons awarded to victorious athletes in ancient Greece. Exotic and mythical beasts, such as lions, griffins, and sphinxes, were favorite subjects for protomes. Representations of griffins, in particular, have a long history in the Aegean world, first appearing in Minoan and Mycenaean (ca. 1650-1200 BCE). After the collapse of Bronze Age society in the Aegean, when figural art was scarce, depictions of the griffin were reintroduced from Asia during the eighth century BCE. With the body and back legs of a lion and the wings, front talons, and head of an eagle-like creature, the griffin was a symbol of wealth and elevated status.

In 2023, Higginbotham began working with David Israel P'25 in ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø±¬ÍøÕ¾’s Department of Academic Technology & Consulting, and Joseph Hluska, Assistant Preparator at the BCMA, to create the replica cauldron featured in Flora et Fauna. Israel produced 3D scans of Protome in the Form of a Griffin, and from those scans created multiple 3D printed models. To begin the process of the creation of the base of the cauldron, Higginbotham supplied Hluska with examples of Ancient Greek cauldrons and the typical forms that they took. Using a coil building technique, Hluska threw the cauldron in two parts and fired the components in the kiln at the Visual Art Department with the assistance of Jackie Brown, Associate Professor of Visual Art. Hluska then manipulated the 3D printed models with a heat gun to fit the profile of the finalized clay vessel. While the original ancient cauldron would have been larger and made of bronze, the replica cauldron featured in Flora et Fauna offers audiences greater context for how an object like the Protome in the Form of a Griffin may have appeared and functioned in its entirety.

Flora et Fauna remains on view at the BCMA through March 8, 2026. Programming related to the exhibition will be featured on the BCMA’s Events page.