Dr. William Barnes, assistant professor of art history at St. Thomas, will give a lecture, "Aztec Calendrical Thought: Visual Form, Imperial Significance," at 6 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 10, in the John B. Davis Lecture Hall of the Ruth Stricker Dayton Campus Center at Macalester College, 1600 Grand Ave.
Barnes' talk explains the way in which the Aztecs of central Mexico thought about time and included in their artwork references to dates and passages of time. "For the Aztecs, the reckoning of time and divination preceded even the creation of our current era," Barnes said. "It is not surprising, then, that as the Aztecs grew as an imperial power, so, too, grew their own historical awareness and a desire to cast local history as part of the more universal sacred narrative of creation."
The St. Thomas Art History Department co-sponsors the lecture, and attendees are invited to gather for dinner afterwards at Pad Thai Grand Cafe, 1659 Grand Ave.
