In dialogue with: The Body as Prayer – Etruscan Votives between Hope and Healing

05.02.2026, 19:00

With Dr. Michaela Stark and Prof. Franziska Nori

Votives are offerings made by people in times of distress to higher powers. They are materialized prayers for healing and protection in moments of suffering, or expressions of gratitude for miraculous rescue and help. This form of invoking divine power and intercession has existed almost unchanged for thousands of years. Each votive is tied to the life story of a person, whose plea is embodied in the form of the object.

The exhibition Anatomy of Fragility – Images of the Body in Art and Science presents 23 Etruscan terracotta votives from the Collection of Classical Archaeology at Justus Liebig University Giessen. They originate from the collection of the anatomist Ludwig Stieda, who acquired them in 1899 at today’s Isola Farnese, on the site of the ancient city of Veii. Most date from the late 3rd to the mid-2nd century BCE and belong to the earliest surviving evidence of a religious practice that has continued across cultures for millennia.

In conversation with Prof. Franziska Nori, Director of the Frankfurter Kunstverein, Dr. Michaela Stark, curator of the Collection of Classical Archaeology at Justus Liebig University Giessen, will highlight how votive offerings present the body not as an ideal, but as vulnerable, fragmented, and in need. Together, they will explore the meaning of these objects in ancient daily life, their religious and social contexts, and why these early testimonies of body images continue to fascinate today.

This thematic guided tour is part of the exhibition’s public program. In front of the artworks themselves, we invite you to join the experts and cooperation partners for an open exchange about what the fragility of the body can mean to us all.

The tour costs €5 plus admission. No registration required. The event will take place in German.

We look forward to welcoming you!