Madison Gilmore-Duffey

In Madison Gilmore-Duffey's dissertation, “The Classical Past in the Art of Late Antique Byzantium,” she examines how antiquities — objects predating the 4th century CE — served as visual displays of historical narrative in the Hippodrome of Late Antique Constantinople. Focusing on the Obelisk of Theodosius, the Delphic tripods, and the Masonry Obelisk, Gilmore-Duffey investigates how these objects’ biographies, origins, and former functions shaped cultural memory and contributed to the construction of contemporaneous identities. Through material, visual, and textual analysis, she situates these objects within the political and cultural landscape of 4th-century Constantinople, demonstrating how their meanings emerged through the reciprocal relationship between viewer and object. Gilmore-Duffey argues that material culture functioned not only as a vehicle for imperial ideology, but also as a medium for historical interpretation for Late Antique audiences. This dissertation is the first to treat the Delphic tripods as a collection and to contextualize the Masonry Obelisk in Late Antiquity.