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Books > Arts & Architecture > History of art / art & design styles > BC to 500 CE, Ancient & classical world
"Probing, jargon-free and written with the pace of a detective
story... [Procter] dissects western museum culture with such
forensic fury that it might be difficult for the reader ever to
view those institutions in the same way again. " Financial Times 'A
smart, accessible and brilliantly structured work that encourages
readers to go beyond the grand architecture of cultural
institutions and see the problematic colonial histories behind
them.' - Sumaya Kassim Should museums be made to give back their
marbles? Is it even possible to 'decolonize' our galleries? Must
Rhodes fall? How to deal with the colonial history of art in
museums and monuments in the public realm is a thorny issue that we
are only just beginning to address. Alice Procter, creator of the
Uncomfortable Art Tours, provides a manual for deconstructing
everything you thought you knew about art history and tells the
stories that have been left out of the canon. The book is divided
into four chronological sections, named after four different kinds
of art space: The Palace, The Classroom, The Memorial and The
Playground. Each section tackles the fascinating, enlightening and
often shocking stories of a selection of art pieces, including the
propaganda painting the East India Company used to justify its rule
in India; the tattooed Maori skulls collected as 'art objects' by
Europeans; and works by contemporary artists who are taking on
colonial history in their work and activism today. The Whole
Picture is a much-needed provocation to look more critically at the
accepted narratives about art, and rethink and disrupt the way we
interact with the museums and galleries that display it.
The myriad ways in which colour and light have been adapted and
applied in the art, architecture, and material culture of past
societies is the focus of this interdisciplinary volume. Light and
colour's iconographic, economic, and socio-cultural implications
are considered by established and emerging scholars including art
historians, archaeologists, and conservators, who address the
variety of human experience of these sensory phenomena. In today's
world it is the norm for humans to be surrounded by strong,
artificial colours, and even to see colour as perhaps an
inessential or surface property of the objects around us.
Similarly, electric lighting has provided the power and ability to
illuminate and manipulate environments in increasingly
unprecedented ways. In the context of such a saturated experience,
it becomes difficult to identify what is universal, and what is
culturally specific about the human experience of light and colour.
Failing to do so, however, hinders the capacity to approach how
they were experienced by people of centuries past. By means of case
studies spanning a broad historical and geographical context and
covering such diverse themes as architecture, cave art, the
invention of metallurgy, and medieval manuscript illumination, the
contributors to this volume provide an up-to-date discussion of
these themes from a uniquely interdisciplinary perspective. The
papers range in scope from the meaning of colour in European
prehistoric art to the technical art of the glazed tiles of the
Shah mosque in Isfahan. Their aim is to explore a multifarious
range of evidence and to evaluate and illuminate what is a truly
enigmatic topic in the history of art and visual culture.
The assumption that there is a significant connection between
normal psychological and biological differences and the development
of psychological disorders has grown in recent years and research
in this area has developed rapidly. Written by psychologists with
expertise in both the areas of abnormal and differential
psychology, this textbook aims to integrate evidence and ideas from
healthy personality and temperament on the one hand and
psychological disorders on the other. This is achieved by viewing
personality traits as predispositions to disorder, and by
questioning how far the causes of various disorders can be seen as
an extension or exaggeration of processes underlying normal
personality or temperament. These main themes are discussed using a
biological perspective, based on the theory that personality can be
deconstructed into a number of basic dimensions (of biological
origin) that also act as vulnerability factors for disorder. This
is a second level textbook for undergraduate students of
psychology, but it can also be used by health professionals and
their trainees, psychiatrists, clinical psychologists and nurses.
This book argues that touch and movement played a significant role,
long overlooked, in generating perceptions of ancient material
culture in the late 18th century. At this time the reception of
classical antiquity had been transformed. Interactions with
material culture - ruins, sculpture, and artefacts - formed the
core of this transformation. Some such interactions were
proto-archaeological, such as the Dilettanti expeditions to Athens
and Asa Minor; others were touristic, seen in the guidebooks
consulted by travellers to Rome and the diaries they composed; and
others creative, resulting in novels, poetry, and dance
performances. Some involved the reproduction of experience in a
gallery or museum setting. What all encounters with ancient
material culture had in common, however, is their haptic sensory
basis. The sense typically associated with the Enlightenment is
vision, but this has obscured the equally important contribution
made by touch and movement to the way in which a newly materialised
Graeco-Roman world was perceived. Kinaesthesia, or the sense of
self-movement, is rarely recognised in its own right, but because
all encounters with sites and objects are embodied, and all
embodiment takes place in motion, this sense is vital to forming
more abstract or imaginative impressions. Theories of embodied
cognition propose that all intellectual processes are also
physical. This book shows how ideas about classical antiquity in
the volatile milieu of the late 18th century developed as a result
of diverse kinaesthetic relationships.
Imagery and iconography served specific functions in public,
private, and ritual spheres in the Roman world. State-sanctioned
imagery communicated politically charged ideas through an
often-complex pictorial language, composed of emblems and
attributes that signaled aspects of policy. In the private sphere,
imagery communicated ethnic, social, and religious identities
through specific signs, symbols, and forms, and through the
emulation of state-sanctioned art. This volume focuses primarily on
visual imagery in the Roman world, examined by context and period,
and the evolving scholarly traditions of iconographic analysis and
visual semiotics that have framed the modern study of these images.
Among other subjects, essays touch on iconography and style in
republican and early imperial art, public sculpture and social
practice in the Roman Empire, coin iconography, funerary imagery,
imagery in ritual use, and images and interpretation of Africans in
Roman art. The Oxford Handbook of Roman Imagery and Iconography is
an important reference work for both the communicative value of
images in the Roman world and the tradition of iconographical
analysis.
Violence and Power in Ancient Egypt examines the use of Egyptian
pictures of violence prior to the New Kingdom. Starting with the
assertion that making and displaying such images served as a tactic
of power, related to but separate from the actual practice of
violence, the book explores the development and deployment of this
imagery across different contexts. By comparatively utilizing
violent images from a variety of other times and cultures, the book
asks that we consider not only how Egyptian imagery was related to
Egyptian violence, but also why people create pictures of violence
and place them where they do, and how such images communicate what
to whom. By cataloging and querying Egyptian imagery of violence
from different periods and different contexts-royal tombs, divine
temples, the landscape, portable objects, and private
tombs-Violence and Power highlights the nuances of the relationship
between aspects of royal ideology, art, and its audiences in the
first half of pharaonic Egyptian history.
This volume covers the major stages in the history of Greek pottery
production, both figured and plain, as they are understood today.
It provides an up-to-date evaluation of ways of studying Greek
pottery and encourages new approaches. There is a detailed analysis
of the subject matter of figured scenes covering some of the main
preoccupations of ancient Greece: myth, fantasy and everyday life.
Furthermore, it sets the artefacts in the context of the societies
that produced them, highlighting the social, art historical,
mythological and economic information that can be revealed from
their study. This volume also covers a hitherto neglected area: the
history of the collecting of Greek pottery through the Renaissance
and up to the present day. It shows how market values have
gradually increased to the high prices of today and goes on to take
a closer look at the enthusiasm of the collectors.
The Red and the Black covers the major stages in the history of Greek pottery production, both figured and plain, as they are understood today. It provides an up-to-date evaluation of ways of studying Greek pottery and encourages new approaches. There is a detailed analysis of the subject matter of figured scenes covering some of the main preoccupations of ancient Greece: myth, fantasy and everyday life. Furthermore, it sets the artefacts in the context of the societies that produced them, highlighting the social, art historical, mythological and economic information that can be revealed from their study. This volume also covers a hitherto neglected area: the history of the collecting of Greek pottery through the Renaissance and up to the present day. It shows how market values have gradually increased to the high prices of today and goes on to take a closer look at the enthusiasm of the collectors. eBook available with sample pages: HB:0415126606
With the help of over 100 illustrations, many of them little known,
Martin Henig shows that the art produced in Britannia--particularly
in the golden age of Late Antiquity--rivals that of other provinces
and deserves comparison with the art of metropolitan Rome. The
originality and breadth of Henig's study is shown by its systematic
coverage, embracing both the major arts--stone and bronze statuary,
wall-painting and mosaics--and such applied arts as
jewelery-making, silversmithing, furniture design, figure pottery,
figurines and appliques. The author explains how the various
workshops were organized, the part played by patronage and the
changes that occurred in the fourth century.
Founded in 331 BC by Alexander the Great, Alexandria's unique
urban, political and religious organization evolved alongside the
numerous scientific innovations and philosophical expressions that
shaped the city into one of the ancient world's civilizational
centres. Located at the intersection of art and history, this book
revisits the former Egyptian megapolis of Alexandria with the aim
of going beyond the usual depictions of the city - focusing on the
Greeks, the Egyptians, the Lighthouse and the Library - to take a
journey of discovery into an ancient city that is full of nuance.
Several recent discoveries have enabled us to refine our knowledge
of the lost city of Alexandria. By examining the city's
multi-layered temporalities, this book echoes dominant accounts of
Alexandria as a city through which successive civilisations and
political formations of the past (Byzantine, Arab, Modern) have
rehearsed visions of futures that are either no longer present or
remain felt through Alexandria's remaining material culture and
built environment. This book also features a series of contemporary
artworks which develop a critical and poetic association with the
themes it covers. Exhibition Schedule: BOZAR, Center for Fine Arts,
Brussels : 29/09/2022 - 08/01/2023 MUCEM, Musee des Civilisations
de l'Europe et de la Mediterranee, Marseille : 08/02/2022 -
08/05/2023
Myth into Art is a comparative study of mythological narrative in Greek poetry and the visual arts. Thirty of the major myths are surveyed, focusing on Homer, lyric poetry and Attic tragedy. On the artistic side, the emphasis is on Athenian and South Italian vases. The book offers undergraduate students an introduction both to mythology and to the use of visual sources in the study of Greek myth. eBook available with sample pages: 0203415035
This volume gathers together selected contributions which were
originally presented at the conference 'Greek Art in Context' at
the University of Edinburgh in 2014. Its aim is to introduce the
reader to the broad and multifaceted notion of context in relation
to Greek art and, more specifically, to its relevance for the study
of Greek sculpture and pottery from the Archaic to the Late
Classical periods. What do we mean by 'context'? In which ways and
under what circumstances does context become relevant for the
interpretation of Greek material culture? Which contexts should we
look at - viewing context, political, social and religious
discourse, artistic tradition . . .? What happens when there is no
context? These are some of the questions that this volume aims to
answer. The chapters included cover current approaches to the study
of Greek sculpture and pottery in which the notion of 'context'
plays a prominent role, offering new ways of looking at familiar
issues. It gathers leading scholars and early career researchers
from different backgrounds and research traditions with the aim of
presenting new insights into archaeological and art historical
research. Their chapters contribute to showcase the vitality of the
discipline and will serve to stimulate new directions for the study
of Greek art.
Considerations about size and scale have always played a central
role within Greek and Roman visual culture, deeply affecting
sculptural production. Both Greeks and Romans, in particular, had a
clear notion of “colossality” and were able to fully exploit
its implications with sculpture in many different areas of social,
cultural and religious life. Instead, despite their ubiquitous
presence, an equal and contrary categorization for small size
statues does not seem to have existed in Greek and Roman culture,
leading one to wonder what were the ancient ways of conceptualizing
sculptural representations in a format markedly smaller than
“life-size.” Even in the context of modern scholarship on
Classical Art, few notions appear to be as elusive as that of
“small sculpture”, often treated with a certain degree of
diffidence well summarized in the formula Klein, aber Kunst? In
fact, a large and heterogeneous variety of objects corresponds to
this definition: all kinds of small sculpture, from statuettes to
miniatures, in a variety of materials including stone, bronze, and
terracotta, associated with a great array of functions and
contexts, and with extremely different levels of manufacture and
patronage. It would be a major misunderstanding to think of these
small sculptures in general as nothing more than a cheap and
simplified alternative to larger scale statues. Compared with
those, their peculiar format allowed for a wider range of choices,
in terms, for example, of use of either cheap or extremely valuable
materials (not only marble and bronze, but also gold and silver,
ivory, hard stones, among others), methods of production (combining
seriality and variation), modes of fruition (such as involving a
degree of intimacy with the beholder, rather than staging an
illusion of “presence”). Furthermore, their pervasive presence
in both private and public spaces at many levels of Greek and Roman
society presents us with a privileged point of view on the visual
literacy of a large and varied public. Although very different in
many respects, small-sized sculptures entertained often a rather
ambivalent relationship with their larger counterparts, drawing
from them at the same time schemes, forms and iconographies. By
offering a fresh, new analysis of archaeological evidence and
literary sources, through a variety of disciplinary approaches,
this volume helps to illuminate this rather complex dynamic and
aims to contribute to a better understanding of the status of Greek
and Roman small size sculpture within the general development of
ancient art.
Pliny sketches a theory of advancing moral decline and extravagance, in the course of which he gives a detailed account of six centuries of classical art and a fascinating sketch of the world of the rich Roman collector. Isager's is the first full treatment of this subject for over a hundred years.
Furniture, armour, jewellery, musical instruments, bronze, silver,
and gold vases, and other priceless offerings all accumulated in
the Parthenon and Erechtheion on the Athenian Acropolis during the
classical period. Annual inventories of these precious objects were
inscribed by the Athenians on marble tablets from 434 to 300 BC.
The two hundred fragments of these stelai which have survived are
the only evidence for these cult objects, gifts to Athena, and
treasures of the city, since the items themselves have long since
vanished - either stolen, melted down, or disintegrated. This
volume presents the evidence for these ancient treasures for the
first time, and provides data with important implications for the
history of Athens and Greek religion. Chapters include a history of
the treasures on the Acropolis, catalogues of each object kept in
the Opisthodomus, Proneos, Parthenon, Hekatompedos Neos, and
Erechtheion, and an analysis of the individual worshippers and
allied-city states who gave gifts and offerings to their goddess,
Athena. The most significant and startling conclusion from the
author's findings is that the gifts were used again and again, and
that the temples operated as repositories from which the treasures
might be deposited, withdrawn, or even borrowed.
The studies included in this volume supplement the work already
published by the author on the imperial cult in the Roman West,
focussing on the monuments of two cities in Roman Spain, Augusta
Emerita (now Merida) and Tarraco (now Tarragona). The introduction
gives the general background and context of the four following
studies and argues in favour of proactive initiative from the
centre. The core of the book is a study of the provincial forum at
Augusta Emerita. It opens with a historiographic survey followed by
discussion of the plaza (location, portico, "Arco de Trajano"),
then surveys other structures and their general architectonic
significance. Discussion of the hexastyle temple at the centre of
the precinct considers its date of construction and the influence
of the provincial governor, L. Fulcinius Trio, in copying the Aedes
Concordiae at Rome. Two long sections assigned to analysis of
inscriptions and the significance of the provincial centre of
Lusitania complete the study. Discussion of the "Temple of
Augustus" in Tarragona, in Chapter 3, begins with a historiography
of the temple followed by an account of its discovery by
ground-probing radar and electric resistivity tomography. After
arguing that the temple was provincial ab initio - rather than
first municipal then provincial - discussion moves to present
opinion on the successive stages of the construction and design of
the temple with a final chapter on the significance of the Temple
of Hispania Citerior. Two final studies consider the numismatic
evidence for an Ara Providentiae at Augusta Emerita, its
counterpart in Rome, and the inferred presence of a templum minus
at Augusta Emerita with its enigmatic portrayal of Agrippa at
sacrifice fifty years after his death. As for the location of this
copy of a Roman prototype, analysis focuses on the evidence for a
supposed temple in the forum adiectum of the colonial forum and
considers the iconographic recomposition of the monument, arguing
against current misconception of central details.
The resonant ruins of Pompeii are perhaps the most direct route
back to the living, breathing world of the ancient Romans. Two
million visitors annually now walk the paved streets which
re-emerged, miraculously preserved, from their layers of volcanic
ash. Yet for all the fame and unique importance of the site, there
is a surprising lack of a handy archaeological guide in English to
reveal and explain its public spaces and private residences. This
compact and user-friendly handbook, written by an expert in the
field, helpfully fills that gap. Illustrated throughout with maps,
plans, diagrams and other images, Pompeii: An Archaeological Guide
offers a general introduction to the doomed city followed by an
authoritative summary and survey of the buildings, artefacts and
paintings themselves. The result is an unrivalled picture, derived
from an intimate knowledge of Roman archaeology around the Bay of
Naples, of the forum, temples, brothels, bath-houses, bakeries,
gymnasia, amphitheatre, necropolis and other site buildings -
including perennial favourites like the House of the Faun, named
after its celebrated dancing satyr.
The Archbasilica of St John Lateran is the world's earliest
cathedral. A Constantinian foundation pre-dating St Peter's in the
Vatican, it remains the seat of the Bishop of Rome, the Pope, to
this day. This volume brings together scholars of topography,
archaeology, architecture, art history, geophysical survey and
liturgy to illuminate this profoundly important building. It takes
the story of the site from the early imperial period, when it was
occupied by elite housing, through its use as a barracks for the
emperor's horse guards to Constantine's revolutionary project and
its development over 1300 years. Richly illustrated throughout,
this innovative volume includes both broad historical analysis and
accessible explanations of the cutting-edge technological
approaches to the site that allow us to visualise its original
appearance.
Scholarship often treats the post-Roman art produced in central and
north-western Europe as representative of the pagan identities of
the new 'Germanic' rulers of the early medieval world. In this
book, Matthias Friedrich offers a critical reevaluation of the
ethnic and religious categories of art that still inform our
understanding of early medieval art and archaeology. He scrutinises
early medieval visual culture by combining archaeological
approaches with art historical methods based on contemporary
theory. Friedrich examines the transformation of Roman imperial
images, together with the contemporary, highly ornamented material
culture that is epitomized by 'animal art.' Through a rigorous
analysis of a range of objects, he demonstrates how these pathways
produced an aesthetic that promoted variety (varietas), a
cross-cultural concept that bridged the various ethnic and
religious identities of post-Roman Europe and the Mediterranean
worlds.
In 1922, after fifteen years of searching, archaeologists finally
discovered the tomb of King Tutankhamun. There, buried alongside
the king's mummy, they found more than 5,000 unique objects, from
the mundane to the extravagant, from the precious to the everyday.
Tutankhamun's spectacular gold mask is justifiably famous, but the
rest of the treasures remain largely unknown, their stories untold.
In this rich and beautifully illustrated work of history, renowned
Egyptologist Toby Wilkinson allows one hundred artifacts from the
boy king's tomb to speak again-not only for themselves, but as
witnesses of the civilization that created them. A gold-decorated
chariot reveals the impressive scale of Egyptian technology. Loaves
of bread, baskets of fruit, and jars of wine hint at the fertility
of the Nile Valley and the abundant feasts enjoyed by its people.
Ebony and ivory from Nubia and a jewel of Libyan desert glass show
the range of Egypt's trading and diplomatic networks. Shaving
equipment and board games provide a window into the everyday lives
of the people. And perhaps most poignant of all the objects in the
tomb is one that conjures up a lost world of human experience:
Tutankhamun's silver trumpet. Through these treasures, Wilkinson
bring us face-to-face with the culture of the pharaohs, its
extraordinary development, its remarkable flourishing, and its
lasting impact. Filled with surprising insights and vivid details,
Tutankhamun's Trumpet offers an indelible portrait of the history,
people, and legacy of ancient Egypt.
A strange thing happened to Roman sarcophagi in the third century:
their Greek mythic imagery vanished. Since the beginning of their
production a century earlier, these beautifully carved coffins had
featured bold mythological scenes. How do we make sense of this
imagery's own death on later sarcophagi, when mythological
narratives were truncated, gods and heroes were excised, and genres
featuring no mythic content whatsoever came to the fore? What is
the significance of such a profound tectonic shift in the Roman
funerary imagination for our understanding of Roman history and
culture, for the development of its arts, for the passage from the
High to the Late Empire and the coming of Christianity, but above
all, for the individual Roman women and men who chose this imagery,
and who took it with them to the grave? In this book, Mont Allen
offers the clues that aid in resolving this mystery.
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