This book explores a series of powerful artifacts associated with King Solomon via legendary or extracanonical textual sources. Tracing their cultural resonance throughout history, art historian Allegra Iafrate delivers exciting insights into these objects and interrogates the ways in which magic manifests itself at a material level. Each chapter focuses on a different Solomonic object: a ring used to control demons; a mysterious set of bottles that constrain evil forces; an endless knot or seal with similar properties; the shamir, known for its supernatural ability to cut through stone; and a flying carpet that can bring the sitter anywhere he desires. Taken together, these chapters constitute a study on the reception of the figure of Solomon, but they are also cultural biographies of these magical objects and their inherent aesthetic, morphological, and technical qualities. Thought-provoking and engaging, Iafrate's study shows how ancient magic artifacts live on in our imagination, in items such as Sauron's ring of power, Aladdin's lamp, and the magic carpet. It will appeal to historians of art, religion, folklore, and literature.

Nothing in Anglo-Saxon pagan culture could withstand the impact of Christianity after the arrival of the disciples of Pope Gregory I in England. Originally published in 1999, Professor Henderson's book investigates the ways in which the English, in the two centuries following their conversion, expressed their new convictions about this world, and the next. It deals with the impact of books and travel on the Anglo-Saxons, discusses personal sanctity and the manipulation of belief by the state, and identifies the positive role of art in a society constantly afflicted by wars and epidemics. Henderson combines new fragmentary visual and literary evidence in this carefully illustrated book to bring out the peculiar character, both sophisticated and naive, of the new Christian civilisation which began to flourish and, to a surprising degree, recreate that of sixth-century Italy in seventh- and eighth-century England.

In this book, Clemente Marconi provides a new interpretation for the use of figural decoration in Greek temples of the archaic period, through a study of the archaic metopes of Selinus. The study of figural decoration on Greek temples has traditionally been identified with the broader study of architectural sculpture. At the same time, the original, articulated appearance of archaic temples has been fragmented into a discussion of individual types. Marconi argues against both the typological approach and the tendency to investigate style and iconography as two aspects unrelated to the cultural and social background within which temple decoration operated. He explores the relation between style and function and examines the function of figures on temples within the cultural and social context of the communities for which these images were created. Critical to this exploration are the reintegration of the figures into the fabric of buildings, the space of archaic sanctuaries and cities, and the ritual dimension that represented the context for the reception of the figural decoration of Greek temples.

This survey, which centres mainly on Greek sculpture and vase-painting from 600 to 300 BC, examines research over the past twenty years. Organised chronologically in terms of media (free-standing sculpture, architectural sculpture, luxury items, ceramics), the chapters discuss polychromy, the ethics of collecting and the relationship between scenes of myth and everyday life. Attention is also paid to new approaches that question the concept of 'art' in Classical Greece (what is known as the 'paradigm shift') in which the purposes, contexts and effect of material culture are given greater prominence. To summarise recent research, the author adopts a balance between a broad treatment and detailed description. The text and images (fifty in number and largely in colour) will be particularly useful to students and teachers but will have a wider appeal.

In this book, Sheila Dillon offers the first detailed analysis of the female portrait statue in the Greek world from the fourth century BCE to the third century CE. A major component of Greek sculptural production, particularly in the Hellenistic period, female portrait statues are mostly missing from our histories of Greek portraiture. Whereas male portraits tend to stress their subject's distinctiveness through physiognomic individuality, portraits of women are more idealized and visually homogeneous. In defining their subjects according to normative ideals of beauty rather than notions of corporeal individuality, Dillon argues that Greek portraits of women work differently than those of men and must be approached with different expectations. She examines the historical phenomenon of the commemoration of women in portrait statues and explores what these statues can tell us about Greek attitudes toward the public display of the female body.

The study of colour has become familiar territory in anthropology, linguistics, art history and archaeology. Classicists, however, have traditionally subordinated the study of colour to form. By drawing together evidence from contemporary philosophers, elegists, epic writers, historians and satirists, in this 2009 text, Mark Bradley reinstates colour as an essential informative unit for the classification and evaluation of the Roman world. He also demonstrates that the questions of what colour was and how it functioned - as well as how it could be misused and misunderstood - were topics of intellectual debate in early imperial Rome. Suggesting strategies for interpreting Roman expressions of colour in Latin texts, Dr Bradley offers alternative approaches to understanding the relationship between perception and knowledge in Roman elite thought. In doing so, he highlights the fundamental role that colour performed in the realms of communication and information, and its intellectual contribution to contemporary discussions of society, politics and morality.

What was the impact of Romanisation on non-elite life in central Italy during the late third and second centuries BC? Focusing on the increasing spread of black-gloss pottery across the peninsula, this 2007 text demonstrates the importance of the study of such everyday artefacts as a way of approaching aspects of social history that are otherwise little documented. Placing its subject within the wider debate over cultural identity in the Roman world, the book argues that stylistic changes in such objects of everyday use document the development of new forms of social representation among non-elite groups in Roman Italy. In contrast to previous accounts, the book concludes that, rather than pointing to a loss of regional cultural identities, the ceramic patterns suggest that the Romanisation of Italy provided new material opportunities across the social scale.

Originally published in 2005, this book examines Roman strategies for the appropriation of the Greek visual culture and argues that the scholarship on this topic, dominated by copy criticism (Kopienkritik), has not appreciated Roman values in the visual arts. Ellen Perry analyzes the Roman aesthetics that lie at the core of the visual conservatism - and innovation - in the art of that civilization. These attitudes help to explain the preponderance of copies, exact or free, after the sculpture of great Greek masters in Roman art. A knowledge of Roman values, Perry demonstrates, explains the entire range of visual appropriation in Roman art, which includes not only the phenomenon of copying, but also such manifestations as allusion, parody, and most importantly aemulatio, successful rivalry with one's models.

The transition from republic to monarchy with the accession of Augustus heralded the transformation not just of the Roman political system but of the city of Rome itself. This volume, written by some of the foremost scholars from around the world, addresses three main topics: the impact of imperial building programs on the configuration of space within the city and on the evolution of Rome's urban image; the various ways in which the figure of the emperor himself was represented, both visually and symbolically, in the city's urban fabric; and the performance of rituals and ceremonies that expressed key imperial ideals and values and enabled communications between the emperor and important collectivities in the city. The contributors build on important recent developments in research: increased archaeological excavation and restoration, the proliferation of digital technologies, and the greater attention paid by scholars to the centuries after Augustus.

Sir William Gell (1777-1836) was a British archaeologist well known for his drawings of sites and objects of classical interest. Gell published this new, two-volume edition of his Pompeiana in 1832, in an effort to describe the latest archaeological discoveries in the Roman city destroyed by an eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE. Concerned 'that time will incalculably diminish the freshness of those objects ... stripped of their external coats by the rains of winter or the burning suns of summer', he made it his task to describe what he had seen both through description and through his own numerous illustrations. In this second volume, Gell focuses on two Pompeiian homes and provides a commentary on the illustrative plates interspersed throughout the book. Pompeiana reveals both the history of the excavations, the individual finds, and the processes of field archaeology itself during a more romantic age.

Adolf Furtw ngler (1853 1907) was a prominent German archaeologist and art historian specialising in classical art. He was appointed assistant Director of the K nigliche Museen zu Berlin in 1880, a position he held until 1894 when he was appointed professor of Classical Archaeology in Munich. He is best known for developing the Kopienkritik approach to studying Roman sculpture, which he introduces in this volume first published in 1885 and translated into English by Eugenie Strong in 1895. Kopienkritik is a methodology which assumes that Roman sculptures are copies of Greek originals, and that by studying the Roman copies the original Greek sculpture can be reconstructed. This approach dominated the study of classical sculpture in the twentieth century and remains influential despite repeated criticism. Furtw ngler compares the styles of known classical Greek sculptors with Roman statues to uncover the original sculptor in this defining example of the Kopienkritic approach.

Looking at Greek Art by Mark D. Stansbury-O'Donnell offers a practical guide to the methods for approaching, analysing and contextualising an unfamiliar piece of Greek art. It demonstrates how objects are dated and assigned to an artist or region; how to interpret the subject matter and narrative; how to reconstruct the context for which an object was made, distributed and used; and how we can explore broader cultural perspectives by looking at questions of identity, gender and relationships to surrounding cultures. Each section focuses on different theoretical approaches, providing an overview of the theories, key terms and required evidence. Case studies serve to demonstrate each process and some key issues to consider when using a given approach. This book explores a variety of media, including terracotta, metalwork and jewellery, in addition to works found in major museum collections in the United States and Europe.

Looking at Greek Art by Mark D. Stansbury-O'Donnell offers a practical guide to the methods for approaching, analysing and contextualising an unfamiliar piece of Greek art. It demonstrates how objects are dated and assigned to an artist or region; how to interpret the subject matter and narrative; how to reconstruct the context for which an object was made, distributed and used; and how we can explore broader cultural perspectives by looking at questions of identity, gender and relationships to surrounding cultures. Each section focuses on different theoretical approaches, providing an overview of the theories, key terms and required evidence. Case studies serve to demonstrate each process and some key issues to consider when using a given approach. This book explores a variety of media, including terracotta, metalwork and jewellery, in addition to works found in major museum collections in the United States and Europe.

In this book, Brenda Longfellow examines one of the features of Roman Imperial cities, the monumental civic fountain. Built in cities throughout the Roman Empire during the first through third centuries AD, these fountains were imposing in size, frequently adorned with grand sculptures, and often placed in highly trafficked areas. Over twenty-five of these urban complexes can be associated with emperors. Dr Longfellow situates each of these examples within its urban environment and investigates the edifice as a product of an individual patron and a particular historical and geographical context. She also considers the role of civic patronage in fostering a dialogue between imperial and provincial elites with the local urban environment. Tracing the development of the genre across the empire, she illuminates the motives and ideologies of imperial and local benefactors in Rome and the provinces and explores the complex interplay of imperial power, patronage, and the local urban environment.

Amongst the manuscripts collected by Matthew Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury, and presented to Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, the most venerable is the sixth-century manuscript of the Gospels formerly owned by the great Benedictine Abbey of St Augustine's Canterbury. The manuscript has by tradition been associated with St Augustine, the Apostle of the English and first Archbishop of Canterbury; and may well have been one of the books sent by Pope Gregory the Great to St Augustine in the early years of the seventh century. In this volume, which was originally published in 1954, Professor Wormald tells what may be surmised about the origin and history of this manuscript and examines in detail the surviving work, with cautious suggestions about portions no longer existing. He concludes that there must have been a cycle of gospel scenes in the miniatures, certainly 72 and possibly 844.

Sir William Gell (1777-1836) was a British archaeologist well known for his drawings of sites and objects of classical interest. Gell published this new, two-volume edition of his Pompeiana in 1832, in an effort to describe the latest archaeological discoveries in the Roman city destroyed by an eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE. Concerned 'that time will incalculably diminish the freshness of those objects ... stripped of their external coats by the rains of winter or the burning suns of summer', he made it his task to describe what he had seen both through description and through his own numerous illustrations. In this first volume, Gell focuses on sites including the forum, baths, and the temple of Fortune. Pompeiana reveals both the history of the excavations, the individual finds, and the processes of field archaeology itself during a more romantic age.

Jane Ellen Harrison (1850 1928) was a prominent classical scholar who is remembered chiefly for her influential studies of Greek religion, archaeology, literature and art. Introductory Studies in Greek Art (1885) was Harrison's second book, published after a period spent studying archaeology at the British Museum under Sir Charles Newton and writing and lecturing on the subject of Greek vase painting. In her preface to the book Harrison claims that Greek art is distinguished by what she calls 'ideality', a term she defines as a 'peculiar quality ... which adapts itself to the consciousness of successive ages ... a certain largeness and universality which outlives the individual race and persists for all time.' The book covers topics including Chaldaeo-Assyria, Phoenicia, Pheidias and the Parthenon, and the altar of Eumenes at Pergamos.

This book explores how art and material culture were used to construct age, gender and social identity in the Greek Early Iron Age, 1100-700 BCE. Coming between the collapse of the Bronze Age palaces and the creation of Archaic city-states, these four centuries witnessed fundamental cultural developments and political realignments. Whereas previous archaeological research has emphasized class-based aspects of change, this study offers a more comprehensive view of early Greece by recognizing the place of children and women in a warrior-focused society. Combining iconographic analysis, gender theory, mortuary analysis, typological study and object biography, Susan Langdon explores how early figural art was used to mediate critical stages in the life-course of men and women. She shows how an understanding of the artistic and material contexts of social change clarifies the emergence of distinctive gender and class asymmetries that laid the basis for classical Greek society.

In this book, Ada Cohen focuses on art produced in Macedonia during the late Classical and early Hellenistic period, which coincides with the reigns of Philip II, his famous son Alexander the Great, and their immediate successors. Although inspired by traditional Greek themes and ideals, this body of artwork articulated specifically Macedonian aspirations. Cohen focuses on three key 'masculine' themes - warfare, hunting, and abduction of women - exploring their visual and conceptual interconnections. She demonstrates their preoccupation with the visual celebration of violence and studies the analogies they draw among the ideological categories of 'enemy', 'animal', and 'woman'. Simultaneously historical and thematic, Cohen's text is structured around select paintings and mosaics from northern Greek sites, such as Pella and Vergina, and from both secular and funerary contexts. She also examines monuments from other ancient contexts and in other media to illuminate specific questions of style, theme, and meaning.

Sir William Gell (1777-1836) was a British archaeologist known for his drawings of sites and objects of classical interest. Noting that from the beginning of the excavations at Pompeii in 1748 'to the present day, no [substantial] work has appeared in the English language upon the subject of its domestic antiquities', together with architect and fellow countryman John P. Gandy he first published Pompeiana to help detail important findings that had been made by the excavators in the first two decades of the nineteenth century. To this end they provide historical discussion, analysis, and over 75 plates illustrating various points of archaeological interest including, as their subtitle notes, 'the topography, edifices, and ornaments of Pompeii'. Pompeiana is an important work that helped open the excavations to English readers and created further awareness of the treasures of the doomed city, destroyed by an eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE.

The relief slabs that decorated the palaces of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, which emphasized military conquest and royal prowess, have traditionally been understood as statements of imperial propaganda that glorified the Assyrian king. In this book, Mehmet-Ali Atac argues that the reliefs hold a deeper meaning that was addressed primarily to an internal audience composed of court scholars and master craftsmen. Atac focuses on representations of animals, depictions of the king as priest and warrior, and figures of mythological beings that evoke an archaic cosmos. He demonstrates that these images mask a complex philosophical rhetoric developed by court scholars in collaboration with master craftsmen who were responsible for their design and execution. Atac argues that the layers of meaning embedded in the Neo-Assyrian palace reliefs go deeper than politics, imperial propaganda, and straightforward historical record.