This volume, the third in a series of catalogues of Pre-Columbian art at Dumbarton Oaks, presents the outstanding collection of Aztec, Mixtec, Zapotec, Teotihuacan, and Classic Veracruz sculpture, jewelry, and painting. Four leading scholars present essays on the ancient art and archaeology of Mexico's Central Highlands, Southwestern Highlands, and Gulf Lowlands as well as extensive catalogue entries of over one hundred objects of jade, shell, fine ceramics, wood, and other materials. The catalogue is richly illustrated with color plates, comparative illustrations, and diagrams presented as black-and-white figures. This catalogue will be an important and enduring reference for scholars and students, as well as an attractive volume for admirers of Pre-Columbian art.

Simple geometric techniques for making Celtic interlacements, spirals, Kellstype initials, animals, humans, etc. Lavishly illustrated.

For eight centuries the presence and the influence of Francis’s life and deeds have made themselves felt in the history of Christianity and in that of the rest of humanity too. Published on the occasion of the exhibition Friar Francis: Traces,Words, Images staged at the headquarters of the United Nations in New York, a place that hosts a variety of cultural experiences every day and that is itself a symbol of peace, the volume is a tribute to the figure of Francis, extraordinary man and saint, and it’s a rare occasion of great scientific and cultural value, to approach and get to know Francis through ancient and unique manuscripts coming from the Library of the Sacro Convento di San Francesco in Assisi. They are the oldest papal records and manuscripts that directly concern the person of the saint from Assisi: his writings, his life, the development of the religious order he founded. The book is divided into three sections: Traces, Words, Images. The Traces are the ones left by Francis at the level of official documentation, in the papal records and some notarial deeds. Alongside these is presented the most famous and authoritative of the manuscripts in Assisi, the Codex 338, which comprises the oldest collection of the saint’s writings. The Words section contains some copies of the oldest biographies, the hagiographic legendae of the saint. The Images section offers a selection of illuminated manuscripts in which the saint of Assisi is represented, precious examples of some of the principal traditional iconographic models.

What difference does music make to performance poetry, and how did the ancients themselves understand this relationship? Although scholars have long recognized the importance of music to ancient performance culture, little has been written on the specific effects that musical accompaniment, and features such as rhythmical structure and melody, would have created in individual poems. This volume attempts to answer these questions by exploring more fully the relationship between music and language in the poetry of ancient Greece. Arranged into two parts, the essays in the first half engage closely with the evidential and interpretative challenges posed by the interaction of ancient music and poetry, and propose original readings of a range of texts by authors such as Homer, Pindar, and Euripides, as well as later poets such as Seikilos and Mesomedes. While they emphasize different formal features, they also argue collectively for a two-way relationship between music and language: attention to the musical features of poetic texts, insofar as we can reconstruct them, enables us to better understand not only their effects on audiences, but also the various ways in which they project and structure meaning. In the second part, the focus shifts to ancient attempts to conceptualize interactions between words and music; the essays in this section analyse the contested place that music occupied in the works of Plato, Aristotle, Plutarch, and other critical writers of the Hellenistic and Imperial periods. Thinking about music is shown to influence other domains of intellectual life, such as literary criticism, and to be vitally informed by ethical concerns. These essays illustrate the importance of music for intellectual culture in ancient Greece and the ancients' abiding concern to understand and control its effects on human behaviour.

In Family Fictions in Roman Art, Natalie Kampen reveals the profoundly de-naturalized ways in which family could be represented in the interests of political power during the Roman Empire. Her study examines a group of splendid objects made over the course of six hundred years, from carved gems to triumphal arches to ivory plaques, and asks how and why artists and their elite patrons chose to depict family to speak of everything from gender to the nature of rulership, from social rank to relationship itself. In the process, artists found new and often strikingly odd ways to give form to families from conquered lands and provinces as well as from the Italian countryside and the court. The book s contribution is in its combination of close attention to the creativity of Roman art and interest in the visual language of social and political relationships in a great Empire.

In recent years, there has been intense debate about the reality behind the depiction of maritime cityscapes, especially harbours. Visualizing Harbours in the Classical World argues that the available textual and iconographic evidence supports the argument that these representations have a symbolic, rather than literal, meaning and message, and moreover that the traditional view, that all these media represent the reality of the contemporary cityscapes, is often unrealistic. Bridging the gap between archaeological sciences and the humanities, it ably integrates iconographic materials, epigraphic sources, history and archaeology, along with visual culture. Focusing on three main ancient ports - Alexandria, Rome and Leptis Magna - Federico Ugolini considers a range of issues around harbour iconography, from the triumphal imagery of monumental harbours and the symbolism of harbour images, their identification across the Mediterranean, and their symbolic, ideological and propagandistic messages, to the ways in which aspects of Imperial authority and control over the seas were expressed in the iconography of the Julio-Claudian, Trajan and Severii periods, how they reflected the repute, growth and power of the mercantile class during the Imperial era, and how the use of imagery reflected euergetism and paideia, which would inform the Roman audience about who had power over the sea.

The long and vibrant history of north-eastern England has left rich material deposits in the form of buildings, works of art, books and other artefacts. This heritage is examined here in fifteen studies, ranging from the sculpture of the Roman occupation through the monuments and architecture of the Anglo-Saxon and Norman periods, to the manuscripts and fortified houses of the later Middle Ages. The monasteries at Hexham, Lindisfarne and Tynemouth, and the City of Newcastle itself, are all subjected to individual analysis, and there are papers on Alnwick and Warkworth castles, the great keep at Newcastle, the coffin of St Cuthbert and the Lindisfarne Gospels. The expert opinions presented here are intended to stimulate and advance scholarly debate on the material culture of a region which has played a critical role in English history, and whose broad and varied profile still offers many opportunities for critical inquiry.

The nineteen papers in this volume stem from a symposium that brought together academics, archaeologists, museum curators, conservators, and a practicing marble sculptor to discuss varying approaches to restoration of ancient stone sculptures.
Contributors and their subjects include Marion True and Jerry Podany on changing approaches to conservation; Seymour Howard on restoration and the antique model; Nancy H. Ramage's case study on the relationship between a restorer, Vincenzo Pacetti, and his patron, Luciano Bonaparte; Mette Moltesen on de-restoring and re-restoring in the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek; Miranda Marvin on the Ludovisi collection; and Andreas Scholl on the history of restoration of ancient sculptures in the Altes Museum in Berlin.
The book also features contributions by Elizabeth Bartman, Brigitte Bourgeois, Jane Fejfer, Angela Gallottini, Sascha Kansteiner, Giovanna Martellotti, Orietta Rossi Pinelli, Peter Rockwell, Edmund Southworth, Samantha Sportun, and Markus Trunk. Charles Rhyne summarizes the themes, approaches, issues, and questions raised by the symposium.

The Han dynasty was the first to forge a stable empire governing all of China. It ruled during a golden age that shaped much of the nation's cultural history and development. In an effort to preserve their legacy of beauty and power, the Han created elaborate tombs containing exquisite artistic treasures intended for use in the afterlife. The finest of these treasures to have survived include exquisite jades, bronzes, and ceramics, found in the tombs of the Han imperial family and of a rival "emperor" of Nanyue. Many of the items, including warrior statues, dancing figures, and priceless jewels-intended to ensure protection, entertainment, and continued wealth and status, respectively-are brought together for the first time in this stunning publication. Featuring newly commissioned photography and essays by leading scholars, this sumptuously illustrated catalogue presents a ground-breaking account of the finest treasures from the Han dynasty. Published in association with The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge Exhibition Schedule: The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge(05/05/12-11/11/12)

Discussions of apocalyptic thought and its sources in the ancient Near East, particularly Mesopotamia, have a long scholarly history, with a renewed interest and focus in the recent decades. Outside Assyriological scholarship as well, studies of the apocalyptic give significant credit to the ancient Near East, especially Babylonia and Iran, as potential sources for the manifestations of this phenomenon in the Hellenistic period. The emphasis on kingship and empire in apocalyptic modes of thinking warrants special attention paid to the regal art of ancient Mesopotamia and adjacent areas in its potential to express the relevant notions. In this book, Mehmet-Ali Atac demonstrates the importance of visual evidence as a source for apocalyptic thought. Focusing on the so-called investiture painting from Mari, he relates it to parallel evidence from the visual traditions of the Assyrian Empire, ancient Egypt, and Hittite Anatolia.

Ranging widely over the fields of sculpture, vase painting, and the minor arts, this book provides a brilliant and original introduction to the art of archaic and classical Greece. By looking closely at the social and cultural contexts in which the rich diversity of Greek arts were produced, Robin Osborne shows how artistic developments were both a product of, and contributed to, the intensely competitive life of the Greek city.

In a major revisionary approach to ancient Greek culture, Sarah Morris invokes as a paradigm the myths surrounding Daidalos to describe the profound influence of the Near East on Greece's artistic and literary origins.