The Living Death of Antiquity - Neoclassical Aesthetics (Hardcover)

The Living Death of Antiquity examines the idealization of an antiquity that exhibits, in the words of Johann Joachim Winckelmann, 'a noble simplicity and quiet grandeur'. Fitzgerald discusses the aesthetics of this strain of neoclassicism as manifested in a range of work in different media and periods, focusing on the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. In the aftermath of Winckelmann's writing, John Flaxman's engraved scenes from the Iliad and the sculptors Antonio Canova and Bertel Thorvaldsen reinterpreted ancient prototypes or invented new ones. Earlier and later versions of this aesthetic in the ancient Greek Anacreontea, the French Parnassian poets and Erik Satie's Socrate, manifest its character in different media and periods. Looking with a sympathetic eye on the original aspirations of the neoclassical aesthetic and its forward-looking potential, Fitzgerald describes how it can tip over into the vacancy or kitsch through which a 'remaindered' antiquity lingers in our minds and environments. This book asks how the neoclassical value of simplicity serves to conjure up an epiphanic antiquity, and how whiteness, in both its literal and its metaphorical forms, acts as the 'logo' of neoclassical antiquity, and functions aesthetically in a variety of media. In the context of the waning of a neoclassically idealized antiquity, Fitzgerald describes the new contents produced by its asymptotic approach to meaninglessness, and how the antiquity that it imagined both is and is not with us.

General

Imprint:	Oxford UniversityPress
Country of origin:	United Kingdom
Series:	Classical Presences
Release date:	February 2022
Authors:	William Fitzgerald (Professor of Latin Language and Literature)
Dimensions:	241 x 165 x 20mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Hardcover
Pages:	288
ISBN-13:	978-0-19-289396-3
Categories:	Books > Arts & Architecture > History of art / art & design styles > BC to 500 CE, Ancient & classical world Books > Arts & Architecture > History of art / art & design styles > 1800 to 1900 > General Books > Arts & Architecture > History of art / art & design styles > From 1900 > General Books > Humanities > History > World history > BCE to 500 CE Books > Arts & Architecture > History of art / art & design styles > 1600 to 1800 > Classicism > General Books > History > World history > BCE to 500 CE
LSN:	0-19-289396-3
Barcode:	9780192893963

Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate? Let us know about it.

Does this product have an incorrect or missing image? Send us a new image.

Is this product missing categories? Add more categories.

Review This Product

No reviews yet - be the first to create one!