Openwork

Presents a diachronic investigation providing a rich case study as well as an approach tracing the contours of a category of Roman material culture defined by the Roman period technique of openwork carving. This work shows how openwork vessels are a reflection of a wide-reaching Roman cultural aesthetic.

Art objects and pictures of the first millennium BC Chr. From the Middle East and the Eastern Mediterranean are viewed here from a perspective that sees art as a symbolic data carrier. Art conveys culturally shaped statements and thereby allows conclusions to be drawn about the culture, world view and religion of a people. In this book, it is examined in its triple function as an artifact, visual medium and reflection of cultural ideas.

This book is significant for its concept of "openness"--the artist's decision to leave arrangements of some constituents of a work to the public or to chance--and for its anticipation of two themes of literary theory: the element of multiplicity and plurality in art, and the insistence on literary response as an interaction between reader and text.