The Representation Of Space In Graeco Roman Art

This book assesses the role of relief in the representation of space in Graeco-Roman artistic practice and its study – from Winckelmann to the mid-twentieth century – when Classical art developed as a theoretical discipline. The role of relief in the history of ancient sculpture has long been acknowledged, yet the problems posed by an engagement with the representation of space have not been a subject of specific and sustained inquiry. Neither a conventional history nor a comprehensive historiography, this book traces the study of relief – of its formal character, its artistic purpose, its aesthetic significance, and its historical treatment. The contribution to scholarship is three-fold: (1) By means of a wide array of examples, the book demonstrates that the visual strategies employed to represent space during the Graeco-Roman period were a continuously evolving repertory tied to the refinement of techniques and the transformation of styles that those techniques brought into being. (2) It examines ideas now commonplace, based on scholarship now long-neglected if not completely forgotten. And (3) it reveals how competing interpretations of the representation of space in relief elaborated new approaches to the monuments and their representations.

Landscape has been a key theme in world archaeology and trans-cultural art history over the last half century, particularly in the study of painting in art history and in all questions of human intervention and the placement of monuments in the natural world within archaeology. However, the representation of landscape has been rather less addressed in the scholarship of the archaeologically-accessed visual cultures of the ancient world. The kinds of reliefs, objects, and paintings discussed here have a significant purchase on matters concerned with landscape and space in the visual sphere, but were discovered within archaeological contexts and by means of excavation. Through case studies focused on the invention of wilderness imagery in ancient China, the relation of monuments to landscape in ancient Greece, the place of landscape painting in Mesoamerican Maya art, and the construction of sacred landscape across Eurasia between Stonehenge and the Silk Road via Pompeii, this book emphasises the importance of thinking about models of landscape in ancient art, as well as the value of comparative approaches in underlining core aspects of the topic. Notably, it explores questions of space, both actual and conceptual, including how space is configured through form and representation.

A complete introduction to the rich cultural legacy of Rome through the study of Roman art ... It includes a discussion of the relevance of Rome to the modern world, a short historical overview, and descriptions of forty-five works of art in the Roman collection organized in three thematic sections: Power and Authority in Roman Portraiture; Myth, Religion, and the Afterlife; and Daily Life in Ancient Rome. This resource also provides lesson plans and classroom activities."--Publisher website.

How does ‘decoration’ work? What are the relations between ‘figurative’ and ‘ornamental’ modes? And how do such modern western distinctions relate to other critical traditions? While these questions have been much debated among art historians, our book offers an ancient visual cultural perspective. On the one hand, we argue, Greek and Roman materials have proved instrumental in shaping modern assumptions. On the other hand, those ideologies are fundamentally removed from ancient ideas: an ancient perspective can therefore shed light on larger aesthetic debates about what images are – or indeed what they should be.This anthology of specially commissioned essays explores a variety of case studies (both literary and art historical alike): it discusses materials from across the ancient Mediterranean, and from Geometric art all the way through to late antiquity; the book also tackles questions of ‘figure’ and ‘ornament’ in relation to different media – including painting, free-standing statues, relief sculpture, mosaics and architecture. A particular feature of the volume lies in bringing together different national academic traditions, building a bridge between formalist approaches and broader cultural historical perspectives.

A Companion to Roman Art encompasses various artistic genres, ancient contexts, and modern approaches for a comprehensive guide to Roman art. Offers comprehensive and original essays on the study of Roman art Contributions from distinguished scholars with unrivalled expertise covering a broad range of international approaches Focuses on the socio-historical aspects of Roman art, covering several topics that have not been presented in any detail in English Includes both close readings of individual art works and general discussions Provides an overview of main aspects of the subject and an introduction to current debates in the field

In this volume, Dr Gordon examines the way in which images contributed to the creation of religious meanings in the Graeco-Roman world. Special attention is paid to Mithraism's notion of sacred space, its use of metaphors taken from the natural world, and its ideals of social action.

This book explores divine manifestations and their representations not only in art, but also in literature, histories and inscriptions. The cultural analysis of epiphany is set within a historical framework that examines its development from the archaic period through the Hellenistic world and into the Roman Empire.

Women's mobility is central to understanding cultural constructions of gender. Regarding ancient cultures, including ancient Greece, a re-evaluation of women's mobility within the household and beyond it is currently taking place. This invites an informed analysis of female mobility in Greek myth, under the premise that myth may open a venue to social ideology and the imaginary. Female Mobility and Gendered Space in Ancient Greek Myth offers the first comprehensive analysis of this topic. It presents close readings of ancient texts, engaging with feminist thought and the 'mobility turn'. A variety of Olympian goddesses and mortal heroines are explored, and the analysis of their myths follows specific chronological considerations. Female mobility is presented in quite diverse ways in myth, reflecting cultural flexibility in imagining mobile goddesses and heroines. At the same time, the out-of-doors spaces that mortal heroines inhabit seem to lack a public or civic quality, with the heroines being contained behind 'glass walls'. In this respect, myth seems to reproduce the cultural limitations of ancient Greek social ideology on mobility, inviting us to reflect not only on the limits of mythic imagination but also on the timelessness of Greek myth.