5 The protohistory of portraits in words and images (sixth–fifth century BCE): tyrants, poets, and artists
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Carmine Catenacci
Abstract
Ancient Greece marked a crucial turning point in the history of portraiture in Western culture. However, portraiture went through a long, complex, and irregular process of development. The representation of individuals not only reflects specific expressive and artistic conventions, but also implies a social idea of the body and its function. Moreover, it encompasses the construction of personal identity and its public recognition in a shared social context. Both visual art and words contribute to this form of representation, each through its own means of expression. Human images fill the spaces of the polis: the agora, places of worship, burial sites, festive and ritual contexts, and symposia. Visual experience interacts with the spoken word, and vice versa. Traditional poetic patterns correspond to conventional artistic ones, while preserving their specificities. One of the first developments in the history of portraiture took place in the Ionian and Athenian area between the sixth and the fifth century BCE. Our attention will be focused on the figure of the tyrant (particularly Peisistratos) as a catalyst of individuality, as well as on the individualising aspects of the poetry of those years, such as Anacreon’s verses. The first portraits tended to privilege the representation of diversity, deformity, and ugliness which deviated from traditional patterns. These were followed by the portrait masks - or, rather, caricature masks - of ancient comedy.
Abstract
Ancient Greece marked a crucial turning point in the history of portraiture in Western culture. However, portraiture went through a long, complex, and irregular process of development. The representation of individuals not only reflects specific expressive and artistic conventions, but also implies a social idea of the body and its function. Moreover, it encompasses the construction of personal identity and its public recognition in a shared social context. Both visual art and words contribute to this form of representation, each through its own means of expression. Human images fill the spaces of the polis: the agora, places of worship, burial sites, festive and ritual contexts, and symposia. Visual experience interacts with the spoken word, and vice versa. Traditional poetic patterns correspond to conventional artistic ones, while preserving their specificities. One of the first developments in the history of portraiture took place in the Ionian and Athenian area between the sixth and the fifth century BCE. Our attention will be focused on the figure of the tyrant (particularly Peisistratos) as a catalyst of individuality, as well as on the individualising aspects of the poetry of those years, such as Anacreon’s verses. The first portraits tended to privilege the representation of diversity, deformity, and ugliness which deviated from traditional patterns. These were followed by the portrait masks - or, rather, caricature masks - of ancient comedy.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- Introduction 1
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Part I: In limine
- 1 À rebours: intervisuality from the Middle Ages to classical antiquity 15
- 2 From image to theatrical play in Aeschylus’ Oresteia 33
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Part II: Archaic and classical age
- 3 Homer and the art of cinematic warfare 81
- 4 Intervisuality in the Greek symposium 103
- 5 The protohistory of portraits in words and images (sixth–fifth century BCE): tyrants, poets, and artists 121
- 6 Looking at Athens through the lyric lens 149
- 7 The politics of intervisuality 171
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Part III: Hellenistic and imperial age
- 8 The goddess playing with gold 197
- 9 Intervisuality in declamation and sung poetry in imperial Greek cities 213
- 10 Intervisual allusions in Lucian, Dialogues of the Sea Gods 15 235
- 11 Was Philostratus the Elder an admirer of Ovidian enargeia? 255
- 12 ἐκ τῶν πινάκων. Aristaenetus’ intervisual allusions to Philostratus’ art gallery 283
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Part IV: Pointing to Rome
- 13 Ordering the res gestae: observations on the relationship between texts and images in Roman ‘historical’ representations 305
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Appendix
- List of contributors 335
- Index nominum et rerum notabilium 339
- Index locorum 345
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- Introduction 1
-
Part I: In limine
- 1 À rebours: intervisuality from the Middle Ages to classical antiquity 15
- 2 From image to theatrical play in Aeschylus’ Oresteia 33
-
Part II: Archaic and classical age
- 3 Homer and the art of cinematic warfare 81
- 4 Intervisuality in the Greek symposium 103
- 5 The protohistory of portraits in words and images (sixth–fifth century BCE): tyrants, poets, and artists 121
- 6 Looking at Athens through the lyric lens 149
- 7 The politics of intervisuality 171
-
Part III: Hellenistic and imperial age
- 8 The goddess playing with gold 197
- 9 Intervisuality in declamation and sung poetry in imperial Greek cities 213
- 10 Intervisual allusions in Lucian, Dialogues of the Sea Gods 15 235
- 11 Was Philostratus the Elder an admirer of Ovidian enargeia? 255
- 12 ἐκ τῶν πινάκων. Aristaenetus’ intervisual allusions to Philostratus’ art gallery 283
-
Part IV: Pointing to Rome
- 13 Ordering the res gestae: observations on the relationship between texts and images in Roman ‘historical’ representations 305
-
Appendix
- List of contributors 335
- Index nominum et rerum notabilium 339
- Index locorum 345
