Emotions and Ancient Near Eastern Art: Issues and Methods
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Karen Sonik
Abstract
This article explores how emotions were encoded, expressed, and received by the makers and audiences of ancient Near Eastern visual arts. It focuses on emotional intent(s), encompassing the intentions of the artists or makers and the emotions they seek to convey through their works and/or evoke in viewers; emotional content(s), those emotions that are conveyed within or expressed by a work itself; and emotional effect(s), the audience’s emotional responses to or receptions of an artwork. In pursuing the emotional contents of ancient Near Eastern art, the article particularly explores the sub-categories of faces, postures, gestures, actions, emissions, and contexts. Taking up specific case studies such as a sculpture of Gudea, contest scenes on cylinder seals, and Ashurbanipal’s dying lion reliefs, the article’s overall purpose is to explore the complex worlds of feeling that ancient artworks have the capacity to encompass. Notably, the emotions revealed, while they may seem familiar or broadly correspondent to some of our own emotions, may well possess different definitions, boundaries, and associations. While emotions may be universal, the ways in which they are experienced and expressed differ across different cultures and even communities.
Abstract
This article explores how emotions were encoded, expressed, and received by the makers and audiences of ancient Near Eastern visual arts. It focuses on emotional intent(s), encompassing the intentions of the artists or makers and the emotions they seek to convey through their works and/or evoke in viewers; emotional content(s), those emotions that are conveyed within or expressed by a work itself; and emotional effect(s), the audience’s emotional responses to or receptions of an artwork. In pursuing the emotional contents of ancient Near Eastern art, the article particularly explores the sub-categories of faces, postures, gestures, actions, emissions, and contexts. Taking up specific case studies such as a sculpture of Gudea, contest scenes on cylinder seals, and Ashurbanipal’s dying lion reliefs, the article’s overall purpose is to explore the complex worlds of feeling that ancient artworks have the capacity to encompass. Notably, the emotions revealed, while they may seem familiar or broadly correspondent to some of our own emotions, may well possess different definitions, boundaries, and associations. While emotions may be universal, the ways in which they are experienced and expressed differ across different cultures and even communities.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Foreword to the Series V
- Acknowledgments IX
- Contents XI
- Introduction 1
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1 Contemporary Methodological Perspectives on Emotions
- Selected Avenues to Emotion-Oriented Interpretations of Ancient Religious Texts: Review and Outlook 9
- Grasping Religiously Connoted Emotions and Sentiments from a Co-Constructivist Emotion Paradigm 29
- Antisemitism as Cultural Sadism: An Erotohistorical Approach 51
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2 Grasping Emotions in Ancient Iconography
- Emotions and Ancient Near Eastern Art: Issues and Methods 79
- Emotions and Visual Arts, with a Focus on Greco-Roman Artefacts: A Response to K. Sonik 99
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3 Grasping Emotions in Religious Authorative Texts of Antiquity
- Emotion Scripts in the Hebrew Bible: A Case of Hate 127
- Grasping Emotions in Psalm 130: Hermeneutics, Methods, and Issues 143
- Prophetic Shockvertising: Methods and Ethics of Shock Effects in Amos 3, Isaiah 20, and Ezekiel 23 177
- „Und sie fürchteten sich sehr …“: Kognitionswissenschaftliche Erkenntnisse zur Angst und deren Anwendung auf neutestamentliche Texte 207
- Qur’anic Plot and the Practice of Emotional Virtue, with the Example of Al-Aʿrāf (Q. 7) 229
- Divine Attributes and Human Emotions: Joseph’s Sentimental Education in Sura 12 of the Qur'an 253
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4 Grasping Emotions from Philosophical and Systematic-Theological Perspectives
- Kontrollieren oder Kultivieren der Emotionen? Aristoteles’ Konzeption der Emotionen 273
- Sprache und Gefühl: Überlegungen zur theologischen Hermeneutik 289
- Mimesis, Gefühl und Ratio: Anthropologische Mehrdimensionalität und religiöse Tradition: Eine Response zu R. Barth 303
- List of Authors 313
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Foreword to the Series V
- Acknowledgments IX
- Contents XI
- Introduction 1
-
1 Contemporary Methodological Perspectives on Emotions
- Selected Avenues to Emotion-Oriented Interpretations of Ancient Religious Texts: Review and Outlook 9
- Grasping Religiously Connoted Emotions and Sentiments from a Co-Constructivist Emotion Paradigm 29
- Antisemitism as Cultural Sadism: An Erotohistorical Approach 51
-
2 Grasping Emotions in Ancient Iconography
- Emotions and Ancient Near Eastern Art: Issues and Methods 79
- Emotions and Visual Arts, with a Focus on Greco-Roman Artefacts: A Response to K. Sonik 99
-
3 Grasping Emotions in Religious Authorative Texts of Antiquity
- Emotion Scripts in the Hebrew Bible: A Case of Hate 127
- Grasping Emotions in Psalm 130: Hermeneutics, Methods, and Issues 143
- Prophetic Shockvertising: Methods and Ethics of Shock Effects in Amos 3, Isaiah 20, and Ezekiel 23 177
- „Und sie fürchteten sich sehr …“: Kognitionswissenschaftliche Erkenntnisse zur Angst und deren Anwendung auf neutestamentliche Texte 207
- Qur’anic Plot and the Practice of Emotional Virtue, with the Example of Al-Aʿrāf (Q. 7) 229
- Divine Attributes and Human Emotions: Joseph’s Sentimental Education in Sura 12 of the Qur'an 253
-
4 Grasping Emotions from Philosophical and Systematic-Theological Perspectives
- Kontrollieren oder Kultivieren der Emotionen? Aristoteles’ Konzeption der Emotionen 273
- Sprache und Gefühl: Überlegungen zur theologischen Hermeneutik 289
- Mimesis, Gefühl und Ratio: Anthropologische Mehrdimensionalität und religiöse Tradition: Eine Response zu R. Barth 303
- List of Authors 313
