Monumenta Graeca et Romana

New Approaches to Ancient Material Culture in the Greek & Roman World is about Classical Archaeology at its broadest and is important reading to all Classicists. As part of a recent movement to highlight the rich diversity of the subject it overcomes traditional disciplinary boundaries to show the variety of current approaches to the study of Classical Antiquity from the Late Bronze Age to the Late Antique period. The multi-disciplinary papers deal with archaeology and art history, museum objects and fieldwork data, ancient texts and material culture, archaeological theory and historiography, and technical and literary analysis. The international contributors discuss a selection of methodologies currently used to study ancient material, and illustrate their relevance through case studies which span the Greek and Roman world.

The essays in New Studies on the Portrait of Caligula in the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts address art historical, historical, cultural and museological issues raised by one of two surviving intact statues of the Roman emperor Caligula (r. 37-41 C.E.). Contributions focus on the creation of a 3D-digital model of the statue and the search for traces of its original polychromy; the history of the statue from its creation to the present, including its rediscovery at a Julio-Claudian sanctuary at Bovillae; aspects of Caligula’s literary and visual portrayal in antiquity and modern historiography (including questions concerning the destruction of his portraits and the implications of Jewish sources for the study of Caligula); and the emperor’s image in popular culture.

Setting as a starting point the introduction of the black-figure technique in Attic workshops at around 630 BCE, this book attempts a contextual analysis of Attic pottery until late in the first quarter of the sixth century BCE. The shapes and their functions, as well as the iconographic themes are explored through this perspective. This offers an interesting insight into funerary, cultic and profane activities in Athens and the Attic countryside, which is completed by an extensive study of the trade and distribution of Attic vases during this period. The result is a complete overview of early black-figure Attic production, enabling an afresh archaeological approach to late seventh-and early sixth-century Attic society.

The purpose of this book is to present the Hekatompedon Inscription at Athens (IG I³ 4) as a major monument of Greek art, legitimately on a par with more famous landmarks of the Greek aesthetic tradition like the Parthenon Frieze. Inscribed most probably in the middle of the decade that saw the Greek response to the Persian invasion, the Hekatompedon Inscription has long been recognized for its historical and religious importance. This study looks at the inscription on its own terms: the unique fusion of its visual and textual content in that most Greek of epigraphical layouts, the stoikhedon style. Such an approach leads to the question of origins: where and why was the stoikhedon style formulated and where does the Hekatompedon Inscription stand in that development? Egypt’s influential system of proportions and use of grids will be considered determinative for the very first time.

This catalogue raisonné describes the lamps and statuettes in terracotta of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, to which are added two lamps made of bronze. The collection, small but eclectic, has mostly been assembled in recent years and represents a wide variety of types in these two categories. After an introduction discussing the techniques involved in the production of these objects, the catalogue proper presents 44 lamps, 21 figurines and a single arula with full illustration. This catalogue makes the collection available to a wide readership: students, curators, archaeologists, art historians, collectors and everybody with serious interest in the material culture of the ancient world.
This is the second volume of a series intended to make public the different parts of the museum’s collection of Mediterranean antiquities.

Ce catalogue raisonné présente les lampes et les figurines en terre cuite du Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal ainsi que deux lampes de bronze. La collection, petite mais éclectique, a été formée récemment et comprend un bon échantillon de ces types d'objets. Après en avoir expliqué les techniques de fabrication, le catalogue illustré décrit 44 lampes, 21 statuettes et une arula. Ce livre s'adresse aux étudiants, aux conservateurs, aux archéologues, aux historiens d'art et aux collectionneurs, bref à ceux qu'intéresse l'archéologie du monde antique.
Il s'agit du deuxième catalogue d'une série qui vise à publier la collection des antiquités du Musée.