Image & Context

This book offers the first in-depth study of Attic funerary monuments during the geometric, archaic, and classical period. The analysis of forms, images and inscriptions shows, from an anthropological perspective, the Athenian attitude towards death in its fundamental difference to Christian occidental views.

The book, which was originally published in German, is revised.

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.

The book presents a broad survey of Greek votive terracotta figurines, a class of votives where previous scholarship has mainly consisted of research in specific sites and collections. They have traditionally been interpreted as inexpensive and inconspicuous votives for everyday use, but this study questions whether this is in fact the case.

By introducing the theoretical model of chaîne opératoire for a life cycle study of the votive figurines the book moves through the stages of production, distribution, use and discard of the votives, the latter both in the sense of practical discard and in the end of use. The study is based on a selection of case studies and surveys of relevant material, allowing for in-depth analyses of the terracottas in those life stages of shifting contextual interactions.

The approach furthers new knowledge on several levels, such as the value of the terracottas, their suitability and their popularity as dedications, their iconography and symbolism, the general votive practice, and the end of the terracotta practice. As such, the book is relevant for all who seek insights on terracotta figurines, votive offerings, ritual practice, as well as those interested in archaeological methodology, theory and contexts.

Flowers and florals on Attic vases are usually neglected in scholarship and that because they are considered as meaningless, superfluous ornaments which in the best case, can serve to chronological and typological classifications. The purpose of my book is to show that flowers and florals, far from being mere ornaments, have a very meaningful existence: when represented in interaction with figures, they operate as figurative agents and polyvalent signs. Source of multisensory delight, they convey a reservoir of values linked to the notions of kosmos (adornment, order, arrangement), of poikilia (variety, diversity), and that of kharis in its declinations personified by the Kharites, Aglaia (physical beauty, youth, radiance), Thalia (abundance, generosity, favour and gift) and Euphrosyne (jubilation and pleasure of the senses). In other words, flowers and florals, however minor and peripheral they may seem, help us to better apprehend the archaic and classical Athenian society. They also show us how fictitious are our modern categories of "figure" and "ornament", when used in the case of Attic vases.

Figurines exhibiting a distorted appearance were exceptionally à la mode in the Hellenistic and Roman periods. Archaeologists have attributed a wide gamut of functions to them. The underlying common denominator of all the propounded theories is that the purpose of these images was the lampoon and degradation of the dregs of society and of the physically deformed. This book argues that such statuettes conversely carried deeply positive meanings.

From gleaming hardstone statues to bright frescoes, the unexpected and often spectacular Egyptian objects discovered in Roman Italy have long presented an interpretive challenge. How they shaped and were shaped by religion, politics, and identity formation has now been well researched. But one crucial function of these objects remains to be explored: their role as precious goods in a collector’s economy. The Romans imported and recreated Egyptian goods in the most opulent materials available – gold, gems, expensive wood, ivory, luxurious textiles – and displayed them like true treasures. This is due in part to the way Romans encountered these items, as argued in this book: first as dazzling spolia from the war against Cleopatra, then as costly wares exchanged over the expanding Roman trade routes. In this respect, Romans treated Egyptian art surprisingly similarly to Greek art. By examining the concrete mechanisms through which Egyptian objects were acquired and displayed in Rome, this book offers a new understanding of this impressive material at the crossroads of Hellenistic, Roman, and Egyptian culture.

The fact that most ancient marble portraits were once intentionally polychrome has always been lurking at the corners of art historical and archaeological research. Despite the fact, that the colours of the sculpted forms completed, enhanced and even extended the plastic shapes, the topic has not been devoted much dedicated attention. This book represents the first full-length academic monograph which explores the original polychromy of Roman white marble portraiture. It presents results from scientific analysis of portraits in statuary and bust formats dating to the first three centuries CE. The book also explores the cultural and social significance of colours in their original contexts, and how the immaterial affects of the polychrome, three-dimensional images can be integrated into the traditional research into ancient portraiture, which has tended to place overwhelming emphasis on iconography, typology and biography. By doing so the ancient sculpted marble form, as we know it, will be exposed and confronted, and the impact of manipulated material effects, that were meant to evoke a broad range of multisensory experiences, will be emphasized. The book puts forth a new way of analysis to be tested and developed in the future.

Given their prominent roof-top location, akroteria helped shape the appearance of a building. This study undertakes a careful analysis of the aesthetic and pictorial phenomena of figurative Greek akroteria in their architectonic and historical context. It explores the role of figurative sculptures in shaping and characterizing a building, as well as their significance for the representation of the building owner.

The concept of attribute has been theoretically neglected in art history. The aim of this book is to show what fundamental issues relating to the functioning and (our) understanding of Greek images are bound up with this seemingly innocent term, namely the issues of 'time' and of identity, and what changing strategies were adopted in order to cope with these.

The book tells the story of the Athenian elite between 600 and 400 BCE through the imagery on the luxury pottery from which the wealthy drank at their festivals. More than 6,000 analytic presentations lend insight into the lives of the elite as horse owners, athletes, and banquet socialites. The pictorial analysis is prefaced by a cultural historical section that describes the history and socio-economic situation of the elite.

Images of Dionysos and his followers grace the painted drinking vessels of ancient Athens in their thousands. Against the background of revelry for which these vessels were produced, this volume presents a comprehensive interpretation of the colourful world of the images. These range from mythical tales about the god of wine, to the lecherous activities of the half-human Satyrs and complex rituals of intoxication and ecstasy. The results shed light on the many-sided image of Dionysos in classical Athens, as well as on the forms of interaction between image and viewer.

This volume offers the first in-depth study of Attic funerary monuments during the geometric, archaic, and classical periods. The analysis of forms, images and inscriptions shows the Athenian attitude towards death in its fundamental difference to Christian occidental views. This anthropological view of the graves also allows valuable real- and cultural-historical conclusions to be drawn about the Athenians and their time.

Why was the bloody struggle between the Amazons and Greeks among the most popular subjects for depiction on Roman sarcophagi? This study uses the extensive corpus of Amazon sarcophageal imagery as a source for examining key aspects of the history of bodies and the history of representations of violence. It provides insight into the radical transformation in ways of dealing with grief and death that took place during the Roman Empire.

This book analyses the stylistic, iconographic and historical aspects of the Chigi vase, the famous Protocorinthian olpe dating back as early as ca. 650 BC. The vase is the masterpiece of the Chigi Painter, a skilful vase-painter who was acquainted as well with the big size Corinthian painting. The different themes, which run along the three main friezes, link each other in order to build up a true iconographic program: its key point is the distinction between the lower frieze for the ephebes’ paideia and the two main friezes which show the Corinthian elites through their activities – either real or symbolic ones – and distinguishing attributes. Paris’ judgment is meant as part of this iconographic program as it shows, through a mythical paradigm, a necessary step of the life, i.e. the wedding, as well as the risks that it involves. The socio-political interpretation of the iconographic program opens the historical question of which system could be implied, as the vase was painted in a critical moment of Corinthian history, i.e. in the period when Kypselos became tyrant and exiled the Bakchiads. Finally, on the background of Demaratus’ tradition, the analysis investigates a possible scenario for the arrival of the Chigi olpe in the hands of an Etruscan prince of Veii, in whose tumulus it was found in 1882.

Il libro è dedicato all’olpe Chigi, il celebre vaso protocorinzio della metà del VII sec. a.C., di cui vengono analizzati gli aspetti stilistici, iconografici e storici. Il pittore è un abilissimo ceramografo, che dimostra anche una contiguità con la prima pittura corinzia di grande formato. Il programma iconografico dell’olpe esprime l’ideologia ed il contesto storico della committenza, ponendo il problema di quale società vi sia riflessa, in un momento critico della storia di Corinto, quello che conosce il passaggio dall’oligarchia alla tirannide.

With its richly figurative friezes, the column of Marcus Aurelius is a key monument of Roman art concerned with representing power. Yet it has always been regarded and interpreted as being overshadowed by Trajan’s column. The present study abandons this point of view. Starting from a systematic analysis of the visual material, it investigates the forms of imperial representation in the reliefs. The findings of the study not only lead to a new aesthetic and historical valuation of the column of Marcus Aurelius but also suggest ways to reconsider other comparable images of Roman art concerned with representing power.

The Athenian discovery of the human body and its roles in images from the 8th and 7th centuries BCE furnishes a central discursive perspective for understanding Athenian society. This work begins by analysing the themes portrayed in Athenian imagery, considering the reciprocal influences between body images and social roles. It then goes on to contextualize body images - for example, in terms of the agency of images and their portrayal. On this foundation, changing body images and roles are distilled into a cultural history of early Athenian society.

The modern viewer is familiar with winged human figures in pictures, above all angels. Winged figures are also frequent on Greek vases. However, here, they must be seen in a very different cultural and, above all, religious context. What is their meaning in these contexts, and what does this tell us about how the pictures are to be understood overall? By trying to find answers to these questions, the books tells us a great deal about how the ancient Greeks saw the world and their role in it, and how they understood their relationship with the gods.

This book revolves around the shaping of Roman domestic space and cultural issues of privacy and representativeness. At the core is a set of lavish rooms where layout, architecture and décor bespeak the presence of one or two beds suitable for sleep or daytime rest. For the first time, the author restores the rich contextual readings regarding the dense network of location, architecture, accessibility, lighting, landscape, decoration. In Pompeian houses alcove cubicula were among the key reception rooms. Their images acted as prime symbols of power, as real weapons in strategies of distinction. Luxury, lifestyle, prestige, and the debates around them seem to be primarily related to the design of these comparatively small environments. No other type of room shows such quick adaptation to the most up-to-date trends, owing to a series of real revolutions in fashion first developed for lavish patrician residences, then spread among medium-, later even small-size abodes throughout town. In the realm of domestic life, alcove rooms constitute a sound source for inquiring into the different tastes of Pompeii's various social groups. Defined by financial means and social affluence, their tastes ranged from aesthetics of luxury to an ordinary reception of trivialized clichés.

Nikolaus Dietrich presents a general model for the understanding of space in Greek paintings, based on an analysis of landscape elements in Attic vase painting of the 6th and 5th centuries BC. Our concept of space in landscapes proves to be completely unsuitable for understanding these motifs. Space in Greek paintings is not an earlier stage in the development of the concept we have employed since the Renaissance, but a completely different one, and a clear indication of the cultural relativity of our way of seeing things.

Although the emperor’s wreath is omnipresent in Roman art, little attention has been paid to it in classical scholarship, a gap filled by the present work. With recourse to archaeological and written sources, form, function and meaning of the wreaths in (primarily) imperial portraits are, for the first time, analysed and interpreted systematically. The main subject are laurel and oak wreaths. Their employment in cult, triumphs and the military domain is studied, as well as the development of a particular oak wreath, the so-called corona civica , into the imperial wreath par excellence.

In this analysis of mythological paintings in the houses of Pompeii, Katharina Lorenz produces a stimulating model of the contextual relationship between observer and object in the early Roman Empire. In contrast to the more general approach of earlier studies it is the painting itself that is the focus of attention, alone and in combination, as well as the strategies of the pictorial narratives in influencing the spatial atmosphere.
The work creates new perspectives on Roman lifestyle, Pompeian wall painting, and the social dimensions of mythology as a factor in communication.

Portrayals of monsters and beasts set in long, alternate rows dominated early Greek art from 700 to about 550 BC. Lorenz Winkler-Horaček shows in detail to what extent Oriental models were adopted – and how and when they were transformed by the pot painters of Corinth. In discovering the systematic structure which the painters invented to arrange monsters and beasts, Lorenz Winkler-Horaček argues for a new historical-anthropological reading: the monsters personify the fantastic dimension of the wilderness beyond the civilisation of the Greek Polis. By this rationalization of the irrational concept of the monster the pot painters created an unrivalled hallmark of the city’s identity and power: in the crucial time of the shaping of the Greek polis the Corinthian imagery of monsters and beasts was both ubiquitous in the Mediterranean and very much in demand.

The comic is crucial to every culture: mocking established values, transcending the boundaries of morals and proprieties, dodging the laws of accepted logic. Being based mainly on performance, it takes its natural place in festival, dance and play(-acting). This nature of the comic is expressed far more directly in images than in language. Already in the Corinthian black-figure vase-painting of the 7^th century, comic images hold an important position. Detlev Wannagat analyses their typology and visual strategies, starting from the grotesquely shaped ‘padded dancers’, in which the original performative context of the festival and its alienation appears the most clearly. His close-up focus on these pictures – mostly neglected so far –, draws into clearer perspective the values which they alienate and mockingly transgress.

The highest honour a Roman citizen could hope for was a portrait statue in the forum of his city. While the emperor and high senatorial officials were routinely awarded statues, strong competition existed among local benefactors to obtain this honour, which proclaimed and perpetuated the memory of the patron and his family for generations. There were many ways to earn a portrait statue but such local figures often had to wait until they had passed away before the public finally fulfilled their expectations. It is argued in this book that our understanding and contemplation of a Roman portrait statue is greatly enriched, when we consider its wider historical context, its original setting, the circumstances of its production and style, and its base which, in many cases, bore a text that contributed to the rhetorical power of the image.

Few images occupy and polarise public discussion today as much as depictions of violence. Most scholars assume that depictions of violence mirror actual experience and social perceptions of violence, and that they contribute to stimulating aggression. Focussing on the countless depictions of violence on the painted pottery of Archaic and Classical Athens (war, myth, etc.), Susanne Muth tackles these propositions in a fascinating and groundbreaking study. For the first time in visual history the Athenians created an advanced imagery of violence and its effects can still be felt today. So as to analyse and interpret these images Susanne Muth introduces a model which relates representations of violence in new ways to historical interpretation. She investigates how the Athenians shaped and constantly reshaped the images of violence, and how they handled them. This close analysis enables her to argue for a new historical reading of the representations of violence. Her results open up a surprising dimension of Athenian mentality: The Athenian engagement with representations of violence in Archaic and Classical times was fundamentally different from how we handle violence and its reception in the (visual) media of western societies today.