Greek Art and Archaeology

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While this seems to hold for grave-markers, amphorae were often used for male cremation burials, especially in EG. Suitable for students with no prior knowledge of ancient art, this textbook reviews the main objects and monuments of the ancient Greek world, emphasizing the context and function of these artefacts in their particular place and time. The smooth shifting between description, analysis, and synthesis, and from object to explanation to context, is both logical and engaging, and should play well to an information-overloaded generation of readers that can be, at times, attention-challenged.

The National Museum in Cracow preserves an outstanding set of gems collected by Constantine Schmidt-Ciążyński (1818-1889). Students are led to a rich understanding of how objects were meant to be perceived, what 'messages' they transmitted and how the surrounding environment shaped their meaning. For inscriptions, like the epigram on the base of the Archaic kore of Phrasikleia, he includes both the ancient and modern Greek transcriptions of the text, as well as an English translation of it (textbox, pp.

Numerous text boxes, chapter summaries and timelines, complemented by a detailed glossary, support student learning. Richard Neer offers new insights into the role of visual culture in the Greek world, and its intersection with politics, religion and ancient everyday life. Complementing the other handbooks this volume also presents Greek sculpture made in the colonies of Italy and Sicily from the Archaic period onwards, as well as that made for eastern, non-Greek rulers. Plantzos takes an archaeological approach to his survey of Greek art, but in so doing gives discussion of the monuments’ stylistic features relatively short shrift. To me it doesn't feel like a textbook at all--it feels like a discussion, an explanation, and an invitation to learn more about Greek art.

No mere survey, this important new text goes out of its way to problematize traditional narratives and point to the hidden riches and complexities of the field. Caption indicates the Temple of Artemis at Ephesos, but the image is from Temple of Apollo at Didyma. While the monuments are, by and large, canonical, there are works that are probably unfamiliar to the average reader, such as the Archaic kouros from the Kerameikos Cemetery (Figs. In the chapter on the Antonine Emperors (9), for example, ‘A View from the Provinces’ focuses on portraits from Palmyra; ‘Art and Literature’ on the connection between Antonine art and the Second Sophistic; and ‘Scholarly Perspective’ on the problems in interpreting the reliefs on monumental sarcophagi.

The monuments presented in each chapter are, for the most part, canonical but the author departs from the approaches of other authors of survey texts by taking a decidedly archaeological approach and including issues such as excavation history and authenticity. Includes plans of unfinished marble older Parthenon and Older Propylon, both of which are generally considered post- Marathon. This book brings together some of the objects associated with these ancient games, including sculptures, grave markers, ceramic vases and sporting equipment.