Ancient Aesthetics

Roman sculpture. Aesthetics and control

by Thea Ravasi

To be published in Destrée P., Murray P. (eds), A Companion to Ancient Aesthetics (Blackwell Companions to the Ancient World), John Wiley & Sons Inc., 2013

Sculptures played an important role as decoration of private residences in Roman times. Subjects, themes, styles and... more Sculptures played an important role as decoration of private residences in Roman times. Subjects, themes, styles and even dimensions changed over time not just according to the aesthetic values of the Roman patrons, but also in relation to ideas of identity and status. Hadrian’s villa offers an excellent case for the study of ancient perception and display of sculptures within their architectural context. About five hundreds sculptures are said to come from this imperial estate, but until now it has been hardly possible to reconstruct their original setting within the general layout of the villa. By looking at the way sculptures were displayed, I will focus on three major notions that informed the planning of the villa’s sculptural decoration: aesthetic values, control over people’s behaviour, and the establishment of hierarchies within the diverse range of people that attended the emperor’s palace.

“’A Song to Match my Song’: Lyric Doubling in Euripides’ Helen.”

by Andrew Ford

A close reading of the songs in "Helen" to argue that in them Euripides imagines the origins of choral song... more A close reading of the songs in "Helen" to argue that in them Euripides imagines the origins of choral song (and hence of tragedy). Under the influence of current anthropology, he stages song as deriving from scenes of abandoned women grieving alone until companions/a chorus come to comfort them.

"From Letters to Literature: Reading the song culture of Classical Greece."

by Andrew Ford

An attempt to establish a "neo-Havelockian" position on the question of how technologies of reading and... more An attempt to establish a "neo-Havelockian" position on the question of how technologies of reading and writing interacted with traditions of oral performance and transmission in the production of Greek "literate."

Catharsis

by Peter D. Thomas

Peter Thomas, "Catharsis", Historical Materialism 17 (2009) 259–264

Poets and mimesis in the 'Republic'

by Jera Marušič

Published in P. Destrée/F.-G. Herrmann (eds.), 'Plato and the Poets', Brill, Leiden, 2011, pp. 217-140.

In Republic X, the notion of poets’ mimesis has a prominent role, but at the same time it appears difficult to... more In Republic X, the notion of poets’ mimesis has a prominent role, but at the same time it appears difficult to understand in itself, as well as seeming to be inconsistent with Plato’s other arguments about poets’ mimesis, in particular in Republic III. In order to solve this apparent inconsistency, scholars have regularly assumed that the term mimesis has two different meanings in the two discussions of poetry in the Republic. In my paper, I shall propose a different solution to the problem. Rejecting the widely-accepted assumption of ‘narrower’ (‘impersonation’) and ‘wider’ (‘artistic depiction, or representation’) meanings of the term mimesis in Books III and X of the Republic respectively (previously criticised and rejected only in Burnyeat to my knowledge), I shall argue that a single meaning (‘doing something by imitating something else’) can be applied to the term mimesis in the two discussions. Instead of differentiating, as traditionally, between (two) meanings of the term mimesis in Plato’s usage, I shall thus differentiate simply between (two) kinds of mimesis poets are said to engage in: non-deceptive mimesis of individuals and deceptive mimesis of experts.

Greek Bronze: Holding a Mirror to Life

by Babette Babich

Babich, “Greek Bronze: Holding a Mirror to Life,” Yearbook of the Irish Philosophical Society 2006, Volume 7 (2007): 1-30. 

To explore the ethical and political role of life-sized bronzes in ancient Greece, as Pliny and others report between... more To explore the ethical and political role of life-sized bronzes in ancient Greece, as Pliny and others report between 3,000 and 73,000 such statues in a city like Rhodes, this article asks what these bronzes looked like. Using the resources of hermeneutic phenomenological reflection, as well as a review of the nature of bronze and casting techniques, it is argued that the ancient Greeks encountered such statues as images of themselves in agonistic tension in dynamic and political fashion. The Greek saw, and at the same time felt himself regarded by, the statue not as he believed the statue divine but because he was poised against the statue as a living exemplar.

“Measuring Beauty: An anthropometric methodology for the assessment of ideal feminine beauty as embodied in first millennium BCE ivory carvings,” in Syrian and Phoenician Ivories of the First Millennium BCE, Proceedings of the Conference held in Pisa, December 9th-11th, 2004, edited by S. M. Cecchini, S. Mazzoni, and E. Scigliuzzo, 2009, pp. 155-70.

by Amy Rebecca Gansell

Review of Walsh 2009, Distorted Ideals in Greek Vase Painting, The World of Mythological Burlesque

by Laura Snook

Published in Rosetta: Papers of the Institute of Archaeology and Antiquity, Issue 7, 2009.

Review of Ian Jenkins & Kate Morton 'Explore the Parthenon, an ancient Greek temple and its sculptures and Ian Jenkins & Victoria Turner, The Greek Body

by Laura Snook

Published in Rosetta:Papers of the Institute of Archaeology and Antiquity, Issue 9.

Viewing the Parthenon Sculptures: a Comparison of the Physical Relationships Between the Viewer and the Sculpture In Antiquity and the Modern Museum …

by Laura Snook

http://libcat.bham.ac.uk/TalisPrism/browseResults.do?&expandedWorkID=0.15&browse_action=9057&rootRSetId=12a6ab7f4c300000&browse_RootRSetId=12a6ab7f4c300000&displayRowPath=0&pageSize=10&menuBarTag=search&displaySearchAsText=false&openRowPathSet=0:1

Construction, colour and aesthetics of the Bronze Age barrows on Wyke Down, Cranborne Chase

by Kate Boulden

2011. Published in the "Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society" 132, 111-119.

Bronze Age burial mounds are a ubiquitous feature of the British landscape. Thousands of years of disuse have faded... more Bronze Age burial mounds are a ubiquitous feature of the British landscape. Thousands of years of disuse have faded these monuments into the natural landscape, but they were once a focus of activity and social memory. Using a combination of geoarchaeology and phenomenology, this article investigates how such monuments were built, and if soil colour was incorporated to create a visual aesthetic of construction that imbued them with social significance, and drew upon wider experiential understandings of the world. Barrows from the Wyke Down of Cranborne Chase are examined for evidence of strategic colour manipulation during phases of construction. It will be argued that these barrows exhibit use of soil colour to act as a trigger for social memory, but this is constrained by the natural environment. Through construction, relations between the landscape, the living and the dead are in constant negotiation, embodying an aesthetic sensibility as memorialisation in a changing landscape.