Art & Design Librarian
Marty Miller
She/her/hers
Books
This is a short list of titles on Ancient Egyptian Art. You can find more by searching for Art, Ancient, Art, Classical, or Antiquities, Ancient in the Online Catalog.
Hover your mouse over the 'i' icon for a brief description of the ebook.
Aegean Art and Architecture by
The amazing discovery of the 'first European civilization' in Crete, Greece and the Aegean islands during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was beyond what anyone had imagined. Beginning with the Neolithic period, before 3000 BCE, and ending at the close of the Bronze Age andthe transition to the Iron Age of Hellenic Greece (c.1000 BCE), this is the first comprehensive introduction to the visual arts and architecture of this extraordinary era. This book introduces the reader to the historical and social contexts within which the arts - pottery, gold, silver, and ivory objects, gravestone reliefs, frescoes, and architecture - of the Aegean area developed. It examines the functions they served, and the ways in which they can be read asevidence for the interactions of many different peoples and societies in the eastern Mediterranean. It also provides an up-to-date critical historiography of the field in its relationship to the growth of ancient art history, archaeology, and museology in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries,giving a contemporary audience a clear appreciation of what has been at stake in the uncovering and reconstruction of this ancient society.
Call Number: N5630 .P74 1999ISBN: 0192842080
The World of Ancient Art by
An innovative exploration of the arts of antiquity, from the earliest European cave paintings to the coming of Christianity and Buddhism in the Old World and the arrival of the Spaniards in the New World. Dividing the ancient world into three broad climatic categories--the northern nomadic, the temperate farmers and city dwellers, and the tropical--John Boardman focuses on common solutions that Man the Artist has devised for the problems posed by the environment, a factor that has also determined the nature of society and its arts. The solutions are shown to have been very similar worldwide within each broad environmental zone, and the pattern can be demonstrated in the arts no less than in social organization. Richly illustrated and clearly captioned, the book covers the full range of ancient art produced across the globe, from China and Egypt through Classical Greece to South America, Africa, Australasia, and Oceania. It illuminates the many similarities and differences to be observed over the millennia in which artists were required to serve man and his gods more completely than they have ever done since. 690 illustrations, 160 in color.
Call Number: N5330 .B59 2006ISBN: 0500238278
Classical Art by
The stunning masterpieces of Ancient Greece and Rome are fundamental to the story of art in Western culture and to the origins of art history. The expanding Greek world of Alexander the Great had an enormous impact on the Mediterranean superpower of Rome. Generals, rulers, and artists seized,imitated, and re-thought the stunning legacy of Greek painting and sculpture, culminating in the greatest art-collector the world had ever seen, the Roman emperor, Hadrian.This exciting new look at Classical art starts with the excavation of the buried city of Pompeii, and investigates the grandiose monuments of ancient tyrants, and the sensual beauty of Apollo and Venus. Concluding with that most influential invention of all, the human portrait, it highlights there-discovery of Classical art in the modern world, from the treasure hunts of Renaissance Rome to scientific retrieval in the twenty-first century.
Call Number: N5610 .B295 2001ISBN: 0192842374
Art and Inscriptions in the Ancient World by
The ancient visual environment was packed with instances where words and images appeared side by side: statues with dedicatory inscriptions, labels on paintings or mosaics, or complex juxtapositions of images and engraved texts on funerary monuments. In the past these elements have often been divorced from one another and studied in isolation. In this volume art historians and epigraphers have come together to look at the complex ways in which images and words interacted with one another, illustrating, explaining or reinterpreting each other or, conversely, making competing demands upon the viewer. Their essays range widely in their focus from archaic Greek pottery through Hellenistic honorific statues and Pompeian wall-paintings to Late Roman mosaics. The insights that emerge contribute to our wider picture of the relationships between art and text in the ancient world, as well as illuminating the complexity and variety in ancient material culture.
Call Number: N72 .W75 A78 2007ISBN: 0521868513
This is a short list of titles on Ancient Egyptian Art. You can find more by searching for Art, Ancient Egypt, Art, Egyptian, or Egypt antiquities in the Online Catalog.
You can also search using the work's name. Example: Pyramids--Egypt
Or you can search for the medium of the work. Example: Architecture, Ancient Egyptian
Egyptian Art by
The art and architecture of Egypt during the age of the pharaohs continue to capture the imagination of the modern world. Among the great creative achievements of ancient Egypt are a set of constant forms: archetypes in art and architecture in which the origins of concepts such as authority, divinity, beauty, and meaning are readily discernible. Whether adapted to fine, delicate jewelry or colossal statues, these forms maintain a human face--with human ideas and emotions.These artistic templates, and the ideas they articulated, were refined and reinvented through dozens of centuries, until scenes first created for the earliest kings, around 3000 BCE, were eventually used to represent Roman emperors and the last officials of pre-Christian Egypt. Bill Manley's account of the art of ancient Egypt draws on the finest works through more than 3,000 years and places celebrated masterpieces, from the Narmer palette to Tutankhamun's gold mask, in their original contexts in the tombs, temples, and palaces of the pharaohs and their citizens.
Call Number: N5350 .M28 2017ISBN: 9780500204283
Symbol and Magic in Egyptian Art by
There is scarcely an Egyptian temple, pyramid, obelisk, wall painting or sculpture that does not possess some hidden meaning - a meaning which can only be understood by reference to the fundamental symbolic code used by the ancient Egyptians. This book reveals the language of this ancient code, which endured for millennia. This guide offers a thematic treatment of Egyptian art. Illustrations allow the reader to see and understand ancient works as the Egyptians did themselves, and the reference section includes a glossary and guide to further reading.
Call Number: N5350 .W492 1994ISBN: 0500236631
The Art of Ancient Egypt by
Spanning 3000 years, this book studies Egyptian art from the grandeur of the Great Pyramid to a face etched on an amulet. The book conducts the reader through the world of Egyptian art, looking at wall paintings, sculpture, stelae, papyri and amulets from the early dynastic period to the Ptolemies.
Call Number: N5350 .R63 1997ISBN: 0674046609
Egypt by
Beginning in the fifth millennium BC, the land that is now Egypt nurtured an extraordinary pioneering civilization whose art and architecture have never lost their power to amaze. This magnificent picture book presents a carefully chosen sequence of masterpieces, ranging in date from c.4000 BC to c.200 AD, by which time Egypt was a province of the Roman Empire. All media are represented, from monumental architecture to exquisite jewellery and personal ornaments. At any scale, Egyptian art has an immediate appeal for its beauty and consummate craftsmanship, and the works illustrated in this book can all be enjoyed for both their aesthetic qualities and their artefactual rarity. But they are also products of a culture very different from ours, and in his concise introduction Jaromir Malek, a foremost authority, provides the essential background for understanding why Egyptian art and architecture took the forms they did. The explanations continue in the informative captions to each illustration, and the chronological chart, map, bibliography and index make quick reference a pleasure. Embracing architecture, painting, sculpture, ceramics, metalwork and jewellery, the illustrations are all masterpieces that can be enjoyed in their own right. Presented in chronological order, they form a succinct and easily digestible history. This is an astoundingly fresh, mesmerizing and accessible introduction to some of the most remarkable art ever produced in the history of humankind.
Call Number: N5350 .M25 2003ISBN: 0714842001
The Art and Architecture of Ancient Egypt by
A wealth of art and architectural treasures survive from Ancient Egypt--a civilization that endured from the fourth millennium B.C. to the conquest of Alexander the Great. In this book, Ancient Egyptian monuments, their decorations, and many other works of art are reproduced in more than four hundred beautiful illustrations. The Ancient Egyptians in their tombs attempted to recreate life for the dead in a naturalistic way, often against the background of the landscape in which they lived. This book shows the tombs at Thebes, including the treasure-filled burial place of Tutankhamen, the temples of Luxor and Karnak, and the palaces of Akhenaten at Tell el Amarna and of Amenhotep III at Thebes. It also presents many revealing portraits depicting a range of subjects from the kings and queens who built the pyramids at Giza and Saqqara to their own civil servants.
Call Number: N5350 .S5 1998ISBN: 0300077475
This is a short list of titles on Ancient Egyptian Art. You can find more by searching for Art, Mesopotamia, Antiquities, Mesopotamia or Antiquities, Iraq in the Online Catalog.
You can also search using the work's name. Example: Ishtar Gate
Or you can search for the group or time period of the work. Example: Sumerians
The Art and Architecture of Mesopotamia by
The artistic traditions of ancient Iraq, or Mesopotamia, are among the oldest in the world, for it was in this flat, fertile land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers that the world's first advanced civilization, that of the Sumerians, arose around 3000 BC. But the long history of Mesopotamian art was marked by change as much as continuity; the region was then as now a center of political conflict, and the Sumerians gave way to a succession of powers both indigenous and foreign, each of which left a cultural imprint. This volume's contributing authors, all art historians and archaeologists specializing in the ancient Near East, provide accessible and lively overviews of the successive phases of this eventful artistic saga. The first two chapters cover the "classic" age of the great Mesopotamian city-states, from the pre-Sumerian Ubaid culture to Alexander's conquest of Babylon; the remains of this era range from the fabulous treasures of the royal cemeteries at Ur to the mighty ziggurats of Uruk and Babylon. The third chapter concerns the Greco-Mesopotamian art of the Hellenistic dynasty founded by Alexander's general Seleucus; the ruins of Seleucia, his capital on the Tigris, cover some 1500 acres. The fourth chapter investigates the artistic contributions of the two Persian dynasties, the Parthian and the Sassanid, that dominated the region from the first century BC to the seventh century AD and established the soaring iwan, or vaulted portico, as one of its typical architectural forms. The final chapter is devoted to the area's early Islamic period, during which the Abbasid caliphs (eighth to thirteenth century AD) made Iraq the center of the Islamic world, constructing splendid mosques in their capitals of Baghdad and Samarra and elaborating the fantastic arabesques that have never disappeared from Islamic decorative art. The ancient masterpieces discussed in these chapters are depicted in 217 stunning illustrations, most of them full-color photographs, and appended to the main text is a unique visual guide to Iraq's principal archaeological sites, which provides a further 247 black-and-white photographs. With its authoritative, up-to-date texts and this wealth of illustrations, The Art and Architecture of Mesopotamia is an essential publication for anyone with an interest in the cultural heritage of mankind.
Call Number: N5370 .I7313 2007ISBN: 9780789209214
The Graven Image by
Mesopotamia, the world's earliest literate culture, developed a rich philosophical conception of representation in which the world was saturated with signs. Instead of imitating the natural world, representation--both in writing and in visual images--was thought to participate in the world and to have an effect upon it in natural, magical, and supernatural ways. The Graven Image is the first book to explore this tradition, which developed prior to, and apart from, the Greek understanding of representation. The classical Greek system, based on the notion of mimesis, or copy, is the one with which we are most familiar today. The Assyro-Babylonian ontology presented here by Zainab Bahrani opens up fresh avenues for thinking about the concept of representation in general, and her reading of the ancient Mesopotamian textual and visual record in its own ontological context develops an entirely new approach to understanding Babylonian and Assyrian arts in particular. The Graven Image describes, for the first time, rituals and wars involving images; the relationship of divination, the organic body, and representation; and the use of images as a substitute for the human form, integrating this ancient material into contemporary debates in critical theory. Bahrani challenges current methodologies in the study of Near Eastern archaeology and art history, introducing a new way to appreciate the unique contributions of Assyrian and Babylonian culture and their complex relationships to the past and present.
Call Number: BH102 .B34 2003ISBN: 0812236483
Mesopotamia by
Mesopotamia, situated roughly where Iraq is today, was one of the greatest ancient civilizations. It was here that the very first cities were created, and where the familiar sights of modern urban life - public buildings and gardens, places of worship, even streets and pavements - were originally invented. This remarkable book is the first to reveal everyday life as it was in ten long-lost Mesopotamian cities, beginning with Eridu, the Mesopotamian Eden, and ending with Babylon, the first true metropolis- cosmopolitan, decadent, multicultural and the last centre of a dying civilization. Using archaeological fragments of jewellery, textiles and writings, Gwendolyn Leick paints a colourful picture of the lives of Mesopotamians - from poets and priests to business-women and divorcees - and the incredible achievements of their advanced and imaginative society.
Call Number: DS69.5 .L45 2002ISBN: 0140265740
Sumer and the Sumerians by
Mesopotamia produced one of the best-known ancient civilizations, with a literate, urban culture and highly-developed political institutions. In this fully revised and expanded edition of her classic text, Sumer and the Sumerians, Harriet Crawford reviews the extraordinary social and technological developments in the region from 3800 to 2000 BC. Drawing on the most up-to-date historical and archaeological sources, she provides a thematic exploration of this ancient civilization, examining its physical and historical background, changing settlement patterns, public and private architecture and cultural developments of the period. In this new edition, the chapter on Manufacturing Industries and Trade has been enlarged and divided into two chapters. In addition, a new chapter on the contemporary developments in Upper Mesopotamia is included. The final chapter reflects on the future of the heritage of Iraq in the aftermath of the second Gulf War.
Call Number: DS72 .C73 2004ISBN: 0521825962
This is a short list of titles on Ancient Egyptian Art. You can find more by searching for Art, Greek, Art, Ancient Greece, or Greek Archaeology in the Online Catalog.
You can also search using the work's name. Example: Elgin Marbles
Or you can search for the medium of the work. Example: Architecture, Greece
Greek Architecture and Its Sculpture by
From Athens and Arcadia on one side of the Aegean Sea and from Ionia, Lycia, and Karia on the other, this book brings together some of the great monuments of classical antiquity --among them two of the seven wonders of the ancient world, the later temple of Artemis at Ephesos and the Mausoleum at Halikarnassos. Drawing on the Greek and Lycian architecture and sculpture in the British Museum--a collection second to none in quality, quantity, and geographical and chronological range--this lavishly illustrated volume tells a remarkable story reaching from the archaic temple of Artemis, the Parthenon, and other temples of the Athenian Acropolis to the temple of Apollo at Bassai, the sculptured tombs of Lycia, the Mausoleum, and the temple of Athena Polias at Priene. Ian Jenkins explains each as a work of art and as a historical phenomenon, revealing how the complex personality of these buildings is bound up with the people who funded, designed, built, used, destroyed, discovered, and studied them. With 250 photographs and specially commissioned line drawings, the book comprises a monumental narrative of the art and architecture that gave form, direction, and meaning to much of Western culture.
Call Number: NB90 .J46 2006ISBN: 0674023889
Greek Art and Aesthetics in the Fourth Century B. C. by
Greek Art and Aesthetics in the Fourth Century B.C. analyzes the broad character of art produced during this period, providing in-depth analysis of and commentary on many of its most notable examples of sculpture and painting. Taking into consideration developments in style and subject matter, and elucidating political, religious, and intellectual context, William A. P. Childs argues that Greek art in this era was a natural outgrowth of the high classical period and focused on developing the rudiments of individual expression that became the hallmark of the classical in the fifth century. As Childs shows, in many respects the art of this period corresponds with the philosophical inquiry by Plato and his contemporaries into the nature of art and speaks to the contemporaneous sense of insecurity and renewed religious devotion. Delving into formal and iconographic developments in sculpture and painting, Childs examines how the sensitive, expressive quality of these works seamlessly links the classical and Hellenistic periods, with no appreciable rupture in the continuous exploration of the human condition. Another overarching theme concerns the nature of "style as a concept of expression," an issue that becomes more important given the increasingly multiple styles and functions of fourth-century Greek art. Childs also shows how the color and form of works suggested the unseen and revealed the profound character of individuals and the physical world.
Call Number: N5630 .C55 2018ISBN: 9780691176468
Greek Art and Archaeology by
Greek Art and Archeology, by Richard T. Neer, is the only comprehensive survey that reflects current scholarly approaches and new ways of looking at both art history and archaeology. The book presents a historical interpretation of Greek art and archaeology within a chronological framework, and balances different methodologies to present a well-rounded picture.The book addresses three basic questions, all of which are skillfully woven into a highly readable narrative that also presents the essential facts that the student needs:* "What do we see?" Students will learn to identify the principles of design in an object and analyze its constituent parts, as well as looking at questions of style, iconography, and medium.* "How do we know?" The book emphasizes the ways archaeologists and art historians gather their evidence and organize their arguments.* "Why should we care?" Art is a social and historical phenomenon, and thus can be a prism through which we learn about politics, economics, class, sexuality, religion, and ethnicity.
Call Number: N5630 .N44 2012ISBN: 9780500288771
Origins of Classical Architecture by
The Greek architectural orders--Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian--lie at the heart of the classical traditions of building, and yet satisfying accounts for their origins have proved elusive. In contrast with conventional theories that would see the orders originating over the course of a long evolution, this book stresses the suddenness of the phenomenon and its dependence on historical context, human agency, and artistic inspiration. Casting new light on a subject that has preoccupied architects since the Renaissance, Mark Wilson Jones shows how construction, influence, appearance, and meaning found expression in complex and multifaceted designs. New emphasis is placed on the relationship between the orders and the temples of worship that they were created to adorn. Temples were exquisitely made offerings to the divinity, and they also contained valuable offerings. In revealing affinities between certain offerings and the orders, the author explains how these gave architectural expression to sensibilities of intense social and religious significance.
Call Number: NA275 .W55 2014ISBN: 9780300182767
This is a short list of titles on Ancient Egyptian Art. You can find more by searching for Art, Etruscan, Etruscans, or Antiquities, Etruria in the Online Catalog.
You can also search using the work's name. Example: Apollo of Veii
Or you can search for the medium of the work. Example: Painting, Etruscan
Etruscan Art by
The Etruscans were the most powerful force in central Italy until Roman unification of the peninsula. Vestiges of their art, architecture, and unique language have long intrigued scholars, and the search for this mysterious civilization continues to fire the imagination. Despite a history of pillage, rich archaeological evidence survives: thousands of tombs, many of them frescoed and filled with vases, sculpture, jewelry, and metalwork; and the mysterious Etruscan sites that are places of tourist pilgrimage, such as Cerveteri, Vulci, and Tarquinia. In this new book, the first survey of its kind in more than twenty years, Nigel Spivey brings the Etruscan world to life, illuminating the social, political, and cultural context of the art objects and artifacts that remain the singular achievement of the Etruscans.
Call Number: N5750 .S65 1997ISBN: 0500203040
Etruscan Art by
This informative and engaging book on the Museum's outstanding collection of Etruscan art also provides an introduction to the fascinating and diverse culture of ancient Etruria, which thrived in central Italy from about 900 to 100 B.C. Masterpieces of the collection include 7th century B.C. objects from the Monteleone di Spoleto tomb group (including the famous remarkably well-preserved bronze chariot), intricate gold jewelry, carved gems, and wonderful ambers. For the first time in more than 70 years, this incredible body of work is published in a comprehensive and beautifully designed book that draws upon decades of exhaustive research. Etruscan Art opens with short histories of pre-Roman Italy, Etruscan Studies, and the Metropolitan's collection, followed by chronological analyses of tomb groups, types of objects, and individual objects. The closing section features forgeries, pastiches, and objects of uncertain authenticity, all previously thought to be genuine. Richard Daniel De Puma, one of the foremost experts on Etruscan art, provides an invaluable new contribution to the study of ancient Italy.
Call Number: N5750 .D44 2013ISBN: 9780300179538
The Etruscans by
The Etruscans have long been a rich source of research and intellectual inquiry as the most significant ethnic group who resided in ancient Etruria, current-day Tuscany and Umbria in Italy. A well-defined polity, the Etruscans were an advanced people whose presence on the Italian peninsula from the 8th to 4th century B.C. had an enormous impact on Roman culture, whose rise of power saw the collapse of Etruscan civilization. This book is extensive in its scope; it traces the rise of the Etruscans at the end of the Bronze Age; examines the economic structure of the society; explores the emergence of a powerful aristocracy in the period from 750-650 B.C.; and considers the religious and cultural life of the group. This knowledge has largely been gleaned from a wealth of monuments and material culture which the Etruscans left behind including architecture (the various forms of which indicate familial structure and socio-economic standing, not to mention the larger social structure of Etruscan society) and applied arts, such as bronze objects for both ceremonial use and everyday life, which were produced by an artisan class for a wealthy and demanding aristocracy. Etruscan contributions to the history of art are also of immense importance and are explored in depth in this volume. Etruscan wall painting was exceptional in that it is one of the few examples of pre-Roman artistic production of this genre. Sculpture was also a relatively highly developed form of art, and the Etruscans are known for their important experiments with form. Noted scholar Mario Torelli, editor of the book, gathers here an illuminating collection of essays reflective of the most current research on the Etruscans. As a professor of classical archaeology for nearly three decades who has directed archeological digs at some of the most significant Etruscan sites, Torelli offers a unique insight into the scholarly terrain of Etruscan studies. Torelli also contributes a substantive essay on Etruscan religion, exploring the rather exceptional character of this important aspect of Etruscan life. Lavishly illustrated with beautiful reproductions of Etruscan art and culture, this impressive catalogue explores every aspect of the Etruscan people and their artistic and cultural legacy in the most expansive consideration of their enormous contribution to Western culture to date. The exhibition of the same name, organized by the world-renowned Palazzo Grassi, Venice, and this volume are destined to be landmarks in Etruscan studies.
Call Number: DG223.3 .E97813 2001ISBN: 0847823911
The Etruscan World by
The Etruscans can be shown to have made significant, and in some cases perhaps the first, technical advances in the central and northern Mediterranean. To the Etruscan people we can attribute such developments as the tie-beam truss in large wooden structures, surveying and engineering drainage and water tunnels, the development of the foresail for fast long-distance sailing vessels, fine techniques of metal production and other pyrotechnology, post-mortem C-sections in medicine, and more. In art, many technical and iconographic developments, although they certainly happened first in Greece or the Near East, are first seen in extant Etruscan works, preserved in the lavish tombs and goods of Etruscan aristocrats. These include early portraiture, the first full-length painted portrait, the first perspective view of a human figure in monumental art, specialized techniques of bronze-casting, and reduction-fired pottery (the bucchero phenomenon). Etruscan contacts, through trade, treaty and intermarriage, linked their culture with Sardinia, Corsica and Sicily, with the Italic tribes of the peninsula, and with the Near Eastern kingdoms, Greece and the Greek colonial world, Iberia, Gaul and the Punic network of North Africa, and influenced the cultures of northern Europe. In the past fifteen years striking advances have been made in scholarship and research techniques for Etruscan Studies. Archaeological and scientific discoveries have changed our picture of the Etruscans and furnished us with new, specialized information. Thanks to the work of dozens of international scholars, it is now possible to discuss topics of interest that could never before be researched, such as Etruscan mining and metallurgy, textile production, foods and agriculture. In this volume, over 60 experts provide insights into all these aspects of Etruscan culture, and more, with many contributions available in English for the first time to allow the reader access to research that may not otherwise be available to them. Lavishly illustrated, The Etruscan World brings to life the culture and material past of the Etruscans and highlights key points of development in research, making it essential reading for researchers, academics and students of this fascinating civilization.
Call Number: DG223.3 .E883 2013ISBN: 9780415673082
This is a short list of titles on Roman Art. You can find more by searching for Roman Art, Antiquities, Roman, Online Catalog.
You can also search using the work's name and geographical location. Example: Villa of the Mysteries, Pompeii
Or you can search for the medium of the work. Example: Painting, Ancient Roman (Note- be careful here. If you leave "Ancient" out of this search, the results may include art from later periods in the city of Rome's history.)
Roman Art by
This exceptionally well-illustrated text explores Roman art in the traditional historical manner -- with a focus on painting, sculpture, architecture, and minor arts. It assumes no prior acquaintance with the classical world, and explains the necessary linguistic, historical, religious, and political background needed to fully understand Roman art. In-depth information, historical photographs, drawings, engravings, and illustrations of architectural monuments, sculptures, paintings and decorative arts in all areas. Chronological presentation of material features: the Villanovan and Etruscan Forerunners 1000-200 BC.; the Roman Republic 200-27 BC; Augustus and the Imperial Idea 27 BC-AD 14; The Julio-Claudians AD 14-68; The Flavians: Savior to Despot AD 69-98; Trajan, Optimus Princeps AD 98-117; Hadrian and the Classical Revival AD 117-138; The Antonines AD 138-198; The Severans AD 193-235; The Soldier Emperors AD 235-284 AD; The Tetrarchs AD 284-312; Constantine AD 307-337 and the Aftermath.
Call Number: N5760 .R36 2001ISBN: 9780130278838
Roman Art by
Traditional studies of Roman art have sought to identify an indigenous style distinct from Greek art and in the process have neglected the large body of Roman work that creatively recycled Greek artworks. In this fresh assessment the author offers instead a cultural history of the functions of the visual arts, the messages that these images carried, and the values that they affirmed in late Republican Rome and the Empire. The analysis begins at the point at which the characteristic features of Roman art started to emerge, when the Romans were exposed to Hellenistic culture through their conquest of Greek lands in the third century B.C. As a result, the values and social and political structure of Roman society changed, as did the functions and character of the images it generated. This volume, presented in very clear and accessible language, offers new and fascinating insights into the evolution of the forms and meanings of Roman art.
Call Number: N5760 .Z3313 2010ISBN: 9781606060308
Hellenistic and Roman Ideal Sculpture by
In this book, Rachel Kousser draws on contemporary reception theory to present a new approach to Hellenistic and Roman ideal sculpture. She analyzes the Romans' preference for retrospective, classicizing statuary based on Greek models as opposed to the innovative creations prized by modern scholars. Using a case study of a particular sculptural type, a forceful yet erotic image of Venus, Kousser argues that the Romans self-consciously employed such sculptures to represent their ties to the past in a rapidly evolving world. Kousser presents Hellenistic and Roman ideal sculpture as an example of a highly effective artistic tradition that was, by modern standards, extraordinarily conservative. At the same time, the Romans' flexible and opportunistic use of past forms also had important implications for the future: it constituted the origins of classicism in Western art.
Call Number: NB94 .K69 2008ISBN: 9780521877824
Roman Painting by
This book provides a general survey of Roman wall painting from the second century B.C. through to the fourth century A.D., tracing the origins, chronological development, subjects, techniques, and social context of this art which had considerable influence upon European artists of the Renaissance and Neo-Classical periods. It deals particularly with the paintings from the buried cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum, and its main purpose is to provide an up-to-date summary of the subject in light of the most recent research. This is the first general history of Roman painting written specifically for English-language readers.
Call Number: ND120 .L56 1991ISBN: 0521315956
