(P/B) HELLENISTIC SCULPTURE I

Παρουσίαση

Various definitions can be offered both for the term "Hellenistic" and for the phrase "Hellenistic period" or "culture," as the case may be. Each one can be justified on etymological, historical, or scholarly grounds, and no consensus is likely to be reached in the near future. Basically and empirically, it is agreed that Hellenistic means "later," or "diluted" and "expanded" Greek, as contrasted with the allegedly pure and more restrictive "Hellenic." But then all accord ceases. The historian of religions thinks of the Hellenistic phase in terms of ideological approaches, and therefore envisions it as reaching well into the advanced Roman Imperial period; the art historian, in turn, is likely to set the lowest chronological margin at the fall of the Ptolemaic kingdom of Egypt, while the historian may consider that the phase logically ends with the beginning of the expansion of Roman power into the Mediterranean basin, around the middle of the second century B.C. For the purposes of this book, the chronological span will be denned as extending from 331 to 31 B.C., and thus from the Battle of Gaugamela-one of Alexander's major victories in the deep East, which opened up the Oriental kingdoms to Graeco-Macedonian domination-to the Battle of Actium which precipitated the defeat and eventual death of Kleopatra VII, the last descendant of Alexander's successors. That the span involved by this definition encompasses exactly 300 years is a coincidence, but a helpful one for mnemonic reasons. (...) (from the publisher)

Περιεχόμενα

Plates
Illustrations
Abbreviations
Preface
1. Definitions and Problems
2. The Late Fourth Century-Originals: Architectural, Funerary, in the Round
3. The Late Fourth Century-Copies
4. Portraiture-Alexander and the Diadochoi
5. The Third Century-Architectural Sculpture: Religious, Civic, and Funerary Buildings
6. The Third Century-Dated Sculpture in the Round: Originals and Copies
7. The Muses and Related Figures
8. The Gauls and Related Groups
9. Genre Figures
10. The Wider Picture-Conclusions
List of Monuments
Sources of Plates and Illustrations
Selective Index