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Art and Archaeology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 October 2020

Extract

Mosaics have not fared well in the hands of classical archaeologists. Modern viewers have traditionally treated them as panel-paintings laid out on the floor: consider how mosaics are frequently displayed on museum walls, for example, or how book reproductions perpetuate the ideal of a ‘vertical’ bird's-eye view. Scholars, too, have been quick to identify mythological subjects, homing in on ‘figurative’ motifs. But we still lack an adequate framework for approaching more ‘ornamental’ components – or for challenging that segregation in the first place.

Type
Subject Reviews
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 2020

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References

1 For the critique, see especially Molholt, R., ‘Roman Labyrinth Mosaics and the Experience of Motion’, Art Bulletin 93.3 (2011), 287303CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

2 For some perceptive introductory comments (and further bibliography), see e.g. Muth, S., ‘Aus der Perspektive der römischen Bodenmosaiken. Ornamentalisierte Figuren oder figuralisierte Ornamente?’, in Dietrich, N. and Squire, M. J. (eds.), Ornament and Figure in Graeco-Roman Art. Rethinking Visual Ontologies in Classical Antiquity (Berlin, 2018), 393422CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3 The World Underfoot. Mosaics and Metaphor in the Greek Symposium. By Hallie M. Franks. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2018. Pp. xii + 222. 68 b/w illustrations. Hardback £55, ISBN: 978-0-19-086316-6.

4 For earlier treatments of the material, see especially C. Fiori, N. Tolis, and P. Canestrini, Mosaici a ciottoli. Capolavori e decline dell'arte musiva più antica da Pella a Delos (Ravenna, 2003); cf. R. Westgate, ‘Greek Mosaics in Their Architectural and Social Context’, BICS 42 (1997–8), 93–115.

5 See in particular F. Lissarrague, Un flot d'images. Une esthétique du banquet grec (Paris, 1987), translated as The Aesthetics of the Greek Banquet, trans. A Szegedy-Maszac (Princeton, NJ, 1990); see also R. Neer, Style and Politics in Athenian Vase-Painting. The Craft of Democracy, ca. 530–460 bce (Cambridge, 2002); M. L. Catoni, Bere vino puro. Immagini del simposio (Milan, 2010); K. Topper, The Imagery of the Athenian Symposium (Cambridge, 2012).

6 Franks relies especially on the methodological framework of G. Lakoff and M. Johnson, Metaphors We Live By (Chicago, IL, 1980).

7 The So-Called Nonsense Inscriptions on Ancient Greek Vases. Between Paideia and Paidiá. By Sara Chiarini. Leiden, Brill, 2018. Pp. xiv + 543. 38 b/w and colour illustrations. Hardback £131.80, ISBN: 978-9-004-37118-7.

8 Fundamental are H. Immerwahr, Attic Script. A Survey (Oxford, 1990); and R. Wachter, Non-Attic Greek Vase Inscriptions (Oxford, 2001). Both authors have also collaborated on the online ‘Attic Vase Inscriptions’ (AVI) database at Basel, <https://www.avi.unibas.ch>, accessed 29 May 2020.

9 AVI = www.avi.unibas.ch; LMC = P. Heesen, Athenian Little Master Cups (Amsterdam, 2011).

10 Athens, Etruria, and the Many Lives of Greek Figured Pottery. By Sheramy D. Bundrick. Madison, WI, University of Wisconsin Press, 2019. Pp. xv + 330. 109 b/w illustrations, 1 map. Hardback £121, ISBN: 978-0-299-32100-0.

11 See I. Kopytoff, ‘The Cultural Biography of Things: Commoditization as Process’, in A. Appadurai (ed.), The Social Life of Things. Commodities in Cultural Perspective (Cambridge, 1986), 64–91.

12 Butrint 6. Excavations on the Vrina Plain. Volume 3. The Roman and Late Antique Pottery from the Vrina Plain Excavations. By Paul Reynolds. Oxford, Oxbow Books, 2019. Pp. ix + 319. B/w illustrations, 8 colour plates. Hardback £60, ISBN: 978-1-78925-221-7.

13 Brill's Companion to Classics and Early Anthropology. Edited by Emily Varro. Leiden, Brill, 2018. Pp. xiii + 406. Hardback €185, ISBN: 978-9-004-24936-3.

14 Visual Histories of the Classical World. Essays in Honour of R.R.R. Smith. Edited by Catherine M. Draycott, Rubina Raja, Katherine Welch, and William T. Wootton. Studies in Classical Archaeology 4. Turnhout, Brepols, 2018. Pp. xlii + 549. 94 b/w and 271 colour illustrations. Paperback €140, ISBN: 978-2-503-57632-9.

15 Funerary Representations of Palmyrene Women. From the First Century bce to the Third Century ad. By Signe Krag. Studies in Classical Archaeology 3. Turnhout, Brepols, 2018. Pp. xii + 422. 409 b/w and colour illustrations, 1 colour table, 2 maps, 28 graphs. Paperback €100, ISBN: 978-2-503-56965-9.

16 The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of Childhood. Edited by Sally Crawford, Dawn M. Hadley, and Gillian Shepherd. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2018. Pp. xxvii + 751. B/w illustrations, 17 tables. Hardback £110, ISBN: 978-0-19-967069-7.

17 Greek Sanctuaries and Temple Architecture. An Introduction. By Mary Emerson. Second edition. London, Bloomsbury, 2018. Pp. xix + 270. 115 b/w illustrations. Paperback £13.99, ISBN: 978-1-4725-7528-9.

18 Einführung in die Klassische Archaeologie. By Ralf von den Hoff. Munich, C.H. Beck, 2019. Pp. 280. 45 b/w illustrations. Paperback €24.95, ISBN: 978-3-406-72728-3.

19 U. Sinn, Einführung in die Klassische Archäologie (Munich, 2000). ‘Seither’, remarks von den Hoff, ‘ist viel geschehen’ (since then, much has happened’) – not least following the establishment of new bachelor degree programmes in German universities (7–8).

20 Art of the Hellenistic Kingdoms. From Pergamon to Rome. Edited by Seán Hemingway and Kiki Karoglou. Metropolitan Museum of Art Symposia. New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2019. Pp. 224. Colour illustrations, 1 map. Paperback $50, ISBN: 978-1-588-39658-7.

21 Reset in Stone. Memory and Reuse in Ancient Athens. By Sarah A. Rous. Madison, WI, University of Wisconsin Press, 2019. Pp. xviii + 366. 72 b/w illustrations. Hardback $99.95, ISBN: 978-0-299-32280-9.

22 Architectural Restoration and Heritage in Imperial Rome. By Christopher Siwicki. Oxford Studies in Ancient Culture and Representation. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2020. Pp. xvii + 301. 65 b/w illustrations. Hardback £85, ISBN: 978-0-19-884857-8.

23 Reuse and Renovation in Roman Material Culture. Functions, Aesthetics, Interpretations. Edited by Diana Y. Ng and Molly Swetnam-Burland. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2018. Pp. xv + 275. B/w illustrations. Hardback £75, ISBN: 978-1-108-47389-7; paperback £19.99, ISBN: 978-1-108-46170-2.

24 To cite one prominent example, consider the plethora of recent work on the Latin cento: e.g. (with further bibliography) Elsner, J., ‘Late Narcissus: Classicism and Culture in a Late Roman Cento’, in Elsner, J. and Lobato, J. Hernández (eds.), The Poetics of Late Latin Literature (Oxford, 2017), 176205CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Fundamental are McGill, S., Virgil Recomposed. The Mythological and Secular Centos in Antiquity (Oxford, 2005)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Bažil, M., Centones Christiani. Métamorphoses d'une forme intertextuelle dans la poésie latine chrétienne de l'antiquité tardive (Paris, 2009)Google Scholar.

25 Archaeology, Ideology, and Urbanism in Rome from the Grand Tour to Berlusconi. By Stephen L. Dyson. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2019. Pp. xv + 327. 45 b/w illustrations. Hardback £75, ISBN: 978-052-1-87459-5.

26 See Dyson, S. L., Ancient Marbles to American Shores. Classical Archaeology in the United States (Philadelphia, PA, 1998)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Dyson, S. L., In Pursuit of Ancient Pasts. A History of Classical Archaeology in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries (New Haven, CT, 2006)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Dyson, S. L., Rome. A Living Portrait of an Ancient City (Baltimore, MD, 2010)Google Scholar.

27 For the marketing pitch, see <https://www.tods.com/gb-en/stories/tods-for-colosseum.html>, accessed 29 May 2020.