A City Of Images : Iconography and Society in Ancient Greece - Hardcover

Christiane Bron

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0691035911 ISBN 13: 9780691035918

Publisher: Princeton University Press, 1989

Synopsis

This handsome and lavishly illustrated volume invites the reader to explore the exotic and distant world of Greek culture--not primarily the conventional literary idea of that culture but the range of experiences presented in its iconography. Between the sixth and fifth centuries B.C., Athenian artisans flooded the Mediterranean world with remarkable decorated vases depicting a large variety of images. Using the resources of social and religious anthropology, the authors exploit the richness of this material to re-create the intellectual and emotional milieu of the inhabitant of a Greek city-state.


Surprises multiply in this innovative work, translated into English for the first time. The Greeks incorporated the ambiguous and problematical aspects of human existence into their representational repertory, and many images are disconcerting in their brutality, their violence, and their strangeness. Paradoxically it is through pursuing this strangeness in its multiple contexts that we come the closest to ancient Greek civilization.


The book presents the great cultural themes of the time: the hunt, war, erotic love, and the festival. The earlier chapters lead to the discussion of the most disquieting figure in the Greek universe--Dionysus, god of sacred wine, magic masks, and animal metamorphoses. Many reproductions in the work are in private collections and have been rarely seen by the public.

About this title

Reviews

Originally conceived as an exhibition catalog to accompany a select collection of rare Greek pottery on tour in Europe but as yet not seen in the United States, this work stands on its own as a guidebook for the modern reader to the distant world of ancient Greece. Beginning with an academic discussion of the artistic and utilitarian functions of Greek pottery, Berard then details and interprets depictions of war, domestic life, mythology, and ceremonial rites drawn directly from the customs and mores of Athenian society. Plates and vases commonly portrayed the ritual of homosexual courtship, perfectly acceptable in proper Greek society. Even scenes of bacchic orgies were rendered on tableware without a blush. In a scholarly yet highly readable and perceptive work, this book succeeds in penetrating the stylized images in clay and paint to reveal the human face beneath. Recommended for art, academic, and large public libraries.
-Sharon Wong, California Postsecondary Education Commission, Sacramento
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Publication date: 1989
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0691035911
• ISBN 13: 9780691035918
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 179
• Editor: Claude Berard