Ornament and Figure in Graeco-Roman Art

Rethinking Visual Ontologies in Classical Antiquity

Nikolaus Dietrich, Michael Squire, Nikolaus Dietrich, Michael Squire

• Publisher: De Gruyter
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9783110460155
• eBook ISBN: 9783110469578
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: Ancient History

How does 'decoration' work? What are the relations between 'figurative' and 'ornamental' modes? And how do such modern western distinctions relate to other critical traditions? While these questions have been much debated among art historians, our book offers an ancient visual cultural perspective. On the one hand, we argue, Greek and Roman materials have proved instrumental in shaping modern assumptions. On the other hand, those ideologies are fundamentally removed from ancient ideas: an ancient perspective can therefore shed light on larger aesthetic debates about what images are – or indeed what they should be.
This anthology of specially commissioned essays explores a variety of case studies (both literary and art historical alike): it discusses materials from across the ancient Mediterranean, and from Geometric art all the way through to late antiquity; the book also tackles questions of 'figure' and 'ornament' in relation to different media – including painting, free-standing statues, relief sculpture, mosaics and architecture. A particular feature of the volume lies in bringing together different national academic traditions, building a bridge between formalist approaches and broader cultural historical perspectives.

Table of contents

• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Notes on contributors
• ‘To haunt, to startle, and way-lay’: Approaching ornament and figure in Graeco-Roman art
• Figürlicher Schmuck in der griechischen Architektur zwischen Dekor und Repräsentation
• Ornamental and formulaic patterns: The semantic significance of form in early Greek vase-painting and Homeric epic
• Ornament und Design: Attisch geometrische Figuralgefäße und Gefäße mit plastischem Dekor
• Armure et ornement dans l’imagerie attique
• Beneath the handles of Attic vases
• Order and contingency in Archaic Greek ornament and figure
• Ornament, incipience and narrative: Geometric to Classical
• Of sponges and stones: Matter and ornament in Roman painting
• Esteemed ornament: An overlooked value for approaching Roman visual culture
• Delectari varietate: Zur Erklärung der repetitiven Darstellung auf dem ‚Puteal Tegel‘
• Figure and ornament, death and transformation in the Tomb of the Haterii
• Ornament, figure and mise en abyme on Roman sarcophagi
• Aus der Perspektive der römischen Bodenmosaiken: Ornamentalisierte Figuren oder figuralisierte Ornamente?