Temple Decoration and Cultural Identity in the Archaic Greek World

Clemente Marconi is the James R. McCredie Professor in the History of Greek Art and Archaeology at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. A scholar of Greek art and archaeology, he is the author of Selinunte: Le metope dell' Heraion and editor of Greek Painted Pottery: Images, Contexts, and Controversies.

Review of the hardback: '[Marconi's] control of ancient literary sources, historiographies, relevant mythologies, the archaeological and archival record, the contents of dusty storerooms, and iconographic and stylistic comparanda is remarkable. The reintegration of the Selinus metopes into the fabric of the architecture, the broader contextualizations of temple into sanctuary and polis, and of the figural décor into concepts of civic identity and of the individual's place in society, open whole new avenues of research.' Journal of Hellenic Studies

• 1. Figure and temple in the Greek world until the beginning of the late archaic period (ca. 700–530 BC); 2. Monumental architecture and colonization in archaic Sicily; 3. Selinus: history and urban development of an archaic Greek colony; 4. The small metopes; 5. Temple C and its metopes; 6. Gods, heroes, and monsters: the cultural identity of a Greek colony in the West.