Image & Context – serie

The highest honour a Roman citizen could hope for was a portrait statue in the forum of his city. While the emperor and high senatorial officials were routinely awarded statues, strong competition existed among local benefactors to obtain this honour, which proclaimed and perpetuated the memory of the patron and his family for generations. There were many ways to earn a portrait statue but such local figures often had to wait until they had passed away before the public finally fulfilled their expectations. It is argued in this book that our understanding and contemplation of a Roman portrait statue is greatly enriched, when we consider its wider historical context, its original setting, the circumstances of its production and style, and its base which, in many cases, bore a text that contributed to the rhetorical power of the image.

Die Monographie arbeitet erstmals an den Formen, Bildern und Inschriften der attischen Grabmäler die Athener Haltung dem Tod gegenüber, ihren Wandel in der geometrischen, archaischen und klassischen Zeit (1000–300 v. Chr.), und den grundsätzlichen Unterschied von der christlich-abendländischen heraus.

Gleich bleibt in den drei Epochen, dass es nicht um die Erlösung im Jenseits geht; es gilt das homerische Geras thanonton: die Pflicht der Lebenden, die Toten zu ehren und die Erinnerung an sie wach zu halten. Dieser diesseitigen Pflicht entsprechend gibt es keine Friedhöfe; die Gräber säumen die Straßen außerhalb Athens, damit Passanten vor ihnen halten und das Geras thanonton vollziehen.

Die geometrischen Gräber zeigen Bilder der rituellen Ehrung des Toten, der namenlos bleibt. Bei den archaischen kommt das benannte Bildnis des Toten auf sowie die Grabepigramme, die die Passanten in eine Performance des Geras thanonton involvieren.

In der Klassik errichtet die Polis kollektive Kriegergräber im demosion Sema. Die privaten Gräber, nun vorrangig Familienbezirke, und die Grabepigramme zeigen die neue Bedeutung der Familie. Die kontrapostischen Grabrelieffiguren wirken wissend um den eigenen Tod und den Tod des Anderen, und es gibt neuartige Gruppen von Toten und Hinterbliebenen.

Diese anthropologische Betrachtung der attischen Grabmäler lässt viel über die lebenden Athener jener Jahre erkennen.

Figurines exhibiting a distorted appearance were exceptionally à la mode in the Hellenistic and Roman periods. Archaeologists have attributed a wide gamut of functions to them. The underlying common denominator of all the propounded theories is that the purpose of these images was the lampoon and degradation of the dregs of society and of the physically deformed. This book argues that such statuettes conversely carried deeply positive meanings.

The book presents a broad survey of Greek votive terracotta figurines, a class of votives where previous scholarship has mainly consisted of research in specific sites and collections. They have traditionally been interpreted as inexpensive and inconspicuous votives for everyday use, but this study questions whether this is in fact the case. By introducing the theoretical model of chaîne opératoire for a life cycle study of the votive figurines the book moves through the stages of production, distribution, use and discard of the votives, the latter both in the sense of practical discard and in the end of use. The study is based on a selection of case studies and surveys of relevant material, allowing for in-depth analyses of the terracottas in those life stages of shifting contextual interactions. The approach furthers new knowledge on several levels, such as the value of the terracottas, their suitability and their popularity as dedications, their iconography and symbolism, the general votive practice, and the end of the terracotta practice. As such, the book is relevant for all who seek insights on terracotta figurines, votive offerings, ritual practice, as well as those interested in archaeological methodology, theory and contexts.

This book assesses the role of relief in the representation of space in Graeco-Roman artistic practice and its study – from Winckelmann to the mid-twentieth century – when Classical art developed as a theoretical discipline. The role of relief in the history of ancient sculpture has long been acknowledged, yet the problems posed by an engagement with the representation of space have not been a subject of specific and sustained inquiry. Neither a conventional history nor a comprehensive historiography, this book traces the study of relief – of its formal character, its artistic purpose, its aesthetic significance, and its historical treatment. The contribution to scholarship is three-fold: (1) By means of a wide array of examples, the book demonstrates that the visual strategies employed to represent space during the Graeco-Roman period were a continuously evolving repertory tied to the refinement of techniques and the transformation of styles that those techniques brought into being. (2) It examines ideas now commonplace, based on scholarship now long-neglected if not completely forgotten. And (3) it reveals how competing interpretations of the representation of space in relief elaborated new approaches to the monuments and their representations.