Research Catalog

Title

The diffusion of classical art in antiquity / John Boardman.

Author

Boardman, John, 1927-

Publication

Princeton : Princeton University Press, 1994.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

352 pages : illustrations; 27 cm.

Summary

• John Boardman here explores Greek art as a foreign art transmitted to the non-Greeks of antiquity - peoples who were not necessarily able to judge the meaning of Greek art and who may have regarded the Greeks themselves with great hostility. Boardman's pioneering work assesses how and why the arts of the Classical world traveled and to what effect, roughly from the eighth century B.C. to early centuries A.D., from Britain to China.
• Since the Greeks were not themselves always the intermediaries and the results were largely determined by the needs of the recipients, this becomes a study of foreign images accepted or copied usually without regard to their original function.
• In some places, such as Italy, these images were overwhelmingly successful. In Egypt, the Celtic world, the eastern steppes, and other regions with strong local traditions, they were never effectively assimilated. Finally, in cultures where there was a subtler blend of influences, notably in the Buddhist east, the Classical images could serve as a catalyst to the generation of effective new styles.
• Boardman's approach is as much archaeological as art-historical, and the processes he reveals pose questions about how images in general are copied and reinterpreted. In addition, the author has demonstrated for specialists and for a broader audience that looking at Greek art from the outside provides a wealth of new understanding of Greek art itself.

Series Statement

• The A.W. Mellon lectures in the fine arts ; 1993
• Bollingen series ; XXXV, 42

Uniform Title

• A.W. Mellon lectures in the fine arts ; 1993.
• Bollingen series ; XXXV, 42.

Subjects

• Art, Greek > Influence
• Art, Ancient > Greek influences

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents

1. Greek Art -- 2. The Near East and the Persian Empire. A. Before about 550 BC. B. The Persian Empire -- 3. The Semitic World and Spain -- 4. The East after Alexander the Great. A. Persia and Parthia. B. Bactria. C. Gandhara and North India. D. Central Asia and the Far East -- 5. Egypt and North Africa -- 6. The countries of the Black Sea. A. Thrace. B. Scythia. C. Colchis -- 7. Italy. A. Etruria. B. Rome -- 8. Europe -- 9. Conclusion.

ISBN

0691036802 (CL)

LCCN

94016269

OCLC

• ocm30360026
• SCSB-14576395

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries