Description
Hellenistic and Roman Ideal Sculpture
The Allure of the Classical
Author: Kousser Rachel Meredith
This book is an illuminating analysis showing the power and allure of Greek Classical past in Hellenistic and Roman art.
Language: English
Hellenistic and Roman Ideal Sculpture
Publication date: 09-2014
223 p. · 17.8x25.4 cm · Paperback
Publication date: 09-2014
223 p. · 17.8x25.4 cm · Paperback
Hellenistic and roman ideal sculpture: the allure of the classical
Publication date: 06-2008
226 p. · 18.3x25.7 cm
Publication date: 06-2008
226 p. · 18.3x25.7 cm
Description
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/li>Biography
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In this book, Rachel Kousser draws on contemporary reception theory to present an approach to Hellenistic and Roman ideal sculpture. She analyzes the Romans' preference for retrospective, classicizing statuary based on Greek models as opposed to the innovative creations prized by modern scholars. Using a case study of a particular sculptural type, a forceful yet erotic image of Venus, Kousser argues that the Romans self-consciously employed such sculptures to represent their ties to the past in a rapidly evolving world. Kousser presents Hellenistic and Roman ideal sculpture as an example of a highly effective artistic tradition that was, by modern standards, extraordinarily conservative. At the same time, the Romans' flexible and opportunistic use of past forms also had important implications for the future: it constituted the origins of classicism in Western art.
1. Creating the past: the origins of classicism in Hellenistic sculpture; 2. From Greece to Rome: retrospective sculpture in the early empire; 3. From metropolis to empire: retrospective sculpture in the high empire; 4. From Roman to Christian: retrospection and transformation in late antique art.
Rachel Kousser is Assistant Professor of Ancient Art at Brooklyn College and a member of the doctoral faculty at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. She has received fellowships from the Mellon Foundation, the German Archaeological Institute in Berlin, the Romish-Germanisches Zentralmuseum Mainz, the PSC-CUNY Research Foundation, and the American Numismatic Society. She has contributed several articles to the American Journal of Archaeology.
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