No description available.

The Introduction surveys previous work on the Meidias Painter and his Associates, and outlines the form that the present study is to take. In Chapter I the Painter and his Associates are introduced; their style is briefly assessed, and an attempt is made to establish their dates and their artistic, social and historical background. In the following Chapters, the Meidian scenes are grouped together by subject and mood. Each group of scenes is similarly treated; the representations are first described and then discussed. Reference is made to the literary and artistic traditions behind each subject, and attempts are made to account for any unusual or especially interesting features of the scenes, and to determine the factors which influenced their design. In Chapter II the more violent scenes are discussed, the Amazon-, gigant- and centauromachies, the Minotaur, Persians chasing women and Oedipus slaying the sphinx. Chapters III and IV discuss the 'heavenly garden' scenes which are most characteristic of the Meidian group, scenes set in paradise gardens from which all violence is excluded. In these Chapters the Meidias Painter's name vase and related scenes, Phaon and Adonis, Thamyris, Marsyas and Mousaios, Personifications, Chryse, Apollo and Artemis, Asklepios, Eleusinians, Dionysos and Aphrodite are all discussed. Chapter V is reserved for non-violent yet non-heavenly garden scenes - Nausikaa, Amymone, Ixion and Trojan themes. Chapter VI deals with non-mythological scenes, those of women and cult. In the Conclusion it is suggested that the two major characteristics of Meidian iconography are its interest in nature and its concern to soften and romanticize mythology, and it is argued that both may derive from the contemporary social and political climate. A catalogue of vases attributable to the Meidias Painter and his Associates is appended.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, Berkeley, May 1998. / "Spring 1998." "UMI Number: 9902178"--Prelim. p. "Printed in 2005 by digital xerographic process on acid free paper"--P. after T.p. Includes bibliographical references (p. 273-295).

No description available.

Teilw. zugl.: Kiel, Univ., Habil.-Schr., 1996/97

The principles of ancient Greek architecture have persevered through millennia, their impact ebbing and flowing perhaps, but still considered a fundamental layer on which Western architectural traditions have been built. Keeping in mind the pragmatic, aesthetic, and ideological influence Greek architecture has continued to have, my dissertation turns to contemporaneous sources to gauge the Greeks’ reception of their own sacred architecture. Scholars of Greek religion tend to agree that the temple was not a necessary component of ritual – boundary stones delineating sacred space and an altar on which communication with the divine was sought through sacrifice and non-sanguinary offerings were enough for religious rites. Why, then, were considerable effort and funds put towards the construction of temples, often monumental and virtually ubiquitous across the Greek landscape? Paradoxically, why is Greek literature, an art form that valued ekphrastic accounts of artworks (Homer’s description of the shield of Achilles [Iliad 18.478-608] is an oft-cited example) mostly silent on sacred architecture save for few laconic and formulaic appellations and rather dry descriptions (Greek traveler Pausanias, for instance, focused on sanctuary histories and votive offerings but was rather disinterested in architecture)? There appears to be a disparity between etic and emic perceptions of Greek sacred architecture, but, in fact, ancient evidence proves otherwise and demonstrates that artists were mindful of the potency of sacred structures. My dissertation pieces together their visual testimonies, particularly in vase painting which is arguably the most prolific and far-reaching medium of Greek art. Through an exhaustive perusal of museum collections, archives, and pottery-focused publications, the present study assembles a collection of nearly three-hundred vase paintings with depictions of sacred architecture and covering a time period of around three centuries from the Archaic period (seventh-century BCE) to the end of the Late Classical period (late fourth century BCE). The majority of the objects originate in Athens and its environs (Attika) and Magna Graecia. Based on this chronological and geographical scope, the study examines the images in four chapters: Attic black-figure vase paintings, Attic red-figure vase paintings with non-mythological subjects, Attic red-figure vase paintings with depictions of myth, and South Italian vase paintings. Within these chapters, the typology of architectural elements (e.g., freestanding columns, temple facades) and subject matter (e.g., myths, quotidian activities) constitute the primary criteria with which the images have been categorized. This extensive collection of vase paintings provides manifold insights into not only the reception of sacred architecture but also architectural elements as effective pictorial motifs. A great number of the depictions can be connected to “real” prototypes and, in some cases, distinct religious practices. While previous studies have taken a similar approach only to fixate on the discrepancies between prototypes and what architectural depictions can tell us about ancient building practices, the present study argues that vase painters rarely, if at all, intended to reproduce existing structures. Thus, the evidence should be used to study the ways in which artists reflected and refracted how buildings shaped and were shaped by the needs of their users. Creating an autonomous visual language built on abbreviation, elision, and synthesis, artists, in fact, rendered structures fit for the pictorial world. Their aim was not exactitude but rather verisimilitude – temples, shrines, portals, sanctuaries that were guided by but never unequivocally subservient to reality. The semiotic analysis of architecture, meanwhile, considers the aesthetics of vase painting and the objecthood of the vase. Beyond their face value (i.e., signifying sacred structures), elements like columns and simplified temples configure the surface of the vase into distinct zones, thus denoting spatio-temporal transitions, and hierarchize figures within the depicted events. Moreover, there are numerous instances where the pictorial frame is transformed into a built environment itself with the use of architecture – a practice that urges the viewer to contemplate the tension between the flatness of the ‘canvas’ and the habitable spaces defined by the juxtaposition of figures and structures.

MPhil University College London, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [211]-240) and indexes.

Black and red figured pottery is a captivating, while also a vast and demanding subject of research. For decades, vases were primarily studied as valuable art objects and scenes depicted on them considered as testimonies of ideas and lives of their creators and users. Many researchers focussed on interpreting the scenes captured on these vessels. When studying works by our research predecessors, it can be noted that their methods and conclusions were often influenced by the socio-cultural context in which they lived and worked. The aim of this thesis is not to create new, surprising interpretations of selected scenes or to point at erroneous interpretations of other researchers. The aim of this work is to draw attention to how contemporary society has influenced researchers and the methods they use and conclusions they draw when interpreting scenes considered for long periods as immutable, final and undisputable. While re-evaluating adopted conclusions I drew on gender studies and gender analysis which require a multidisciplinary approach to research and interpretation of vase paintings. In four subject areas I pointed out to what extent the dichotomies within which we are used to think and with which we work, i.e. dichotomies of masculine - feminine, public - private, exterior - interior, but also...