Classical Bronzes

Classical Bronzes
Author: Carol C. Mattusch
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Total Pages: 286
Release: 1996
Genre: Art
ISBN: 9780801431821

Carol C. Mattusch discusses the dating of bronzes based on criteria of technique and style, and considers technical innovations in the art of portraiture. Most controversially, she offers evidence that Greek artists cast bronzes in series based on a single model.

Classical Bronzes

Classical Bronzes
Author: Carol C. Mattusch
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Total Pages: 271
Release: 2019-04-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 150173878X

One of the world's leading authorities on ancient bronze sculpture, Carol C. Mattusch urges us to discard the terms "Greek original" and "Roman copy" and to adopt instead terms that distinguish unique works from those produced in series and those produced as variations on a theme. She discusses the dating of bronzes based on criteria of technique and style, and considers technical innovations in the art of portraiture. Most controversially, she offers evidence that Greek artists cast bronzes in series based on a single model. Mattusch points out that examples of series castings can be found among the statuettes and vessel attachments from the Geometric and Orientalizing periods. From the Classical period onward, statues also appear to have been cast in series. Certain styles and types of images that achieved widespread popularity during the Hellenistic and Roman periods were produced in large quantities and in several different places. This book will raise important new questions in the field of Classical bronze sculpture. How long might a single model remain in use and how far might casts from it be transported for production? What is the significance of an artist's signature on a work in a series and what influence was wielded by the potential buyer? And, given these issues, what should the criteria be for distinguishing Greek works from Roman ones? Classical Bronzes is generously illustrated, including an eight-page color insert.

Power and Pathos

Power and Pathos
Author: Jens M. Deahner
Publisher: Getty Publications
Total Pages: 18
Release: 2015-05-24
Genre: Art
ISBN: 1606064398

For the general public and specialists alike, the Hellenistic period (323–31 BC) and its diverse artistic legacy remain underexplored and not well understood. Yet it was a time when artists throughout the Mediterranean developed new forms, dynamic compositions, and graphic realism to meet new expressive goals, particularly in the realm of portraiture. Rare survivors from antiquity, large bronze statues are today often displayed in isolation, decontextualized as masterpieces of ancient art. Power and Pathos gathers together significant examples of bronze sculpture in order to highlight their varying styles, techniques, contexts, functions, and histories. As the first comprehensive volume on large-scale Hellenistic bronze statuary, this book includes groundbreaking archaeological, art-historical, and scientific essays offering new approaches to understanding ancient production and correctly identifying these remarkable pieces. Designed to become the standard reference for decades to come, the book emphasizes the unique role of bronze both as a medium of prestige and artistic innovation and as a material exceptionally suited for reproduction. Power and Pathos is published on the occasion of an exhibition on view at Palazzo Strozzi in Florence from March 14 to June 21, 2015; at the J. Paul Getty Museum from July 20 through November 1, 2015; and at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, from December 6, 2015, through March 20, 2016.

Artistry in Bronze

Artistry in Bronze
Author: Jens M Daehner
Publisher: Getty Publications
Total Pages: 920
Release: 2017-11-21
Genre: Art
ISBN: 1606065424

The papers in this volume derive from the proceedings of the nineteenth International Bronze Congress, held at the Getty Center and Villa in October 2015 in connection with the exhibition Power and Pathos: Bronze Sculpture of the Hellenistic World. The study of large-scale ancient bronzes has long focused on aspects of technology and production. Analytical work of materials, processes, and techniques has significantly enriched our understanding of the medium. Most recently, the restoration history of bronzes has established itself as a distinct area of investigation. How does this scholarship bear on the understanding of bronzes within the wider history of ancient art? How do these technical data relate to our ideas of styles and development? How has the material itself affected ancient and modern perceptions of form, value, and status of works of art? www.getty.edu/publications/artistryinbronze

Ancient Bronzes Through a Modern Lens

Ancient Bronzes Through a Modern Lens
Author: Susanne Ebbinghaus
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 209
Release: 2014-01-01
Genre: Art
ISBN: 0300207794

This publication brings together prominent art historians, conservators, and scientists to discuss fresh approaches to the study of ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern works of bronze. Featuring significant bronzes from the Harvard Art Museums' holdings as well as other museum collections, the volume's eight essays present technical and formal analyses in a format that will be useful for both general readers and students of ancient art. The text provides an overview of ancient manufacturing processes as well as modern methods of scientific examination, and it focuses on objects as diverse as large-scale statuary and more utilitarian armor, vessels, and lamps. Filling a current gap in the art historical literature, this book offers a much-needed, accessible introduction to ancient bronzes.

The Restoration of Ancient Bronzes

The Restoration of Ancient Bronzes
Author: Erik Risser
Publisher: Getty Publications
Total Pages: 148
Release: 2013-01-31
Genre: Art
ISBN: 1606061542

The archaeological finds at Herculaneum and Pompeii have rendered Naples an especially rich field for the study of the history of restorations, particularly of ancient bronzes. Bringing together the research of an international group of curators, conservators, archivists, and scientists, this extensively illustrated online volume examines the evolving practice of bronze restoration in Naples and other European centers from the eighteenth century to today. Presenting the results of new investigations, this collection of essays and case studies addresses the contexts in which the restorations took place, the techniques and materials used, the role of specialists, and changing attitudes to the display of these statues. Along with a rich selection of images, these texts offer a significant contribution to the history of restoration and conservation, providing valuable information regarding the evolution of taste and museum practices at a formative stage of modern archaeology. The essays collected here were written following a series of presentations at a one-day conference, “Restoring Ancient Bronzes in the Nineteenth Century,” held at the J. Paul Getty Museum on May 6, 2011. Each illustrated essay is accompanied by a separate gallery of large-format images to facilitate study and analysis. Edited by Erik Risser, associate conservator in the Department of Antiquities at the J. Paul Getty Museum, and David Saunders, assistant curator in the Department of Antiquities at the J. Paul Getty Museum, this collection is part of the Getty’s ongoing commitment to the online publication of scholarly conferences and symposia.

Small Bronze Sculpture from the Ancient World

Small Bronze Sculpture from the Ancient World
Author:
Publisher: Getty Publications
Total Pages: 284
Release: 1990
Genre: Bronze figurines, Ancient
ISBN: 089236176X

Historical and technical considerations in provenancing and collecting Greek, Etruscan, and Roman bronzes.

Ancient Greek Portrait Sculpture

Ancient Greek Portrait Sculpture
Author: Sheila Dillon
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 238
Release: 2006-04-24
Genre: Art
ISBN: 0521854989

This book offers a new approach to the history of Greek portraiture by focusing on portraits without names. Comprehensively illustrated, it brings together a wide range of evidence that has never before been studied as a group. Sheila Dillon considers the few original bronze and marble portrait statues preserved from the Classical and Hellenistic periods together with the large number of Greek portraits known only through Roman 'copies'. In focusing on a series of images that have previously been ignored, Dillon investigates the range of strategies and modes utilized in these portraits to construct their subject's identity. Her methods undermine two basic tenets of Greek portraiture: first, that is was only in the late Hellenistic period, under Roman influence, that Greek portraits exhibited a wide range of styles, including descriptive realism; and second, that in most cases, one can easily tell a subject's public role - that is, whether he is a philosopher of an orator - from the visual traits used in this portrait. The sculptures studied here instead show that the proliferation of portrait styles takes place much earlier, in the late Classical period; and that the identity encoded in these portraits is much more complex and layered than has previously been realized. Despite the fact that these portraits lack the one feature most prized by scholars of ancient portraiture - a name - they are evidence of utmost importance for the history of Greek portraiture.

Technological Animation in Classical Antiquity

Technological Animation in Classical Antiquity
Author: Maria Gerolemou
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 423
Release: 2024-09-24
Genre: History
ISBN: 0192672061

The persistent desire to animate inanimate objects has been a recurring theme in European culture dating back to ancient Greek and Roman times. Technological Animation in Classical Antiquity aims to establish, for the first time, the significance of this aspiration and its practical realization within Greek and Roman societies. While certain aspects of this narrative have been explored previously, this study shifts the focus to place technological animation at the forefront. The sixteen chapters examine the tangible existence of such devices across various media and considers their roles in diverse contexts, delving into the reciprocal relationship between technological and material realities, and its influence on the concept of animation and vice versa. By adopting this perspective, technological animation not only provides a new understanding of the processes behind animation but also lends a fresh perspective to the animated artifact. In contrast to other types of animation, where the technologically animated artifact is often dismissed as a perceptual error induced, for instance, by rhetoric or magic, this study separates technological animation from notions of rhetorical or magical skills, theurgy, or divine intervention. Specifically, it concentrates on a subset of artificial animation solely produced through technical procedures, exploring how various motive forces actively contributed to giving objects agency and impacting their viewers, illuminating how the material conditions of the artifacts themselves played a role in the process of technological animation--whether through the distinctive materiality of bronze or the design of a statuette's hinge.