Superfluous Signs? Sacred Architecture in Greek Visual Culture

2016

When we try to make sense of pictures, what do we gain when we use a particular method – and what might we be missing or even losing? Empirical experimentation on three types of mythological imagery – a Classical Greek pot, a frieze from Hellenistic Pergamon and a second-century CE Roman sarcophagus – enables Katharina Lorenz to demonstrate how theoretical approaches to images (specifically, Iconology, Semiotics, and Image Studies) impact the meanings we elicit from Greek and Roman art. A guide to Classical images of myth and also a critical history of Classical archaeology’s attempts to give meaning to pictures, this book establishes a dialogue with the wider field of art history and proposes a new framework for the study of ancient visual culture. It will be essential reading not just for students of classical art history and archaeology, but for anyone interested in the possibilities – and the history – of studying visual culture.

Hyperboreus 26.1, 2020

This work examines visual representations of aryballoi and their hangers. Both items are always depicted together, thus creating a unified entity, that is, separate objects that operate as a unit. Although the aryballos – a small vase primarily employed in a masculine context – is quite conveniently designed for carrying directly in the hand, it is nevertheless always depicted attached to its hanger, and this affects its handling. A comparative case is brought: the alabastron, a vase primarily employed in feminine contexts. Though bearing formal features similar to the aryballos, in visual representations we see the alabastron being handled very differently, mostly through direct contact and not with a hanger. This leads to the conclusion that vase painters actively gendered vases not only according to type, but even by handling. The combination of aryballos and hanger enables more freedom of movement than the alabastron alone, symbolizing the greater freedom enjoyed by men of the time; while the association of alabastron with women perhaps points to their corresponding lack of freedom. These paintings thus encapsulate and symbolize the differences between the sexes.

J. Neils and O. Palagia (eds.), From Kallias to Kritias: Art in Athens in the Second Half of the Fifth Century B.C, 2022

Athenian vase-painters of the 5 th century have left a wealth of images that invite us to enter their world and see it as they did. It is strange, therefore, that they are so rarely enlisted when we seek to know about the constructed environment of the city. Through their eyes, their "gaze", we can in fact tour the Acropolis, encounter the important sculptures set in the Agora, and even view cult buildings in the outer city. 1 Their images may be careful depictions or looser reflections, but they are all valuable as they offer the dimension of the "eye witness" to enhance both archaeological results and later literary sources. Most of these images on vases are embedded in scenes of the regular life of the city and show contemporary structures, buildings and sculptures, but a few appear in imaginary myth-historical scenes and events. The aim of this paper is to explore the manner in which Athenian vase-painters approached the physical environments of their imagined narratives and how they became entangled with those that they actually knew, leading them to create simultaneously multiple identities and multiple moments in time, evoking complex ideas and emotions in the minds of their eventual users. 2 This exploration will also require simultaneous consideration of the connections between vase-painters and their fellow painters of larger, flat surfaces, whether wall, panel or stage-set, for we may be able to observe the former reflecting the works of the latter at several moments in the 5 th century. Note: I should like to thank Polly Lohmann and Ann Grosch (Heidelberg), Dennis Graen (Jena), Anne Coulié, Martine Denoyelle and Christine Merlin (Paris) and Jochen Griesbach (Würzburg) for so very kindly supplying or helping to supply images of the objects illustrated here. Several friends have helped in various other ways: Norbert Eschbach, Jasper Gaunt, Natacha Massar, Rainer Vollkommer and Susan Woodford. I should also like to thank Maria Tourna and Susanna Ipiroti (American School of Classical Studies at Athens) for kindly scanning various articles for me during the confinement. Finally, I am very grateful to the editors for their immense patience during all the difficult months of 2020.

Cambridge Archaeological Journal 5: 1-38, 1995

Pursuits are a common theme in ancient Greek vase-painting and have been the subject of much iconographic analysis and debate over the past few decades. Although there are some basic features common to these pursuits, their classification and study has often emphasized the basic typology and meaning of the scenes. The work of Christiane Sourvinou-Inwood, drawing upon semiotics, has been an important contribution to how we interpret and differentiate meaning in such scenes. I would like to draw upon this work to look at pursuit scenes structurally and diachronically, exploring the factors that differentiate and define pursuit themes from one another. Several recent studies have examined the occurrence of pursuit scenes and their popularity in fifth-century Attic vase-painting. S. Kaempf-Dimitriadou documented thoroughly the love pursuits of the gods, showing that they began to appear in the early fifth century BC and became very popular during the early classical period, possibly as a reflection of the gods' favor for Athens. 1 A. Stewart surveyed a broader range of pursuits, showing a shift in popularity among pursuits during the fifth century, beginning with heroes pursuing women (500-475 BC), then gods pursuing mortals (475-450), and finally ephebes pursuing women (450-425). 2 Several pursuit themes, such as Aias/Kassandra and Peleus/Thetis, appeared earlier in the sixth century; both have received detailed recent study by J. B.

in: E. Günther - M. Sauer (ed.), Material Image: Affordances as a New Approach to Visual Culture Studies. Art Style, Art & Culture International Magazine 7, 2021

The article examines a group of images on Athenian ceramic vases in which pointed amphorae are depicted in various usages. This iconography appears primarily in the contexts of both the symposium and the komos, whose participants, along with members of the Dionysian thiasos, are shown sitting, leaning, playing, beating, and masturbating with this vessel. The utilization of this specific mundane object in such a manner is explored in light of psychologist James J. Gibson's term 'affordance', which refers to the potentialities held by an object for a particular set of actions, stemming from its material properties. Two additional terms, discussed by Beth Preston, that may help in analyzing the images are 'proper function' referring to the normative usage of objects, and 'system function', referring to the unorthodox usage of objects. The affordances of the amphora, stemming from its shape and material and the inherent potentialities for action, are perceived and exploited by the users. Though not from the outset designed as a chair, a toy, or a sexual device, in the hands of these figures and within the specific space of the symposium and the komos, the ordinary pointed amphora takes on those functions. Thanks to the Athenian vase painters, we are able to register and visualize latent affordances of the amphora that previously lay out of sight. It seems that in the context of the Athenian symposium and komos, what matters is the possibilities for action and that they be stretched to the maximum.

Hermathena 188, 2010

Res: Anthropology and Aesthetics 59-60: 145-167.