The Invention of Art History in Ancient Greece
Religion, Society and Artistic Rationalisation

Offers a contemporary sociological approach to fundamental questions in the history of Greek art.

Jeremy Tanner (Author)

9780521846141, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 23 March 2006

348 pages, 57 b/w illus.
25.5 x 18.1 x 2.6 cm, 0.865 kg

'… precise, concrete and nuanced. … rich and complex …' Cambridge Archaeological Journal

The ancient Greeks developed their own very specific ethos of art appreciation, advocating a rational involvement with art. This book explores why the ancient Greeks started to write art history and how the writing of art history transformed the social functions of art in the Greek world. It looks at the invention of the genre of portraiture and the social uses to which portraits were put in the city state. Later chapters explore how artists sought to enhance their status by writing theoretical treatises and producing works of art intended for purely aesthetic contemplation, which ultimately gave rise to the writing of art history and to the development of art collecting. The study, which is illustrated throughout and draws on contemporary perspectives in the sociology of art, will prompt the student of classical art to rethink fundamental assumptions about Greek art and its cultural and social implications.

1. Introduction: art and society in classical art history
2. Rethinking the Greek revolution: art and aura in an age of enchantment
3. Portraits and society in classical Greece
4. Culture, social structure and artistic agency in classical Greece
5. Reasonable ways of looking at pictures: high culture in Hellenistic Greece and the Roman empire
6. Epilogue: art after art history.

Subject Areas: Classical Greek & Roman archaeology [HDDK], History of art: ancient & classical art,BCE to c 500 CE [ACG]