The Parallel Worlds of Classical Art and Text

This book argues that artistic transmissions follow the model of oral, not textual, transmission.

Jocelyn Penny Small (Author)

9780521815222, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 8 September 2003

270 pages
25.5 x 18.2 x 2.1 cm, 0.786 kg

'… a readable and provocative reflection on the subject, of interest to any art historian.' The Burlington Magazine

The Parallel Worlds of Classical Art and Text is the first study to consider the relationship between artists and texts throughout classical antiquity and to cover the entire range of illustrated text from traditional literary to technical works. By systematically applying new and objective criteria to judge the fidelity between picture and text, it is becomes clear that artists illustrate stories, not texts. Jocelyn Penny Small argues that artistic transmissions follow the model of oral, not textual, transmission where the variant rules and where there is no original. Pictures on vases, she demonstrates, should not be used to reconstruct lost literary works. Finally, Small offers an analysis of literary sources on pictures in texts, proving that the appearance of the first illustrated literary classical texts occurred at the end of the Late Roman Republic.

1. What does it mean to illustrate a text?
2. The evidence from Archaic and Early Classical Greek art
3. The evidence for Greek plays
4. The evidence from Hellenistic and Roman art
5. Illustrated text from antiquity
6. There is no original!

Subject Areas: Archaeology [HD], History of art: ancient & classical art,BCE to c 500 CE [ACG], History of art / art & design styles [AC]