This book is not only an aesthetic pleasure...The quality of the hundreds and hundreds of images is extremely persuasive, and the price very reasonable.The text is enjoyable to read, and stands out in its balanced dealing with all periods, and its courage to make artistic evaluations.
The foundations of Western sculpture were laid by the Greeks, Etruscans and Romans. The sculpture of antiquity still influences sculptors and the techniques they use, just as it affects our dealings with art and the status we accord it.
However, scholars of the period (from the 8th century BC to the to 5th century AD) have hitherto neglected certain important links. By re-examining numerous contemporary traditions, the present publication takes a new look at how the works were created, the circumstances of their discovery, and the historical and political background. Remarkable details about the purpose of the works provide new insight into the relationship between client and commission. Placed thus in their total context, the works of antiquity are thereby clearly revealed as far more than "idealised representations of nature".
The masterpieces of antiquity rarely bear a signature, and indeed not a single work can be ascribed with certainty to quasi-mythical sculptors such as Myron, Polyclitus, Phidias and Praxiteles. All we have is innumerable copies. The emphasis of the account given here is therefore on the history of the art; the artists withdraw into the background.
A Cinderella among the arts during the transition from late antiquity to the Romanesque period,medieval sculpture (from the 5th to the Isth century)entered a golden age as the changing religious, political and social context conferred wholly new functions of representation on it. Henceforth, sculptural works acted as intermediaries between God and man. They served on the one hand as instruments for disseminating the teachings of the Church, while on the other reflecting the new view of mankind.
The artists of the time re-discovered the techniques of past eras, and created pieces made of painted wood, bronze and gold. Other contemporaneous works were made of stone, marble and alabaster that astonish in their bold innovativeness. One unique art form of the period, the sculptural decoration of church fagades, is of unsurpassed monumentality.Besides these public works, there were also commissions from high dignitaries of church and state for their splendid residences or their impressive monumental tombs, which the best-known artists were called on to erect.
The works of the time were long considered joint endeavours. Following very recent research, we have now been able to discover the identity of individual artists, and even possess more detailed information about their relationships with their patrons. We are consequently having to revise our view of the period as a whole.
As the decisive moments and most important works in the history of medieval sculpture are set forth before our eyes, we are made increasingly aware of the achievement of a fascinating age.
This volume contains over 1,000 illustrations,some in colour. It is the first volume of a two-part work covering sculpture from antiquity to the preRent.
Greek Art
Philippe Bruneau
General Introduction
Background to the study of Greek sculpture
Statuary and relief
Art and craftsmanship
How statues were used
The Archaic Period
Small figures
Large statues
Architectural sculpture
The sculpture of the Acropolis, Athens
The Classical Period
"The invention of art" and the question of lost originals
Five master sculptors
Themes and styles of Classical statuary: realism and idealism
Architectural sculpture
The freestanding relief
The art of the goldsmith
Greek sculpture outside Greece
The Hellenistic and Imperial Periods
Hellenistic sculpture
The sanctuary at Delphi
The development of the portrait
Sculpture in the home
The Imperial period
The Art of the Etruscans
Mario Torelli
The historical background to Etruscan art
The birth of figurative art: from the geometric style to Daedalic sculpture
The flowering of Ionian art of the Archaic period
The "courtly" austerity of the oligarchies
The late-Classical renaissance
The Etruscan Hellenistic style in the Italic koine
The process of Romanization
The Roman Worl
Xavier Barral i Altet
Introduction
The New Functions of Sculpture
Architecture and sculpture
Originals and copies
Public sculpture and official propaganda
Iconography
The house and its decoration
Roman Realism
The portrait and its development
Sarcophagi and funerary sculpture
The historical relief
Religion and politics
Working with the Raw Material
Patrons and sculptors
The capital
Materials and colour
Bronze
Silver and ceramics
The Development of Roman Sculpture
The Republican era
The Augustan myth
Imperial art under the Flavians and Antonines
Changes during the third century
Originality in the Provinces
Mare Nostrum
The Iberian peninsula
Gaul and Germany
The outlying regions
The Decline of Empire
Art under Constantine
The Christianized sarcophagus
Constantinople
Conclusion
Picture Credits