Greece and Rome at the Crystal Palace : classical sculpture and modern Britain, 1854-1936 /

Saved in:

Bibliographic Details
Author / Creator:	Nichols, Kate, author.
Edition:	First edition.
Imprint:	Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2015.
Description:	xiii, 305 pages ; 23 cm.
Language:	English
Series:	Classical presences Classical presences.
Subject:	Crystal Palace (Sydenham, London, England) -- History. Crystal Palace (Sydenham, London, England) Sculpture, Classical -- Collectors and collecting -- England -- London -- History -- 19th century. Sculpture, Classical -- Collectors and collecting -- England -- London -- History -- 20th century. Exhibition buildings -- England -- London -- History -- 19th century. Exhibition buildings -- England -- London -- History -- 20th century. Art and society. Art exhibition audiences. Exhibitions. Sculpture, Classical. Sydenham (London, England) -- History -- 19th century. Sydenham (London, England) -- History -- 20th century. England -- London. Exhibition catalogs. History.
Format:	Print Book
URL for this record:	http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/10391534

Hidden Bibliographic Details
ISBN:	9780199596461 0199596468
Notes:	Includes bibliographical references and index.
Summary:	The marble halls of the British Museum might seem the natural habitat for classical sculpture, but in the nineteenth century its sombre displays were far from being the only place that people encountered antiquities. From 1854, a rival collection of classical sculpture, comprising plaster casts from major European museums and scaled down architectural features, was on show in the South London suburb of Sydenham, in the Crystal Palace which had housed the Great Exhibition of 1851. By the late 1850s, two million visitors were passing through the glass doors of the Sydenham Crystal Palace each year, more than twice as many as recorded at the British Museum. Many more people, and from a greater variety of social strata, saw the painted cast of the Parthenon frieze in Sydenham than the original in Bloomsbury.00Utilizing an extensive variety of archival material, including diaries, scrapbooks and photographs, Greece and Rome at the Crystal Palace evokes visitor experiences at Sydenham, and examines the discussion that arose around the presentation of classical plaster casts to a mass audience. It uncovers the social, political, and aesthetic role of ancient Greek and Roman sculpture in modern Britain, assessing how classical art figured in debates over design reform, taste, beauty and morality, class and gender, and race and imperialism.0Readership: Scholars and students interested in the treatment, display, and historical and cultural significance of classical sculpture at the Crystal Palace at Sydenham, and art history, classical studies, museum studies, and classical archaeology more generally.

Table of Contents:

List of Illustrations
List of Abbreviations
Introduction
Part I. Leisure and Learning
1. A New Audience for Greece and Rome
2. Showing off" Archaeological Knowledge
3. Reproducing Greece and Rome
Part II. Sculpture and the Benefits of Good Taste
4. Greek Sculpture and Nineteenth-century Commerce
5. Greek Sculpture, Beauty, and Morality
Part III. An Unattainable Model?
6. Greece, Rome, and the Modern British Nation
Conclusion
Appendices
1. Ground Plan of the Crystal Palace
2. Plan of the Greek Court
3. Plan of the Roman Court
4. Plan of the Pompeian Court
5. List of Greek and Roman Sculpture Exhibited at Sydenham
References
Index

Greece and Rome at the Crystal Palace : classical sculpture and modern Britain, 1854-1936 /

Similar Items