Art in the era of Alexander the Great : paradigms of manhood and their cultural traditions /

Art in the era of Alexander the Great : paradigms of manhood and their cultural traditions /

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Bibliographic Details
Author / Creator:Cohen, Ada.
Imprint:New York : Cambridge University Press, 2010.
Description:xxiii, 398 p. : ill. ; 27 cm.
Language:English
Subject:
Art, Greek -- Themes, motives.
Masculinity in art.
Femininity in art.
Identity (Psychology) in art.
Art, Greek -- Themes, motives.
Femininity in art.
Identity (Psychology) in art.
Masculinity in art.
Format: Print Book
URL for this record:http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/8142151
Hidden Bibliographic Details
ISBN:9780521769044 (hardback)
0521769043 (hardback)
Notes:Includes bibliographical references and index.
Summary:"In this book, Ada Cohen focuses on art produced in Macedonia during the late Classical and early Hellenistic period, which coincides with the reigns of Philip II, his famous son Alexander the Great, and their immediate successors. Although inspired by traditional Greek themes and ideals, this body of artwork articulated specifically Macedonian aspirations. Cohen focuses on three key "masculine" themes - warfare, hunting, and abduction of women - exploring their visual and conceptual interconnections. She demonstrates their preoccupation with the visual celebration of violence and studies the analogies they draw among the ideological categories of "enemy," "animal," and "woman." Simultaneously historical and thematic, Cohen's text is structured around select paintings and mosaics from northern Greek sites, such as Pella and Vergina, and from both secular and funerary contexts. She also examines monuments from other ancient contexts and in other media to illuminate specific questions of style, theme, and meaning"--Provided by publisher.
"Simultaneously historical and thematic, this book studies an important period in Greek art, the late Classical and earely Hellenistic, especially the reigns of Philip II, his famous son Alexander the Great, and their successors. It focuses on the three traditionally "masculine" themes of warfare, hunting, and the abduction of women. All three show a preoccupation with the pictorial celebration of violence and draw analogies among the ideological categories "enemy," "animal," and "women." The book explores the ways in which masculine and feminine identities were usually constructed and communicated"--Provided by publisher.
Table of Contents:
  • List of Illustrations
  • Abbreviations
  • Acknowledgments
  • Preface
  • 1. Introduction: Themes And Issues
  • Chains of being
  • The question of thematic connections and metaphors: Preliminaries
  • In and out of context
  • Art and reality
  • 2. Figural Mosaics In The House Of The Abduction Of Helen At Pella: Three Themes
  • Connections, metaphors, and program: Language and art
  • The House of the Abduction of Helen at Pella: A gendered floor plan in broader context
  • The deer hunt
  • Absorption or theatricality?
  • Theseus' abduction of Helen
  • Abduction or rape?
  • Identities in stories of mythological abduction
  • Life and representation
  • Pella's Amazonomachy
  • Male monumentality
  • 3. Master Of Lions (And Other Animals)
  • Lion hunting in the House of Dionysus at Pella
  • Lions in Greece?
  • Macedonian hunting as introduction to manhood: Boar hunt
  • Of lions and men: Some associations of the lion motif
  • The power of naming and the stasis of spectacle
  • Event or mentality?
  • Hunting in the East and the West: Royal associations
  • Lion attacks, griffin attacks, and animal fights: Might makes right in the fourth century
  • Might makes right: A brief history
  • Animal attacks and meaning
  • Man the predator
  • Predation and ideology
  • 4. War As Hunt; Hunt As War?
  • Analogy and program
  • The warrior's education
  • War, hunt, and women
  • Battlescapes
  • Battle and hunt: Ambiguities and ôsofter factsö
  • Hunt as metaphor
  • 5. Rape As Hunt; Hunt As Rape?
  • Male sexuality and the hunt in the longue durée
  • Sexual aggression and the Greek hunt
  • The visual dimension
  • Rape as hunt: Art and the cognitive dimension
  • Man the sexual predator
  • Hunt as rape
  • 6. Rape As War; War As Rape?
  • The Alexander Mosaic: Battle as rape?
  • Linguistics and/as mentalities
  • Phallic weapons
  • Sexuality and/as warfare
  • Rape as a consequence of war, and vice versa
  • 7. Abduction And Femininity
  • Persephone at Vergina: Descriptive and expressive properties
  • Abduction in the tomb: Symbolism, contexts, parallels
  • Art and the literary connections
  • Art and ritual
  • Gender dimensions: Persephone and other victims of rape
  • Abduction, rape, marriage: Textual and iconographic perspectives on consent and coercion
  • Female nudity at Vergina
  • 8. Hunt And Masculinity
  • Hunt at Vergina: Descriptive properties
  • Artistic coordinates: Color, style, space
  • The spaces of masculinity: Landscape and bodyscape
  • Identities and dates: What do we want to know?
  • Short-lived meanings, long-lived themes
  • Two types of heroes
  • Hunting in the tomb
  • Spectacular masculinity and performative bodies
  • Epilogue: Fixing The Pose
  • Notes
  • Bibliography
  • Index
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