Artists and Signatures in Ancient Greece

Description

The Greeks inscribed their works of art and craft with labels identifying mythological or historical figures, bits of poetry, and claims of ownership. But no type of inscription is more hotly debated or more intriguing than the artist's signature, which raises questions concerning the role and status of the artist and the work of art or craft itself. In this book, Jeffrey M. Hurwit surveys the phenomenon of artists' signatures across the many genres of Greek art from the eighth to the first century BCE. Although the great majority of extant works lack signatures, the Greek artist nonetheless signed his products far more than any other artist of antiquity. Examining signatures on gems, coins, mosaics, wall-paintings, metalwork, vases, and sculptures, Hurwit argues that signatures help us assess the position of the Greek artist within his society as well as his conception of his own skill and originality.

Jeffrey M. Hurwit is Philip H. Knight Professor of Art History and Classics at the University of Oregon. He is the author of books including The Acropolis in the Age of Pericles (Cambridge, 2004) and The Art and Culture of Early Greece, 1100-480 BC (1985). He has taught in Siena, Italy and Athens, Greece and has lectured widely across the United States and Europe. He was Martha S. Joukowsky Lecturer for the Archaeological Institute of America in 2000-1 and a Guggenheim Fellow in 1987-8.