Classical Greece and the Birth of Western Art

Description

What was the 'Classical Revolution' in Greek art? What were its contexts, aims, achievements, and impact? This book introduces students to these questions and guides them towards the answers. Andrew Stewart examines Greek architecture, painting, and sculpture of the fifth and fourth centuries BC in relation to the great political, social, cultural, and intellectual issues of the period.

Andrew Stewart is Nicholas C. Petris Professor of Greek Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. A scholar of Greek art and archaeology, he has received fellowships from the Guggenheim and Getty Foundations and the ACLS and is a member of the American School of Classical Studies in Athens and the Deutsches Archaologisches Institut. He is the author of Art, Desire and the Body in Ancient Greece and most recently, Attalos Athens and the Akropolis: The Pergamene 'Little Barbarians' and their Roman and Renaissance Legacy.

"Stewart's volume is intended for a broad audience, but it is not a general handbook. This is a discussion of Greek history, the cultural and political elements that made up Greek society in the fifth and fourth centuries B.C., and their influences on the visual arts and literature. Since most books on ancient art provide a rather paltry amount of historical and cultural context, and books on ancient history usually give little room to the arts, this book will be a useful supplementary text to complement readings on specific topics in ancient Greek civilization, archaeology, and the history of art." --Pamela A. Webb, Bryn Mawr College, BMCR