Ancient Greek Literature - Literary Criticism, Greek Art (Ancient)- General & Miscellaneous, Ancient Roman Literature - Literary Criticism, Art & Literature

Parallel Worlds of Classical Art and Text

Name: Parallel Worlds of Classical Art and Text
Author: Jocelyn Penny Small
ISBN: 9780521733069

by Jocelyn Penny Small

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Overview

The Parallel Worlds of Classical Art and Text is the first study to consider the relationship between artists and texts throughout Classical Antiquity and to cover the entire range of illustrated text from traditional literary to technical works. By systematically applying new and objective criteria to judge the fidelity between picture and text, Jocelyn Penny Small makes it clear that artists illustrate stories, not texts. Small argues that artistic transmissions follow the model of oral, not textual, transmission, where the variant rules and there is no original. Pictures on vases, she demonstrates, should not be used to reconstruct lost literary works. Finally, Small offers an analysis of literary sources on pictures in texts to prove that the appearance of the first illustrated literary classical texts occurred at the end of the Late Roman Republic.

Synopsis

This book argues that artistic transmissions follow the model of oral, not textual, transmission.

About the Author, Jocelyn Penny Small

Jocelyn Penny Small is Professor II at Rutgers University in the Department of Art History. A recipient of Woodrow Wilson, Guggenheim and other fellowships, she is the author of books and articles on aspects of classical art, most recently Wax Tablets of the Mind: Cognitive Studies of Literacy and Memory in Classical Antiquity.