Petsalis-Diomidis Alexia, Meyer Caspar (eds.) Drawing the Greek Vase

Oxford University Press, 2023. — 352 p.- Investigates depictions of ancient Greek vases as active producers of knowledge in classical art history, archaeology, collecting, and reception
- Provides a survey of relevant visual material from antiquarian luxury folios, archaeological publications, auction catalogues, and various archives dating from the seventeenth century to the present
- Offers new insights into illustration and photography as competing media in academic study and the antiquities trade
- Engages with the perspectives of practising illustrators
- Extensively illustrated with 146 black and white and colour imagesHow have two-dimensional images of ancient Greek vases shaped modern perceptions of these artefacts and of the classical past? This is the first scholarly volume devoted to the exploration of drawings, prints, and photographs of Greek vases in modernity. Case studies of the seventeenth to the twentieth century foreground ways that artists have depicted Greek vases in a range of styles and contexts within and beyond academia. Questions addressed include: how do these images translate three-dimensional ancient utilitarian objects with iconography central to the tradition of Western painting and decorative arts into two-dimensional graphic images carrying aesthetic and epistemic value? How does the embodied practice of drawing enable people to engage with Greek vases differently from museum viewers, and what insights does it offer on ancient producers and users? And how did the invention of photography impact the tradition of drawing Greek vases? The volume addresses art historians of the seventeenth to twentieth centuries, archaeologists and classical reception scholars.Caspar Meyer, Professor of Classical Archaeology and Material Culture, Bard Graduate Center, New York; and Alexia Petsalis-Diomidis, Senior Lecturer in Classics, University of St Andrews.