Artistry in Bronze

Open Access

Artistry in Bronze: The Greeks and Their Legacy, XIXth International Congress on Ancient Bronzes

Edited by Jens M. Daehner, Kenneth Lapatin, and Ambra Spinelli

2017

422 pages

PDF file size: 15.2 MB


Description

The papers in this volume derive from the proceedings of the nineteenth International Bronze Congress, held at the Getty Center and Villa in October 2015 in connection with the exhibition Power and Pathos: Bronze Sculpture of the Hellenistic World. The study of large-scale ancient bronzes has long focused on aspects of technology and production. Analytical work of materials, processes, and techniques has significantly enriched our understanding of the medium. Most recently, the restoration history of bronzes has established itself as a distinct area of investigation. How does this scholarship bear on the understanding of bronzes within the wider history of ancient art? How do these technical data relate to our ideas of styles and development? How has the material itself affected ancient and modern perceptions of form, value, and status of works of art?

Table of Contents

  • International Bronze Congresses and Associated Publications and Exhibitions
  • Directors’ Foreword — Timothy Potts and Timothy P. Whalen
  • Introduction — Jens M. Daehner, Kenneth Lapatin, and Ambra Spinelli
  • I. Large-Scale Bronzes
    • 1. The Bronze Athlete from Ephesos — Georg A. Plattner, Kurt Gschwantler, and Bettina Vak
    • 2. Was the Colossus of Rhodes Cast in Courses or in Large Sections? — Ursula Vedder
    • 3. Bronzes from the Aegean Sea: A Reassessment of Old and New Finds — George Koutsouflakis
    • 4. A Royal Macedonian Portrait Head from the Sea off Kalymnos — Olga Palagia
    • 5. The Bronze Head of Arsinoë III in Mantua and the Typology of Ptolemaic Divinization on the Archelaos Relief — Patricia A. Butz
    • 6. The Apollo from Salerno: Hellenistic Influence in Southern Italy — Silvia Pacifico
    • 7. Tiberius from Herculaneum: Methods of Assembling a Monumental Bronze Portrait — Erik Risser and David Saunders
    • 8. When a Statue Is Not a Statue — Carol C. Mattusch
    • Abstracts
  • II. The Artist
    • 9. More Than Holes! An Unconventional Perspective of the “Greek Revolution” in Bronze Statuary — Gianfranco Adornato
    • 10. Polykleitos and His Followers at Work: How the Doryphoros Was Used — Kyoko Sengoku-Haga, Sae Buseki, Min Lu, Shintaro Ono, Takeshi Oishi, Takeshi Masuda, and Katsushi Ikeuchi
    • 11. Looking at the Bronze of Lost Sculptures: The Reception of the Delphic Monument of the Admirals in the Imperial Age — Eva Falaschi
    • 12. Mobility and Migration: Issues Concerning Itinerant Sculptors — Martin Horne
    • Abstract
  • III. Statuettes
    • 13. Assertions by the Portable: What Can Bronze Statuettes Tell Us about Major Classical Sculpture? — Beryl Barr-Sharrar
    • 14. The Use of Inlays in Early Greek Bronzes — Seán Hemingway and Dorothy H. Abramitis
    • 15. The Poet as Artisan: A Hellenistic Bronze Statuette in the Metropolitan Museum of Art — Elizabeth McGowan
    • 16. The Paramythia Bronzes: Expressions of Cultural Identity in Roman Epirus — Heather Sharpe
    • 17. Roman Bronze Figurines of Deities in the National Archaeological Museum of the Marche (Ancona) — Nicoletta Frapiccini
    • 18. Function and Use of Roman Medium-Sized Statuettes in the Northwestern Provinces — Annemarie Kaufmann-Heinimann
    • 19. Through Celts and Romans: Technology and Symbolism of Bronze Enameled Roosters — Federica Grossi
    • 20. Representations of Zeus/Jupiter in Bronze Statuettes from Albania — Sabina Veseli
    • Abstracts
  • IV. The Hellenistic East
    • 21. The Influence of East and West on Bronze Objects Found in Central Anatolia: Small Bronze Finds from Kaman-Kalehöyük — Alice Boccia Paterakis and Sachihiro Omura
    • 22. The Portrait of a Hellenistic Ruler in the National Museum of Iran — Gunvor Lindström
    • 23. The Influence of Bronze-Working on Roman Provincial Stone Sculpture: The Case of Palmyra — Fred C. Albertson
    • Abstracts
  • V. Vessels
    • 24. Bronze Vessels from the Acropolis and the Definition of the Athenian Production in Archaic and Early Classical Periods — Chiara Tarditi
    • 25. Bronze Vessels and Related Instrumenta at Delphi: Remarks on Morphology, Provenance, and Chronology — Valeria Meirano
    • 26. Toward the Derveni Krater: On the Rarity of Large Bronze Vessels of the Archaic and Classical Periods Bearing Large Figural Registers — Jasper Gaunt
    • 27. Iconography of the Sea World on Late Hellenistic Bronze Vessels — Klara De Decker
    • 28. An Anthropomorphic Vessel in the National Museum of Beirut — Zeina Fani
    • 29. Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine Influence in the Consolidation of Fatimid Metalware — Ayala Lester
  • VI. Artifacts
    • 30. Minoan Status Symbols: Tweezers, “Weaving Hooks,” and Cosmetic Scrapers — Susan C. Ferrence and Alessandra Giumlia-Mair
    • 31. Bronze Trees from the Greek to the Roman World — Marina Castoldi
    • 32. Bronze Medical and Writing Cases in Classical and Hellenistic Macedonia — Despina Ignatiadou
    • 33. A Group of Items from the Campana Collection as an Example of Nineteenth-Century Restoration — Nadežda P. Gulyaeva
    • 34. Roman Silhouette Figures: A Contribution to Music Archaeology? — Norbert Franken
    • Abstracts
  • VII. Conservation and Analysis
    • 35. Sustainable Conservation of Bronze Artworks: Advanced Research in Materials Science — Maria Pia Casaletto and Vilma Basilissi
    • 36. Investigating Ancient “Bronzes”: Non-Destructive Analysis of Copper-Based Alloys — Robert H. Tykot
    • 37. A Scientific Assessment of the Long-Term Protection of Incralac Coatings on Ancient Bronze Collections in the National Archaeological Museum and the Epigraphic and Numismatic Museum in Athens, Greece — Stamatis C. Boyatzis, Andriana Veve, Galateia Kriezi, Georgia Karamargiou, Elena Kontou, and Vasilike Argyropoulos
    • 38. New Approaches in Stabilizing Chloride-Contaminated Ancient Bronzes Using Corrosion Inhibitors and/or Electrochemical Methods to Preserve Information in the Patinas — Vasilike Argyropoulos, Soussani Mavroforaki, Maria Giannoulaki, Stamatis C. Boyatzis, Thanasis Karabotsos, Aggeliki Zacharopoulou, and Elodie Guilminot
    • 39. Conservation Treatments and Archaeometallurgical Insights on the Medici Riccardi Horse Head — Nicola Salvioli, Stefano Sarri, Juri Agresti, Iacopo Osticioli, and Salvatore Siano
    • 40. The Cleveland Apollo: Recent Research and Revelations — Colleen Snyder, Ernst Pernicka, and Peter Northover
    • 41. The Getty Herm of Dionysos: Technical Observations, Review, and Interpretation — Jeffrey Maish
    • 42. A Technological Reexamination of the Piombino Apollo — Benoît Mille and Sophie Descamps-Lequime
    • 43. New Results on the Alloys of the Croatian Apoxyomenos — Iskra Karniš Vidovič and Benoît Mille
    • 44. The Bronze Sculpture of Alexander the Great on Horseback: An Archaeometallurgical Study — Salvatore Siano, Luigia Melillo, Stefano Sarri, and Juri Agresti
    • 45. The Auloi from Meroë: Preliminary Notes on the Conservation, Technical Examination, and Interpretation of a Cache of Ancient Musical Instruments — Susanne Gänsicke and Stefan Hagel
    • 46. A Defined Protocol for In Situ Micro-XRF Compositional Analysis of Bronze Figurines from the National Museum of Damascus, Syria — V. Kantarelou, A. G. Karydas, L. Mahfoud, A. Qurdab, M. Al-Saadi, and V. Argyropoulos
    • 47. Is There an Ultimate Authority in Authenticity? Testing and Retesting Alexander the Great — Lisa Anderson, Katherine Eremin, Henry Lie, Francesca Bewer, and Patrick Degryse
    • Abstracts

About the Authors

Jens M. Daehner is associate curator in the Department of Antiquities at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles.

Kenneth Lapatin, curator of antiquities at the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, is co-editor of and contributor to Power and Pathos: Bronze Sculpture of the Hellenistic World (2015) and Last Days of Pompeii: Decadence, Apocalypse, Resurrection (2012); and the author of Guide to the Getty Villa (2018), Luxus: The Sumptuous Arts of Greece and Rome (2015), and numerous other books and articles on ancient art and its modern reception.