Helle Hochscheid lectures in archaeology, ancient history and ancient literature at University College Roosevelt (Utrecht University) in the Netherlands. Her main interest is in ancient Greek sculpture, with focal points in gender-related and other social aspects (patronage, status of sculptors and patrons), body image and medicinal views reflected in sculpture, and the concept of embodied cognition in relation to sculpture. She is the author of Networks of Stone (Oxford: Peter Lang, 2015) and co-founder of the Ancient Sculpture Association.
This paper delivered at the Penn-Leiden conference on Valuing Labour in Ancient Athens delves int... more This paper delivered at the Penn-Leiden conference on Valuing Labour in Ancient Athens delves into the status of craftspeople in early-democratic Athens. It argues that skilled craftspeople were highly valued and some of the early democratic institutions of the first decades of the fifth century may well have developed with an eye to acknowledging, appreciating and making these manufacturers remain in Athens.
H. Hochscheid & B. Russell eds. The Value of Making: Theory and Practice in Ancient Craft Production (Brepols, Studies in Classical Archaeology) , Feb 5, 2021
This volume presents new scholarship on the value and valuing of craft production in ancient soci... more This volume presents new scholarship on the value and valuing of craft production in ancient societies around the Mediterranean. Ancient economic history, especially when approached archaeologically, has typically - and with good reason - focused upon the objects that were produced by craftspeople, their form and style, and their distribution. Typological approaches necessary for sorting and analysing large bodies of material evidence have also prioritized the final form of artefacts. Yet it was first and foremost the craftspeople behind these items who were responsible for an item's functionality, its purpose, and its value, and these roles have in recent years received fresh attention in anthropological and sociological studies. The contributions gathered in this volume revolve around the role of makers, their handling of materials, and their place in networks of production and consumption, whilst at the same time remembering that craftspeople were never lone forces but depended on wider networks of supplies, colleagues, and consumers, as well as more ephemeral considerations such as aesthetics and religious value. Through this approach, the volume sheds new light not only on a range of crafts and materials from the ancient world, but also on the value of making and the making of value in ancient Mediterranean societies.
H. Hochscheid and P. Schultz eds. Speaking the Past. Heritage, Discourse and Publishing in the Digital Age, 65-72, 2020
This piece in the papers of the conference Speaking the Past explores the importance of and need ... more This piece in the papers of the conference Speaking the Past explores the importance of and need for archaeological approaches in teaching students dialogic skills they need to be empathetic individuals.
Stewart, E., Harris, E. & Lewis, D. (eds.). Skilled Labour and Professionalism in Ancient Greece and Rome. Cambridge University Press, pp. 203-229 , 2020
This chapter explores the status of sculptors in Classical Athens. In particular, it questions th... more This chapter explores the status of sculptors in Classical Athens. In particular, it questions the traditional view that sculpture was a menial career that generally would not have been approved of in society. Through epigraphic, archaeological, historical and iconographic evidence, the chapter argues that sculptors could make a good living and had positions in society to match.
Fifth-century Greek sculpture has traditionally been considered the epitome of ancient Art, the h... more Fifth-century Greek sculpture has traditionally been considered the epitome of ancient Art, the highest expression of classical aesthetic ideals and sculptural quality. More so than, for example, the more versatile category of pottery, it has been contextualised as the domain of a wealthy elite and of sculptors of the Pheidian type: artists creating masterpieces in splendid isolation, only interrupted by mundane yet necessary dealings with patrons. In this paper, the elitist image of sculpture production and its social context, in the particular case of sixth and fifth-century Athens, is contested by applying two theoretical frameworks to a variety of sources. The first is the theory of horizontal and vertical specialisation in ancient economies (e.g. Greene 2000). Contrary to common perception, sculptural practice in archaic and classical Athens had relatively high levels of vertical specialisation, in which specialist craftsmen other than sculptors contributed considerably to final products. This claim is supported by archaeological evidence from original statues, excavations, and an analysis of sculpture terminology in ancient texts. Second is the concept of Art Worlds, which entails that works of art are ‘…joint products of all the people who cooperate via an art world’s conventions to bring works like that into existence’ (Becker 1984, 34-5). Thus, not only sculptors but other groups must be taken into account when looking at the production of ancient sculpture, including various kinds of craftsmen, patrons, and even audiences. From this point of view, comments on sculpture by (near-)contemporaries such as Plato take on a new meaning, since they too are part of the art world of sculpture. In conclusion, a contextual approach to the archaic and classical sculpture from Athens allows us to shed some of the bias which classical archaeology has developed over the centuries, and to look at these famous works of art in a new light. The combination of an inclusive approach to sculpture production and a wide variety of sources enables a more practical and realistic view of what it meant to make sculpture in and for Athenians society in the sixth and fifth centuries BC.
The phenomenon of optical correction in Classical Greek sculpture has been attested by both ancie... more The phenomenon of optical correction in Classical Greek sculpture has been attested by both ancient authors and modern scholars. Despite the apparent normalcy of optical correction in sculpture, however, there are no obvious reasons for it and how such correction worked in statues is a question which has rarely been examined systematically. Among the possible explanations are conscious application of philosophical or optical theories by sculptors, or subconscious influence of human visual perception on the carving process.
In this study, asymmetries (as one possible method of achieving optical correction) in the heads of extant fifth-century Greek sculpture have been analysed in relation to the ideal view and the pose of statues. All heads that were measured were asymmetrical, but statistical analysis showed no systematic pattern in the data that could be considered representative for sculpture from Classical Greece in general.
The lack of a statistically significant pattern means that (subconscious) correction of visual perception is not at the root of the asymmetries, undermining the notion of systematic application of contemporary optical theory by sculptors or the influence of their own visual perception. However, a practical explanation for the unsystematic asymmetries presented itself through interviews with seven sculptors, who pointed out technical reasons why asymmetries would occur naturally during carving, without influence of theoretical designs or visual perception.
This volume brings together contributions by scholars interested in making and the role of the ma... more This volume brings together contributions by scholars interested in making and the role of the maker to discuss what new anthropological and sociological approaches might add to our understanding of ancient craft production and its value to the makers and their societies.
This volume presents new scholarship on the value and valuing of craft production in ancient societies around the Mediterranean. Ancient economic history, especially when approached archaeologically, has typically — and with good reason — focused upon the objects that were produced by craftspeople, their form and style, and their distribution. Typological approaches necessary for sorting and analysing large bodies of material evidence have also prioritized the final form of artefacts. Yet it was first and foremost the craftspeople behind these items who were responsible for an item’s functionality, its purpose, and its value, and these roles have in recent years received fresh attention in anthropological and sociological studies.
The contributions gathered in this volume revolve around the role of makers, their handling of materials, and their place in networks of production and consumption, whilst at the same time remembering that craftspeople were never lone forces but depended on wider networks of supplies, colleagues, and consumers, as well as more ephemeral considerations such as aesthetics and religious value. Through this approach, the volume sheds new light not only on a range of crafts and materials from the ancient world, but also on the value of making and the making of value in ancient Mediterranean societies.
This book is a record of papers delivered at the colloquium Speaking the Past. Heritage, Discours... more This book is a record of papers delivered at the colloquium Speaking the Past. Heritage, Discourse, and Publishing in the Digital Age on 23-24 October 2019 at University College Roosevelt, Middelburg, The Netherlands. The colloquium brought together an international group of interdisciplinary scholars to ask questions about heritage and its communication to various audiences across a range of media and institutional platforms. Questions like: Who decides when, how, and where heritage is studied, published, and consumed? How does the academy communicate local, regional, and global heritages to popular audiences? What is the role of ideology in heritage studies and heritage management? How should – or shouldn’t – governments and NGOs shape our images of the past? How is “heritage” itself defined – and by whom? Speaking the Past was organized in cooperation with the students of the third-year undergraduate research seminar “The Global Artefact” at University College Roosevelt. The colloquium paired students with invited speakers. The result was a dynamic, engaged discussion revolving around one of the most pressing issues of our day and an exciting example of international, undergraduate research.
Cultural Interactions: Studies in the Relationship between the Arts
Networks of Stone explores... more Cultural Interactions: Studies in the Relationship between the Arts
Networks of Stone explores the social and creative processes of sculpture production in Athens in the sixth and fifth centuries bc. Using the concept of art worlds, it analyses the contributions and interactions of all those who were in some way part of creating the sculpture set up in the sanctuaries and cemeteries of Athens. The choices that were made not only by patrons and sculptors, but also by traders in various materials and a range of craftsmen all influenced the final appearance of these works of art. By looking beyond the sculptor to the network of craftsmen and patrons that constituted the art world, this study offers new insights into well-known archaeological evidence and some of the highlights of classical art history.
Databases of Networks of Stone: use & usage
The databases of Networks of Stone consist of five t... more Databases of Networks of Stone: use & usage
The databases of Networks of Stone consist of five tables containing related datasets, divided over three files. One of these, the Bases table, presents bases and other supports of votive and sepulchral sculpture from Athens in the sixth and fifth centuries BC. Of the others, two contain votive sculptures and the corresponding references, and gravestones and their references. Each table is available on this site in a report in .pdf format: votives and the votives references are combined in one file, and so are gravestones and the corresponding references. A readme if provided at the beginning of each pdf for abbreviations and reading instructions. For the original Access database format, please contact the author stating your purpose with the database, your affiliation and how the database will be referenced.
Please download as needed from the attachments on this site. For all academic or creative use of the database, please acknowledge authorship and apply full citations.
Databases containing bases, support columns and pedestals for gravestones and votives, belonging ... more Databases containing bases, support columns and pedestals for gravestones and votives, belonging to Networks of Stone.
Data of an investigation into asymmetries in classical Greek sculpture; article under review for ... more Data of an investigation into asymmetries in classical Greek sculpture; article under review for open access publication on the website of The ARt of Making project.
The phenomenon of optical correction in classical Greek sculpture has been attested to by ancient authors such as Plato, as well as modern scholars. The apparent normalcy of optical correction in sculpture is, however, not self-evident. How such correction worked, whether it was based in philosophical or optical theories, and how widely spread it was among sculptors, are questions which are rarely examined systematically.
In this study, asymmetries (as one possible method of achieving optical correction) in the heads of extant fifth-century sculpture have been analysed in relation to the ideal view and the pose of the statues. All heads which were measured were asymmetrical, but statistical analysis showed that there is no systematic pattern in this dataset which could be considered representative for sculpture from classical Greece in general.
Yet this lack of statistical significance does not mean that asymmetries do not require explanation. Seven interviewed sculptors pointed out practical and technical reasons why asymmetries would occur naturally during carving, in modern as in ancient sculpture, without conscious or theoretical designs behind them."""
This paper delivered at the Penn-Leiden conference on Valuing Labour in Ancient Athens delves int... more This paper delivered at the Penn-Leiden conference on Valuing Labour in Ancient Athens delves into the status of craftspeople in early-democratic Athens. It argues that skilled craftspeople were highly valued and some of the early democratic institutions of the first decades of the fifth century may well have developed with an eye to acknowledging, appreciating and making these manufacturers remain in Athens.
H. Hochscheid & B. Russell eds. The Value of Making: Theory and Practice in Ancient Craft Production (Brepols, Studies in Classical Archaeology) , Feb 5, 2021
This volume presents new scholarship on the value and valuing of craft production in ancient soci... more This volume presents new scholarship on the value and valuing of craft production in ancient societies around the Mediterranean. Ancient economic history, especially when approached archaeologically, has typically - and with good reason - focused upon the objects that were produced by craftspeople, their form and style, and their distribution. Typological approaches necessary for sorting and analysing large bodies of material evidence have also prioritized the final form of artefacts. Yet it was first and foremost the craftspeople behind these items who were responsible for an item's functionality, its purpose, and its value, and these roles have in recent years received fresh attention in anthropological and sociological studies. The contributions gathered in this volume revolve around the role of makers, their handling of materials, and their place in networks of production and consumption, whilst at the same time remembering that craftspeople were never lone forces but depended on wider networks of supplies, colleagues, and consumers, as well as more ephemeral considerations such as aesthetics and religious value. Through this approach, the volume sheds new light not only on a range of crafts and materials from the ancient world, but also on the value of making and the making of value in ancient Mediterranean societies.
H. Hochscheid and P. Schultz eds. Speaking the Past. Heritage, Discourse and Publishing in the Digital Age, 65-72, 2020
This piece in the papers of the conference Speaking the Past explores the importance of and need ... more This piece in the papers of the conference Speaking the Past explores the importance of and need for archaeological approaches in teaching students dialogic skills they need to be empathetic individuals.
Stewart, E., Harris, E. & Lewis, D. (eds.). Skilled Labour and Professionalism in Ancient Greece and Rome. Cambridge University Press, pp. 203-229 , 2020
This chapter explores the status of sculptors in Classical Athens. In particular, it questions th... more This chapter explores the status of sculptors in Classical Athens. In particular, it questions the traditional view that sculpture was a menial career that generally would not have been approved of in society. Through epigraphic, archaeological, historical and iconographic evidence, the chapter argues that sculptors could make a good living and had positions in society to match.
Fifth-century Greek sculpture has traditionally been considered the epitome of ancient Art, the h... more Fifth-century Greek sculpture has traditionally been considered the epitome of ancient Art, the highest expression of classical aesthetic ideals and sculptural quality. More so than, for example, the more versatile category of pottery, it has been contextualised as the domain of a wealthy elite and of sculptors of the Pheidian type: artists creating masterpieces in splendid isolation, only interrupted by mundane yet necessary dealings with patrons. In this paper, the elitist image of sculpture production and its social context, in the particular case of sixth and fifth-century Athens, is contested by applying two theoretical frameworks to a variety of sources. The first is the theory of horizontal and vertical specialisation in ancient economies (e.g. Greene 2000). Contrary to common perception, sculptural practice in archaic and classical Athens had relatively high levels of vertical specialisation, in which specialist craftsmen other than sculptors contributed considerably to final products. This claim is supported by archaeological evidence from original statues, excavations, and an analysis of sculpture terminology in ancient texts. Second is the concept of Art Worlds, which entails that works of art are ‘…joint products of all the people who cooperate via an art world’s conventions to bring works like that into existence’ (Becker 1984, 34-5). Thus, not only sculptors but other groups must be taken into account when looking at the production of ancient sculpture, including various kinds of craftsmen, patrons, and even audiences. From this point of view, comments on sculpture by (near-)contemporaries such as Plato take on a new meaning, since they too are part of the art world of sculpture. In conclusion, a contextual approach to the archaic and classical sculpture from Athens allows us to shed some of the bias which classical archaeology has developed over the centuries, and to look at these famous works of art in a new light. The combination of an inclusive approach to sculpture production and a wide variety of sources enables a more practical and realistic view of what it meant to make sculpture in and for Athenians society in the sixth and fifth centuries BC.
The phenomenon of optical correction in Classical Greek sculpture has been attested by both ancie... more The phenomenon of optical correction in Classical Greek sculpture has been attested by both ancient authors and modern scholars. Despite the apparent normalcy of optical correction in sculpture, however, there are no obvious reasons for it and how such correction worked in statues is a question which has rarely been examined systematically. Among the possible explanations are conscious application of philosophical or optical theories by sculptors, or subconscious influence of human visual perception on the carving process.
In this study, asymmetries (as one possible method of achieving optical correction) in the heads of extant fifth-century Greek sculpture have been analysed in relation to the ideal view and the pose of statues. All heads that were measured were asymmetrical, but statistical analysis showed no systematic pattern in the data that could be considered representative for sculpture from Classical Greece in general.
The lack of a statistically significant pattern means that (subconscious) correction of visual perception is not at the root of the asymmetries, undermining the notion of systematic application of contemporary optical theory by sculptors or the influence of their own visual perception. However, a practical explanation for the unsystematic asymmetries presented itself through interviews with seven sculptors, who pointed out technical reasons why asymmetries would occur naturally during carving, without influence of theoretical designs or visual perception.
This volume brings together contributions by scholars interested in making and the role of the ma... more This volume brings together contributions by scholars interested in making and the role of the maker to discuss what new anthropological and sociological approaches might add to our understanding of ancient craft production and its value to the makers and their societies.
This volume presents new scholarship on the value and valuing of craft production in ancient societies around the Mediterranean. Ancient economic history, especially when approached archaeologically, has typically — and with good reason — focused upon the objects that were produced by craftspeople, their form and style, and their distribution. Typological approaches necessary for sorting and analysing large bodies of material evidence have also prioritized the final form of artefacts. Yet it was first and foremost the craftspeople behind these items who were responsible for an item’s functionality, its purpose, and its value, and these roles have in recent years received fresh attention in anthropological and sociological studies.
The contributions gathered in this volume revolve around the role of makers, their handling of materials, and their place in networks of production and consumption, whilst at the same time remembering that craftspeople were never lone forces but depended on wider networks of supplies, colleagues, and consumers, as well as more ephemeral considerations such as aesthetics and religious value. Through this approach, the volume sheds new light not only on a range of crafts and materials from the ancient world, but also on the value of making and the making of value in ancient Mediterranean societies.
This book is a record of papers delivered at the colloquium Speaking the Past. Heritage, Discours... more This book is a record of papers delivered at the colloquium Speaking the Past. Heritage, Discourse, and Publishing in the Digital Age on 23-24 October 2019 at University College Roosevelt, Middelburg, The Netherlands. The colloquium brought together an international group of interdisciplinary scholars to ask questions about heritage and its communication to various audiences across a range of media and institutional platforms. Questions like: Who decides when, how, and where heritage is studied, published, and consumed? How does the academy communicate local, regional, and global heritages to popular audiences? What is the role of ideology in heritage studies and heritage management? How should – or shouldn’t – governments and NGOs shape our images of the past? How is “heritage” itself defined – and by whom? Speaking the Past was organized in cooperation with the students of the third-year undergraduate research seminar “The Global Artefact” at University College Roosevelt. The colloquium paired students with invited speakers. The result was a dynamic, engaged discussion revolving around one of the most pressing issues of our day and an exciting example of international, undergraduate research.
Cultural Interactions: Studies in the Relationship between the Arts
Networks of Stone explores... more Cultural Interactions: Studies in the Relationship between the Arts
Networks of Stone explores the social and creative processes of sculpture production in Athens in the sixth and fifth centuries bc. Using the concept of art worlds, it analyses the contributions and interactions of all those who were in some way part of creating the sculpture set up in the sanctuaries and cemeteries of Athens. The choices that were made not only by patrons and sculptors, but also by traders in various materials and a range of craftsmen all influenced the final appearance of these works of art. By looking beyond the sculptor to the network of craftsmen and patrons that constituted the art world, this study offers new insights into well-known archaeological evidence and some of the highlights of classical art history.
Databases of Networks of Stone: use & usage
The databases of Networks of Stone consist of five t... more Databases of Networks of Stone: use & usage
The databases of Networks of Stone consist of five tables containing related datasets, divided over three files. One of these, the Bases table, presents bases and other supports of votive and sepulchral sculpture from Athens in the sixth and fifth centuries BC. Of the others, two contain votive sculptures and the corresponding references, and gravestones and their references. Each table is available on this site in a report in .pdf format: votives and the votives references are combined in one file, and so are gravestones and the corresponding references. A readme if provided at the beginning of each pdf for abbreviations and reading instructions. For the original Access database format, please contact the author stating your purpose with the database, your affiliation and how the database will be referenced.
Please download as needed from the attachments on this site. For all academic or creative use of the database, please acknowledge authorship and apply full citations.
Databases containing bases, support columns and pedestals for gravestones and votives, belonging ... more Databases containing bases, support columns and pedestals for gravestones and votives, belonging to Networks of Stone.
Data of an investigation into asymmetries in classical Greek sculpture; article under review for ... more Data of an investigation into asymmetries in classical Greek sculpture; article under review for open access publication on the website of The ARt of Making project.
The phenomenon of optical correction in classical Greek sculpture has been attested to by ancient authors such as Plato, as well as modern scholars. The apparent normalcy of optical correction in sculpture is, however, not self-evident. How such correction worked, whether it was based in philosophical or optical theories, and how widely spread it was among sculptors, are questions which are rarely examined systematically.
In this study, asymmetries (as one possible method of achieving optical correction) in the heads of extant fifth-century sculpture have been analysed in relation to the ideal view and the pose of the statues. All heads which were measured were asymmetrical, but statistical analysis showed that there is no systematic pattern in this dataset which could be considered representative for sculpture from classical Greece in general.
Yet this lack of statistical significance does not mean that asymmetries do not require explanation. Seven interviewed sculptors pointed out practical and technical reasons why asymmetries would occur naturally during carving, in modern as in ancient sculpture, without conscious or theoretical designs behind them."""
The importance of craft to ancient Greek societies like Athens has been increasingly appreciated ... more The importance of craft to ancient Greek societies like Athens has been increasingly appreciated in recent scholarship. A new – or reiterated – interest in the intricacies of power dynamics in archaic and classical poleis, and a broader economic outlook have put non-elite populations and their contributions firmly into the spotlight. This talk will retrace the process of ‘gentrification’ of Athenian craftspeople: their inclusion, at least in potential, into the elite. By the later fourth century BC, this process was by and large complete; but how far back can we find its beginnings? Depending on the answer to this question, what impact may craft and craftspeople have had on the development of the classical Athenian polis? Arguably, the influx of craft expertise to Athens and its role as a craft hub from the late sixth and early fifth centuries onwards, may have created an early form of knowledge economy. This in turn could have driven innovation and creativity in other domains. By casting the net wide, the rare key pieces of evidence for the impact of craft on this development of societal innovation will be collected to explore the value of techne.
Conference paper TRADITION/TRANSITION/REVOLUTION IN THE LATE ARCHAIC PERIOD: CONTEXTS, ARTISTS, STYLES, G. Adornato, C. Maderna, M. Meyer, PIsa, 12-14 November 2018, 2018
In this paper I argue that the criteria of networks as described by Powell (1990) may fit the org... more In this paper I argue that the criteria of networks as described by Powell (1990) may fit the organisation of the sculpture and associated trades in late-archaic Athens. Such networks are characterised by high levels of skill and know-how, free and speedy knowledge-sharing, and high levels of trust among participants. At the same time, Larson (2013) has shown that expert individuals traveling into a craft community from the outside had important roles in the exchange of knowledge that is the key element in successful networks. Arguably, such individuals can be found in the Athenian sculpture record of the late archaic periods, and a more or less sedentary community was also present. The increased creativity and development of new knowledge that networks can generate if the conditions are right seem to apply in the Athenian context of this period, offering a possible explanation for the artistic flourish in the sculpture of this time.
AIAC2018: Archaeology and Economy int he Ancient World, 2018
In this paper I argue that the relation between making and value hinges on the feelings of owners... more In this paper I argue that the relation between making and value hinges on the feelings of ownership that are inherent in human interaction with the things that they own, be they material or immaterial. The concept of ownership is derived from psychology and recently, cognitive scientists have engaged in this concept as well, for instance Patricia Kanngiesser and her team, investigating how creative labour adds to the feeling of psychological ownership.
Ownership hinges on three engrained human motivations, that concern control over the environment, belonging, and self-identification. Adding creative labour as a factor suggests that craftsmen feel a deep sense of psychological ownership not only of objects they produce but also of the ability to make them and the processes needed to do so.
By applying these concepts on 'the rise of the craftsman' in classical Athenian votives and tombstones, an argument can tentatively be put forward that the (self-)identification that these monuments portray is rooted in a greater sense of psychological ownership, and puts the emphasis of these monuments on a much more personal plane than is usually assumed in classical scholarship.
When the in the middle of the last century, the Street of the Marble Workers was excavated, some ... more When the in the middle of the last century, the Street of the Marble Workers was excavated, some curious structures and remains came to light. Beside clearly recognizable sculpture, terracotta and a blacksmith's workshops, a cluster of varied materials such as bone, ingredients for glass, and pigments came to light. Most of these are in or next to the fifth-century floor level of House F, a space with drainage facilities and low troughs on all four sides of the main room's interior. The troughs were rebuilt towards the end of the century when the area was reconfigured because of the construction of the Great Drain. My proposal is that House F served to work up pigments into paints. Glass and glue production, as well as the creation of bone tools, may also have taken place here or they may have been side-products to the paint shop. The paint was in all likelihood produced specifically for colouring the sculpture which the street is known for, as well as the building programme on the Akropolis, to which it is in part contemporary.
If quality is any measure of professionalism, ancient Greek sculptors must have been among the mo... more If quality is any measure of professionalism, ancient Greek sculptors must have been among the most professional groups in artisanal history. Yet while the iconic quality of Greek sculpture is uncontested, the status of sculptors in ancient society was, and is, not. This would seem to imply that professionalism, in the sense of experience, knowledge and outstanding technical capability, does not necessarily correlate with the status of sculptors in the ancient polis, whether as individuals or artists. This paper will investigate the dynamic between the organisation of the craft and the image it had in Greek society in the Classical and Hellenistic periods. First, archaeological and epigraphic evidence can shed light on key aspects of the organisation of the sculpture trade, such as formal education of apprentices, specialisation in material or genre, and marketing of sculpture. Lexical variety in sculptural terminology shows advanced levels of communication about various sculptural disciplines as well as a wide range of activities within them, indicating that the work involved in sculpture was thoroughly specialised and equipped with the necessary vocabulary for internal and external use. Thus, the evidence suggests that sculpture was a highly professional and well-regarded career option. The question remains why its image in Classical texts appears much less positive. While the aim of this paper is neither a philosophical debate nor an overview of sculptors in Greek literature, some questions will be raised regarding the treatment of sculptors in Plato and other sources. In particular, it will delve into the issue whether this negative image of the sculpture craft can be taken as representative of societal views at large. This especially needs consideration as the sculpture practice outlined earlier seems to tell a different tale.
Greek art is hard to beat. There is little arguing with the aesthetic and technical qualities of ... more Greek art is hard to beat. There is little arguing with the aesthetic and technical qualities of the ancient highlights of Western Art History – and one need only think of the Parthenon marbles to realize the value of such works to modern political debates. Possibly because of this relevance, there is a long-standing tradition that in antiquity too, many art works served as expressions of rivalry, if not in the political sense then at least in terms of social status. Athens in particular is seen as a battle ground of socio-political competition through art, in particular pottery and sculpture. This paper will investigate two modes of competition of Athenian sculpture in the sixth and fifth centuries BC: of craftsmen and of their clients, who commissioned sculpture as dedications of gravestones. It will draw on quantitative and qualitative archaeological evidence, parallels from vase painting, and ancient texts. The argument proposed is that although sculpture was erected in public places, these were not an effective arena for political or status-related competition of those who set up sculpture. Neither iconography, epigraphy, nor archaeological settings of these monuments indicate that socio-political considerations played a major role in the decisions to order and erect sculpture.
""Fifth-century Greek sculpture has traditionally been considered the epitome of ancient Art, the... more ""Fifth-century Greek sculpture has traditionally been considered the epitome of ancient Art, the highest expression of classical aesthetic ideals and sculptural quality. More so than, for example, the more versatile category of pottery, it has been contextualised as the domain of a wealthy elite and of sculptors of the Pheidian type: artists creating masterpieces in splendid isolation, only interrupted by mundane yet necessary dealings with patrons.
In this paper, the elitist image of sculpture production and its social context, in the particular case of sixth and fifth-century Athens, is contested by applying two theoretical frameworks to a variety of sources. The first is the theory of horizontal and vertical specialisation in ancient economies (e.g. Greene 2000). Contrary to common perception, sculptural practice in archaic and classical Athens had relatively high levels of vertical specialisation, in which specialist craftsmen other than sculptors contributed considerably to final products. This claim is supported by archaeological evidence from original statues, excavations, and an analysis of sculpture terminology in ancient texts.
Second is the concept of Art Worlds, which entails that works of art are ‘…joint products of all the people who cooperate via an art world’s conventions to bring works like that into existence’ (Becker 1984, 34-5). Thus, not only sculptors but other groups must be taken into account when looking at the production of ancient sculpture, including various kinds of craftsmen, patrons, and even audiences. From this point of view, comments on sculpture by (near-)contemporaries such as Plato take on a new meaning, since they too are part of the art world of sculpture.
In conclusion, a contextual approach to the archaic and classical sculpture from Athens allows us to shed some of the bias which classical archaeology has developed over the centuries, and to look at these famous works of art in a new light. The combination of an inclusive approach to sculpture production and a wide variety of sources enables a more practical and realistic view of what it meant to make sculpture in and for Athenians society in the sixth and fifth centuries BC.
""
Carving at the margins: making low-end sculpture in fifth-century Athens
Studies on Classical sc... more Carving at the margins: making low-end sculpture in fifth-century Athens
Studies on Classical sculpture as a rule focus either on aesthetics or on the socio-political meanings of sculpture. While the latter approach in particular is fully warranted for the architectural sculpture of fifth-century Athens, it is questionable whether it applies to the same degree for private sculpture, that is, monuments ordered by private individuals commemorating private events.
The relative abundance of primary evidence for Athenian sculpture in the Classical period allows for a bottom-up approach to interpreting this corpus, and especially the dual question of how it was commissioned and produced. Focusing on stelai, this lecture will trace the process of creating private sculpture in fifth-century Athens, from the moment of commission through various production phases to the final effect in sanctuaries or burial grounds.
The evidence from workshops and quarries suggests that the practicalities of production, of supply and demand and a relatively specialized labour market in sculpture were strong influences on the look of Athenian sculpture in this period. By examining the appearance of 'average' stelai and their quantitative development over time, it will be proposed that such practical aspects weighed more heavily with Athenian patrons than considerations of status display or political motivations.
This paper advocates an approach to Classical Athenian sculpture, specifically depictions of wome... more This paper advocates an approach to Classical Athenian sculpture, specifically depictions of women and goddesses, in terms of contemporary medical views of the female body. It suggests that developing insights into the functioning of the female body might reflect or correspond with a wider social change with regard to sex and gender, which also found expression in sculpted female figures.
Asymmetries in the faces of classical Greek sculpture are traditionally viewed as optical correct... more Asymmetries in the faces of classical Greek sculpture are traditionally viewed as optical corrections, designed to enhance the viewers' experience of the statue. In order for this to be the case, however, a regular pattern should exist in the asymmetries: if there were no system to them, how would the asymmetries play into the viewers' visual processes?
To put the existence of systematic asymmetries to the test, a group of plaster casts as well as original marble statues from the fifth century have been measured and the results submitted to two types of statistical testing.
Though no systematic pattern could be found, the variability of the results suggests a wider range of causes for the asymmetries. These should be sought in the design and the practicalities of the carving process, such as the marble type, left or right-handedness of the sculptor and our inability to see around corners, i.e. observe the effect of carving one side on the other sides of the statue.
"The sculpted votives and gravestones of Athens in the 6th and 5th centuries BC are commonly seen... more "The sculpted votives and gravestones of Athens in the 6th and 5th centuries BC are commonly seen as an expression of the highly competitive and political society of the city. Sculpture reflected the status of the patron who commissioned it, and by extension, served to improve his standing. This notion has all kinds of consequences for sculpture in its social context, such as the minor role of women as patrons, restrictions on the erection of sculpture under the Peisistratid tyranny or the presumed post-Solonic sumptuary law on gravestones.
In this poster, I present some preliminary results of my PhD thesis which suggest that in fact, political motivations had little to do with the choices for sculpted votive or funerary monuments. Quantitative analysis shows that the assumption of conspicuous consumption of sculpture in archaic and classical Athens is in many respects tenuous. Instead, I suggest a number of practical reasons - transport and trade infrastructures, the development of a more vertically specialised network of craftsmen, a rudimentary market thanks to continuous work opportunities, etc. - which had a much greater impact on the choices for certain types of dedications or gravestones than has previously been thought."
Recent developments in archaeological research have proven beyond any doubt that ancient Greek sc... more Recent developments in archaeological research have proven beyond any doubt that ancient Greek sculpture was brightly painted. Coloured surfaces, especially patterned as if representing woven textiles, can help human eyes to perceive the shape better than the pristine white state of most sculpture in museums. In this talk, I argue that the Greeks were aware of this effect, as suggested by the transition in painting technique from the 6th to the 5th century BC.
In the archaic period, the painted surfaces are as yet literal, in the sense that they represent what, for example, cloth would do when stretched out over a bent leg. In the 5th and 4th centuries, this developed in a pictorial approach, where the groove between folds were overemphasised: not only would the carved folds cast shadows, these were then painted in a darker variant of the colour of the element of the statue or relief, for a more dramatic visual effect.
This development coincides with advances in optical theory - e.g. by Democritus - as well as a concern with the illusionary nature of art - Plato, reflecting that the development was well noted by contemporary theorists.
"In recent years, the awareness that ancient sculpture was, as a rule, painted, has been widely a... more "In recent years, the awareness that ancient sculpture was, as a rule, painted, has been widely accepted by scholars. However, the full impact of colourful statues for the ways in which we, and by extension ancient viewers, perceived sculpted figures remains to be investigated. The image of white sculpture is a particularly strong one, and it is a little known fact that painting on a statue helps visual perception.
As the work of perception psychologist Semir Zeki has shown, the visual cortex in the human brain consists of multiple areas specialising in different aspects of visual perception, such as motion, colour or dynamic form. The separation of shape and colour in this process is essential to understand our visual percpetion of sculpture. A white three-dimensional surface is far more difficult to come to terms with visually than a coloured one. The addition of a pattern to a colourful surface further eases visual grasp of the shape.
The rich patterning of archaic sculpture may, consciously or not, have served to enhance the shape of the sculptures, and to help let these shapes appear more rounded and real to the viewers. In classical times, when such enhancements was not necessary any longer, the painted surface of sculpture moves to a pictorial, illusionist approach. Colour and patterns on sculpture no longer follow and enhance the carved shape suggested under the surface, but intensify shadows by painting groves and depressions darker, even if these shadows would naturally be formed by the play of light on the surface."
This colloquium brings together an international group of interdisciplinary scholars to ask quest... more This colloquium brings together an international group of interdisciplinary scholars to ask questions about heritage and its communication to various audiences across a range of media and institutional platforms. For example: Who decides when, how, and where heritage is studied, published, and consumed? How does the academy communicate local, regional, and global heritages to popular audiences? What is the role of ideology in heritage studies and heritage management? How should-or shouldn't-governments and NGOs shape our images of the past? What tactics do schools, parks, libraries, and museums deploy to engage both students of heritage and the general public? Where does "traditional" academic publishing fit into the ways in which popular views of heritage are shaped, established, or disrupted? How is "heritage" itself defined-and by whom? Speaking the Past is organized in cooperation with the students of the third-year undergraduate research seminar "The Global Artefact" at University College Roosevelt. The colloquium will pair students with invited speakers. Students' responses to speakers' presentations will spur energetic discussion between academic generations as well as between scholars and the general public. The result will be a dynamic, engaged public discourse revolving around one of the most pressing issues of our day.
One day international seminar on the question of how threats to heritage affect the society whose... more One day international seminar on the question of how threats to heritage affect the society whose material (or immaterial) culture it is. Speakers: Noemie Arazi, Lucinda Dirven, Lione du PIêd and Kevin McDonald,
This international one-day seminar investigated the role of colour on sculpture in the ancient wo... more This international one-day seminar investigated the role of colour on sculpture in the ancient world.
Markers of identity operate in a fluid continuum both in antiquity and nowadays: each identity is... more Markers of identity operate in a fluid continuum both in antiquity and nowadays: each identity is a label we ascribe to ourselves (emic) and others (etic). In the contexts of work and crafting, aspects of class, rank, race, age, gender, job status, religion, and occupation play important roles in how we ourselves, as well as others, shape a person’s identity. Each label or ascription is linked to specific behaviours (e.g. political posture). Moreover, specific feelings are connected to (self-)identity, determining how we behave towards others. Outward behaviours, appearances and accessories are what indicates, out of choice or necessity, whether someone belongs, is weird, or worthy of esteem. A level of judgement is also involved, and while labels have always been part of our judgements and categorization of people’s identities, there is far more fluidity and ambiguity in label ascription than we tend to think, both now and in the past. In archaeology, traditional identities along the lines of, for example, male/female, Greek/foreign, craftsperson/landowner, free/enslaved, etc., are not easily determined. People have always had multiple identities, fluid and ambiguous, based on many factors in endlessly varied combinations. This session will address the ways in which ancient craftspeople and labourers shaped their multivalent identities through a range of markers, some chosen, some ascribed by others.
This panel investigates the relation between production processes and value attribution in ancien... more This panel investigates the relation between production processes and value attribution in ancient crafts. In the process of making things, it is the craftsperson who shapes functionality and value of artefacts. She/he is, however, never a lone force but depends on networks of suppliers, fellow craftspeople, consumers, wider audiences, the material conditions for the application of craft, and more ephemeral considerations like aesthetics or religious value. Ancient economic history, especially from an archaeological perspective, tends to focus, with good reason, on the objects produced by craftspeople, on form and style, and on distribution. Typological approaches, necessary for sorting and analyzing large bodies of material evidence, have also prioritized the form of finished artefacts and, when they have been applied to part-worked objects, have tended to concentrate on identifying discrete stages in production processes. The maker, as an individual, responding to their own needs as well as those of their customers, is often absent from this picture. In recent sociological and anthropological studies, the role of makers as individuals trained in a particular way, responding to their materials, and operating in a wider network of production, has been more obviously stressed. Key recent works include Tim Ingold's Making: Anthropology, Archaeology, Art and Architecture (2013), Richard Sennett's The Craftsman (2008), David Miller's edited volume Materiality (2005) and even more specialized studies written by practicing craftspeople, like Peter Korn's Why We Make Things & Why It Matters (2013). This panel will bring together scholars interested in making and the role of the maker to discuss what new anthropological and sociological approaches might add to our understanding of ancient craft production and valuation. Among the topics explored in the panel are: - Interaction between craftspeople and the users of their products - Economic value in relation to other types of value attribution - The role of different participants in the chaine opératoire, and indeed the validity of this term - Training of craftspeople and its impact on production - The concept of materiality and its meaning to how craft products are used and valued The aim is to cover multiple periods and media, with papers on Aegean, Greek and Roman material, sculpture, mosaics and other forms of craft production.
Panel 6.4: open for proposals at aiac2018.de
SUBMISSION DEADLINE AUGUST 31st
Organizers: Helle... more Panel 6.4: open for proposals at aiac2018.de SUBMISSION DEADLINE AUGUST 31st
Organizers: Helle Hochscheid (University College Roosevelt/Utrecht University) and Ben Russell (Edinburgh University)
This panel investigates the relation between production processes and value attribution in ancient crafts. In the process of making things, it is the craftsperson who shapes functionality and value of artefacts. She/he is, however, never a lone force but depends on networks of suppliers, fellow craftspeople, consumers, wider audiences, the material conditions for the application of craft, and more ephemeral considerations like aesthetics or religious value. Ancient economic history, especially from an archaeological perspective, tends to focus, with good reason, on the objects produced by craftspeople, on form and style, and on distribution. Typological approaches, necessary for sorting and analyzing large bodies of material evidence, have also prioritized the form of finished artefacts and, when they have been applied to part-worked objects, have tended to concentrate on identifying discrete stages in production processes. The maker, as an individual, responding to their own needs as well as those of their customers, is often absent from this picture. In recent sociological and anthropological studies, the role of makers as individuals trained in a particular way, responding to their materials, and operating in a wider network of production, has been more obviously stressed. Key recent works include Tim Ingold's Making: Anthropology, Archaeology, Art and Architecture (2013), Richard Sennett's The Craftsman (2008), David Miller's edited volume Materiality (2005) and even more specialized studies written by practicing craftspeople, like Peter Korn's Why We Make Things & Why It Matters (2013). This panel will bring together scholars interested in making and the role of the maker to discuss what new anthropological and sociological approaches might add to our understanding of ancient craft production and valuation. Among the topics explored in the panel are: - Interaction between craftspeople and the users of their products - Economic value in relation to other types of value attribution - The role of different participants in the chaine opératoire, and indeed the validity of this term - Training of craftspeople and its impact on production - The concept of materiality and its meaning to how craft products are used and valued The aim is to cover multiple periods and media, with papers on Aegean, Greek and Roman material, sculpture, mosaics and other forms of craft production.
The Impact of Psychology and Neuroscience on Theories of Identification and Liking in the Humanities
Many recent studies have shown how the mainly humanities domains of (i) culture, e.g. literature,... more Many recent studies have shown how the mainly humanities domains of (i) culture, e.g. literature, poetry, painting, dance, theatre, music, sculpture, and (ii) communication, e.g. language, media, rhetoric, can benefit from mainstream and emerging psychological, cognitive and neurobiological insights, arguments, and methods. Numerous avenues have been explored including neurocognitive poetics, cognition and music, neuro-aesthetics, etc. Two related thematic areas that arguably warrant further and deeper investigation pertain to the concepts of ‘liking’ and ‘identification.’ This will be the focus of this Research Topic.
We all have preferences, some things we like, others we don't, some people we love, while hating others. This is such a universal phenomenon that we hardly devote time to realising how important it is. The underlying psychological processes we let automatically make decisions for us. They guide our behaviour and our choices, actually they make – or break – our lives. The concepts of liking and identification are equally relevant to cultural objects like protagonists that appear in novels, iconic art works or landmarks, and also to components in communicative processes, like the Aristotelian notion of ethos in classical rhetorical theory.
This Research Topic will be approached from a number of disciplines. We call for theoretical and empirical contributions from linguistics, rhetoric, perception psychology, emotion psychology, cognitive science, embodied/situated cognition and phenomenology. We can think of a range of cultural and communicative application areas where issues of liking and identification can be studied within a cognitive and/or neurocognitive framework including literature, the visual arts, music, dance, past and present material culture, speech making, news/political discourse, consumer products, advertising, food, etc. The roles of consciousness and non-consciousness, emotion and cognition, and memory, motor action and perception will undoubtedly be of significance in the papers that will appear in this Research Topic.
Important Note: All submissions/contributions to this Research Topic must be in line with the scope of the journal and section they are submitted to. While authors are encouraged to draw from other disciplines to complement their papers where relevant, they must ensure papers fall within the section, as expressed in its Scope, with a primary focus on psychology theory and content.
Undergraduate Research Seminar Death and the Polis, 2017
Undergraduate research seminar of University College Roosevelt at the NIA, at which the students ... more Undergraduate research seminar of University College Roosevelt at the NIA, at which the students of the 3rd-year course Death and the Polis will present their work. A keynote by professor Edward Harris will complete the programme. The seminar and keynote take place at the NIA on Tuesday 21st of March 2017.
Due to limited seats available, please RSVP: nia@nia.gr or 210 9210760.
We hope to be able to welcome you to the keynote lecture or/and the student presentations.
UCR Antiquity Seminar: Perspectives on Health in Ancient Greece, 2019
The January 2019 Undergraduate Research Seminar by the students of AH-ANTQ301, Medicine and Miasm... more The January 2019 Undergraduate Research Seminar by the students of AH-ANTQ301, Medicine and Miasma: physical, mental and ritual health in ancient Greece. Keynote speaker was Helen King.
On the one-day conference 'War, Identity and Cultural Heritage', the Ancient Sculpture Associatio... more On the one-day conference 'War, Identity and Cultural Heritage', the Ancient Sculpture Association will be officially launched. For a preview, check out the website: http://www.ancientsculpture.org/.
Uploads
In this paper, the elitist image of sculpture production and its social context, in the particular case of sixth and fifth-century Athens, is contested by applying two theoretical frameworks to a variety of sources. The first is the theory of horizontal and vertical specialisation in ancient economies (e.g. Greene 2000). Contrary to common perception, sculptural practice in archaic and classical Athens had relatively high levels of vertical specialisation, in which specialist craftsmen other than sculptors contributed considerably to final products. This claim is supported by archaeological evidence from original statues, excavations, and an analysis of sculpture terminology in ancient texts.
Second is the concept of Art Worlds, which entails that works of art are ‘…joint products of all the people who cooperate via an art world’s conventions to bring works like that into existence’ (Becker 1984, 34-5). Thus, not only sculptors but other groups must be taken into account when looking at the production of ancient sculpture, including various kinds of craftsmen, patrons, and even audiences. From this point of view, comments on sculpture by (near-)contemporaries such as Plato take on a new meaning, since they too are part of the art world of sculpture.
In conclusion, a contextual approach to the archaic and classical sculpture from Athens allows us to shed some of the bias which classical archaeology has developed over the centuries, and to look at these famous works of art in a new light. The combination of an inclusive approach to sculpture production and a wide variety of sources enables a more practical and realistic view of what it meant to make sculpture in and for Athenians society in the sixth and fifth centuries BC.
In this study, asymmetries (as one possible method of achieving optical correction) in the heads of extant fifth-century Greek sculpture have been analysed in relation to the ideal view and the pose of statues. All heads that were measured were asymmetrical, but statistical analysis showed no systematic pattern in the data that could be considered representative for sculpture from Classical Greece in general.
The lack of a statistically significant pattern means that (subconscious) correction of visual perception is not at the root of the asymmetries, undermining the notion of systematic application of contemporary optical theory by sculptors or the influence of their own visual perception. However, a practical explanation for the unsystematic asymmetries presented itself through interviews with seven sculptors, who pointed out technical reasons why asymmetries would occur naturally during carving, without influence of theoretical designs or visual perception.
http://www.artofmaking.ac.uk/content/essays/conference-chapter-shaping-space-facial-asymmetries-in-fifth-century-greek-sculpture-helle-hochscheid-and-ronald-hamel/
This volume presents new scholarship on the value and valuing of craft production in ancient societies around the Mediterranean. Ancient economic history, especially when approached archaeologically, has typically — and with good reason — focused upon the objects that were produced by craftspeople, their form and style, and their distribution. Typological approaches necessary for sorting and analysing large bodies of material evidence have also prioritized the final form of artefacts. Yet it was first and foremost the craftspeople behind these items who were responsible for an item’s functionality, its purpose, and its value, and these roles have in recent years received fresh attention in anthropological and sociological studies.
The contributions gathered in this volume revolve around the role of makers, their handling of materials, and their place in networks of production and consumption, whilst at the same time remembering that craftspeople were never lone forces but depended on wider networks of supplies, colleagues, and consumers, as well as more ephemeral considerations such as aesthetics and religious value. Through this approach, the volume sheds new light not only on a range of crafts and materials from the ancient world, but also on the value of making and the making of value in ancient Mediterranean societies.
Networks of Stone explores the social and creative processes of sculpture production in Athens in the sixth and fifth centuries bc. Using the concept of art worlds, it analyses the contributions and interactions of all those who were in some way part of creating the sculpture set up in the sanctuaries and cemeteries of Athens. The choices that were made not only by patrons and sculptors, but also by traders in various materials and a range of craftsmen all influenced the final appearance of these works of art. By looking beyond the sculptor to the network of craftsmen and patrons that constituted the art world, this study offers new insights into well-known archaeological evidence and some of the highlights of classical art history.
The databases of Networks of Stone consist of five tables containing related datasets, divided over three files. One of these, the Bases table, presents bases and other supports of votive and sepulchral sculpture from Athens in the sixth and fifth centuries BC. Of the others, two contain votive sculptures and the corresponding references, and gravestones and their references. Each table is available on this site in a report in .pdf format: votives and the votives references are combined in one file, and so are gravestones and the corresponding references. A readme if provided at the beginning of each pdf for abbreviations and reading instructions. For the original Access database format, please contact the author stating your purpose with the database, your affiliation and how the database will be referenced.
Please download as needed from the attachments on this site. For all academic or creative use of the database, please acknowledge authorship and apply full citations.
The phenomenon of optical correction in classical Greek sculpture has been attested to by ancient authors such as Plato, as well as modern scholars. The apparent normalcy of optical correction in sculpture is, however, not self-evident. How such correction worked, whether it was based in philosophical or optical theories, and how widely spread it was among sculptors, are questions which are rarely examined systematically.
In this study, asymmetries (as one possible method of achieving optical correction) in the heads of extant fifth-century sculpture have been analysed in relation to the ideal view and the pose of the statues. All heads which were measured were asymmetrical, but statistical analysis showed that there is no systematic pattern in this dataset which could be considered representative for sculpture from classical Greece in general.
Yet this lack of statistical significance does not mean that asymmetries do not require explanation. Seven interviewed sculptors pointed out practical and technical reasons why asymmetries would occur naturally during carving, in modern as in ancient sculpture, without conscious or theoretical designs behind them."""
In this paper, the elitist image of sculpture production and its social context, in the particular case of sixth and fifth-century Athens, is contested by applying two theoretical frameworks to a variety of sources. The first is the theory of horizontal and vertical specialisation in ancient economies (e.g. Greene 2000). Contrary to common perception, sculptural practice in archaic and classical Athens had relatively high levels of vertical specialisation, in which specialist craftsmen other than sculptors contributed considerably to final products. This claim is supported by archaeological evidence from original statues, excavations, and an analysis of sculpture terminology in ancient texts.
Second is the concept of Art Worlds, which entails that works of art are ‘…joint products of all the people who cooperate via an art world’s conventions to bring works like that into existence’ (Becker 1984, 34-5). Thus, not only sculptors but other groups must be taken into account when looking at the production of ancient sculpture, including various kinds of craftsmen, patrons, and even audiences. From this point of view, comments on sculpture by (near-)contemporaries such as Plato take on a new meaning, since they too are part of the art world of sculpture.
In conclusion, a contextual approach to the archaic and classical sculpture from Athens allows us to shed some of the bias which classical archaeology has developed over the centuries, and to look at these famous works of art in a new light. The combination of an inclusive approach to sculpture production and a wide variety of sources enables a more practical and realistic view of what it meant to make sculpture in and for Athenians society in the sixth and fifth centuries BC.
In this study, asymmetries (as one possible method of achieving optical correction) in the heads of extant fifth-century Greek sculpture have been analysed in relation to the ideal view and the pose of statues. All heads that were measured were asymmetrical, but statistical analysis showed no systematic pattern in the data that could be considered representative for sculpture from Classical Greece in general.
The lack of a statistically significant pattern means that (subconscious) correction of visual perception is not at the root of the asymmetries, undermining the notion of systematic application of contemporary optical theory by sculptors or the influence of their own visual perception. However, a practical explanation for the unsystematic asymmetries presented itself through interviews with seven sculptors, who pointed out technical reasons why asymmetries would occur naturally during carving, without influence of theoretical designs or visual perception.
http://www.artofmaking.ac.uk/content/essays/conference-chapter-shaping-space-facial-asymmetries-in-fifth-century-greek-sculpture-helle-hochscheid-and-ronald-hamel/
This volume presents new scholarship on the value and valuing of craft production in ancient societies around the Mediterranean. Ancient economic history, especially when approached archaeologically, has typically — and with good reason — focused upon the objects that were produced by craftspeople, their form and style, and their distribution. Typological approaches necessary for sorting and analysing large bodies of material evidence have also prioritized the final form of artefacts. Yet it was first and foremost the craftspeople behind these items who were responsible for an item’s functionality, its purpose, and its value, and these roles have in recent years received fresh attention in anthropological and sociological studies.
The contributions gathered in this volume revolve around the role of makers, their handling of materials, and their place in networks of production and consumption, whilst at the same time remembering that craftspeople were never lone forces but depended on wider networks of supplies, colleagues, and consumers, as well as more ephemeral considerations such as aesthetics and religious value. Through this approach, the volume sheds new light not only on a range of crafts and materials from the ancient world, but also on the value of making and the making of value in ancient Mediterranean societies.
Networks of Stone explores the social and creative processes of sculpture production in Athens in the sixth and fifth centuries bc. Using the concept of art worlds, it analyses the contributions and interactions of all those who were in some way part of creating the sculpture set up in the sanctuaries and cemeteries of Athens. The choices that were made not only by patrons and sculptors, but also by traders in various materials and a range of craftsmen all influenced the final appearance of these works of art. By looking beyond the sculptor to the network of craftsmen and patrons that constituted the art world, this study offers new insights into well-known archaeological evidence and some of the highlights of classical art history.
The databases of Networks of Stone consist of five tables containing related datasets, divided over three files. One of these, the Bases table, presents bases and other supports of votive and sepulchral sculpture from Athens in the sixth and fifth centuries BC. Of the others, two contain votive sculptures and the corresponding references, and gravestones and their references. Each table is available on this site in a report in .pdf format: votives and the votives references are combined in one file, and so are gravestones and the corresponding references. A readme if provided at the beginning of each pdf for abbreviations and reading instructions. For the original Access database format, please contact the author stating your purpose with the database, your affiliation and how the database will be referenced.
Please download as needed from the attachments on this site. For all academic or creative use of the database, please acknowledge authorship and apply full citations.
The phenomenon of optical correction in classical Greek sculpture has been attested to by ancient authors such as Plato, as well as modern scholars. The apparent normalcy of optical correction in sculpture is, however, not self-evident. How such correction worked, whether it was based in philosophical or optical theories, and how widely spread it was among sculptors, are questions which are rarely examined systematically.
In this study, asymmetries (as one possible method of achieving optical correction) in the heads of extant fifth-century sculpture have been analysed in relation to the ideal view and the pose of the statues. All heads which were measured were asymmetrical, but statistical analysis showed that there is no systematic pattern in this dataset which could be considered representative for sculpture from classical Greece in general.
Yet this lack of statistical significance does not mean that asymmetries do not require explanation. Seven interviewed sculptors pointed out practical and technical reasons why asymmetries would occur naturally during carving, in modern as in ancient sculpture, without conscious or theoretical designs behind them."""
At the same time, Larson (2013) has shown that expert individuals traveling into a craft community from the outside had important roles in the exchange of knowledge that is the key element in successful networks. Arguably, such individuals can be found in the Athenian sculpture record of the late archaic periods, and a more or less sedentary community was also present.
The increased creativity and development of new knowledge that networks can generate if the conditions are right seem to apply in the Athenian context of this period, offering a possible explanation for the artistic flourish in the sculpture of this time.
Ownership hinges on three engrained human motivations, that concern control over the environment, belonging, and self-identification. Adding creative labour as a factor suggests that craftsmen feel a deep sense of psychological ownership not only of objects they produce but also of the ability to make them and the processes needed to do so.
By applying these concepts on 'the rise of the craftsman' in classical Athenian votives and tombstones, an argument can tentatively be put forward that the (self-)identification that these monuments portray is rooted in a greater sense of psychological ownership, and puts the emphasis of these monuments on a much more personal plane than is usually assumed in classical scholarship.
My proposal is that House F served to work up pigments into paints. Glass and glue production, as well as the creation of bone tools, may also have taken place here or they may have been side-products to the paint shop. The paint was in all likelihood produced specifically for colouring the sculpture which the street is known for, as well as the building programme on the Akropolis, to which it is in part contemporary.
This paper will investigate the dynamic between the organisation of the craft and the image it had in Greek society in the Classical and Hellenistic periods. First, archaeological and epigraphic evidence can shed light on key aspects of the organisation of the sculpture trade, such as formal education of apprentices, specialisation in material or genre, and marketing of sculpture. Lexical variety in sculptural terminology shows advanced levels of communication about various sculptural disciplines as well as a wide range of activities within them, indicating that the work involved in sculpture was thoroughly specialised and equipped with the necessary vocabulary for internal and external use.
Thus, the evidence suggests that sculpture was a highly professional and well-regarded career option. The question remains why its image in Classical texts appears much less positive. While the aim of this paper is neither a philosophical debate nor an overview of sculptors in Greek literature, some questions will be raised regarding the treatment of sculptors in Plato and other sources. In particular, it will delve into the issue whether this negative image of the sculpture craft can be taken as representative of societal views at large. This especially needs consideration as the sculpture practice outlined earlier seems to tell a different tale.
This paper will investigate two modes of competition of Athenian sculpture in the sixth and fifth centuries BC: of craftsmen and of their clients, who commissioned sculpture as dedications of gravestones. It will draw on quantitative and qualitative archaeological evidence, parallels from vase painting, and ancient texts. The argument proposed is that although sculpture was erected in public places, these were not an effective arena for political or status-related competition of those who set up sculpture. Neither iconography, epigraphy, nor archaeological settings of these monuments indicate that socio-political considerations played a major role in the decisions to order and erect sculpture.
In this paper, the elitist image of sculpture production and its social context, in the particular case of sixth and fifth-century Athens, is contested by applying two theoretical frameworks to a variety of sources. The first is the theory of horizontal and vertical specialisation in ancient economies (e.g. Greene 2000). Contrary to common perception, sculptural practice in archaic and classical Athens had relatively high levels of vertical specialisation, in which specialist craftsmen other than sculptors contributed considerably to final products. This claim is supported by archaeological evidence from original statues, excavations, and an analysis of sculpture terminology in ancient texts.
Second is the concept of Art Worlds, which entails that works of art are ‘…joint products of all the people who cooperate via an art world’s conventions to bring works like that into existence’ (Becker 1984, 34-5). Thus, not only sculptors but other groups must be taken into account when looking at the production of ancient sculpture, including various kinds of craftsmen, patrons, and even audiences. From this point of view, comments on sculpture by (near-)contemporaries such as Plato take on a new meaning, since they too are part of the art world of sculpture.
In conclusion, a contextual approach to the archaic and classical sculpture from Athens allows us to shed some of the bias which classical archaeology has developed over the centuries, and to look at these famous works of art in a new light. The combination of an inclusive approach to sculpture production and a wide variety of sources enables a more practical and realistic view of what it meant to make sculpture in and for Athenians society in the sixth and fifth centuries BC.
""
Studies on Classical sculpture as a rule focus either on aesthetics or on the socio-political meanings of sculpture. While the latter approach in particular is fully warranted for the architectural sculpture of fifth-century Athens, it is questionable whether it applies to the same degree for private sculpture, that is, monuments ordered by private individuals commemorating private events.
The relative abundance of primary evidence for Athenian sculpture in the Classical period allows for a bottom-up approach to interpreting this corpus, and especially the dual question of how it was commissioned and produced. Focusing on stelai, this lecture will trace the process of creating private sculpture in fifth-century Athens, from the moment of commission through various production phases to the final effect in sanctuaries or burial grounds.
The evidence from workshops and quarries suggests that the practicalities of production, of supply and demand and a relatively specialized labour market in sculpture were strong influences on the look of Athenian sculpture in this period. By examining the appearance of 'average' stelai and their quantitative development over time, it will be proposed that such practical aspects weighed more heavily with Athenian patrons than considerations of status display or political motivations.
To put the existence of systematic asymmetries to the test, a group of plaster casts as well as original marble statues from the fifth century have been measured and the results submitted to two types of statistical testing.
Though no systematic pattern could be found, the variability of the results suggests a wider range of causes for the asymmetries. These should be sought in the design and the practicalities of the carving process, such as the marble type, left or right-handedness of the sculptor and our inability to see around corners, i.e. observe the effect of carving one side on the other sides of the statue.
In this poster, I present some preliminary results of my PhD thesis which suggest that in fact, political motivations had little to do with the choices for sculpted votive or funerary monuments. Quantitative analysis shows that the assumption of conspicuous consumption of sculpture in archaic and classical Athens is in many respects tenuous. Instead, I suggest a number of practical reasons - transport and trade infrastructures, the development of a more vertically specialised network of craftsmen, a rudimentary market thanks to continuous work opportunities, etc. - which had a much greater impact on the choices for certain types of dedications or gravestones than has previously been thought."
In the archaic period, the painted surfaces are as yet literal, in the sense that they represent what, for example, cloth would do when stretched out over a bent leg. In the 5th and 4th centuries, this developed in a pictorial approach, where the groove between folds were overemphasised: not only would the carved folds cast shadows, these were then painted in a darker variant of the colour of the element of the statue or relief, for a more dramatic visual effect.
This development coincides with advances in optical theory - e.g. by Democritus - as well as a concern with the illusionary nature of art - Plato, reflecting that the development was well noted by contemporary theorists.
As the work of perception psychologist Semir Zeki has shown, the visual cortex in the human brain consists of multiple areas specialising in different aspects of visual perception, such as motion, colour or dynamic form. The separation of shape and colour in this process is essential to understand our visual percpetion of sculpture. A white three-dimensional surface is far more difficult to come to terms with visually than a coloured one. The addition of a pattern to a colourful surface further eases visual grasp of the shape.
The rich patterning of archaic sculpture may, consciously or not, have served to enhance the shape of the sculptures, and to help let these shapes appear more rounded and real to the viewers. In classical times, when such enhancements was not necessary any longer, the painted surface of sculpture moves to a pictorial, illusionist approach. Colour and patterns on sculpture no longer follow and enhance the carved shape suggested under the surface, but intensify shadows by painting groves and depressions darker, even if these shadows would naturally be formed by the play of light on the surface."
Each label or ascription is linked to specific behaviours (e.g. political posture). Moreover, specific feelings are connected to (self-)identity, determining how we behave towards others. Outward behaviours, appearances and accessories are what indicates, out of choice or necessity, whether someone belongs, is weird, or worthy of esteem. A level of judgement is also involved, and while labels have always been part of our judgements and categorization of people’s identities, there is far more fluidity and ambiguity in label ascription than we tend to think, both now and in the past.
In archaeology, traditional identities along the lines of, for example, male/female, Greek/foreign, craftsperson/landowner, free/enslaved, etc., are not easily determined. People have always had multiple identities, fluid and ambiguous, based on many factors in endlessly varied combinations. This session will address the ways in which ancient craftspeople and labourers shaped their multivalent identities through a range of markers, some chosen, some ascribed by others.
SUBMISSION DEADLINE AUGUST 31st
Organizers: Helle Hochscheid (University College Roosevelt/Utrecht University) and Ben Russell (Edinburgh University)
This panel investigates the relation between production processes and value attribution in ancient crafts. In the process of making things, it is the craftsperson who shapes functionality and value of artefacts. She/he is, however, never a lone force but depends on networks of suppliers, fellow craftspeople, consumers, wider audiences, the material conditions for the application of craft, and more ephemeral considerations like aesthetics or religious value. Ancient economic history, especially from an archaeological perspective, tends to focus, with good reason, on the objects produced by craftspeople, on form and style, and on distribution. Typological approaches, necessary for sorting and analyzing large bodies of material evidence, have also prioritized the form of finished artefacts and, when they have been applied to part-worked objects, have tended to concentrate on identifying discrete stages in production processes. The maker, as an individual, responding to their own needs as well as those of their customers, is often absent from this picture. In recent sociological and anthropological studies, the role of makers as individuals trained in a particular way, responding to their materials, and operating in a wider network of production, has been more obviously stressed. Key recent works include Tim Ingold's Making: Anthropology, Archaeology, Art and Architecture (2013), Richard Sennett's The Craftsman (2008), David Miller's edited volume Materiality (2005) and even more specialized studies written by practicing craftspeople, like Peter Korn's Why We Make Things & Why It Matters (2013). This panel will bring together scholars interested in making and the role of the maker to discuss what new anthropological and sociological approaches might add to our understanding of ancient craft production and valuation. Among the topics explored in the panel are:
- Interaction between craftspeople and the users of their products
- Economic value in relation to other types of value attribution
- The role of different participants in the chaine opératoire, and indeed the validity of this term
- Training of craftspeople and its impact on production
- The concept of materiality and its meaning to how craft products are used and valued
The aim is to cover multiple periods and media, with papers on Aegean, Greek and Roman material, sculpture, mosaics and other forms of craft production.
We all have preferences, some things we like, others we don't, some people we love, while hating others. This is such a universal phenomenon that we hardly devote time to realising how important it is. The underlying psychological processes we let automatically make decisions for us. They guide our behaviour and our choices, actually they make – or break – our lives. The concepts of liking and identification are equally relevant to cultural objects like protagonists that appear in novels, iconic art works or landmarks, and also to components in communicative processes, like the Aristotelian notion of ethos in classical rhetorical theory.
This Research Topic will be approached from a number of disciplines. We call for theoretical and empirical contributions from linguistics, rhetoric, perception psychology, emotion psychology, cognitive science, embodied/situated cognition and phenomenology. We can think of a range of cultural and communicative application areas where issues of liking and identification can be studied within a cognitive and/or neurocognitive framework including literature, the visual arts, music, dance, past and present material culture, speech making, news/political discourse, consumer products, advertising, food, etc. The roles of consciousness and non-consciousness, emotion and cognition, and memory, motor action and perception will undoubtedly be of significance in the papers that will appear in this Research Topic.
Important Note:
All submissions/contributions to this Research Topic must be in line with the scope of the journal and section they are submitted to. While authors are encouraged to draw from other disciplines to complement their papers where relevant, they must ensure papers fall within the section, as expressed in its Scope, with a primary focus on psychology theory and content.
Due to limited seats available, please RSVP: nia@nia.gr or 210 9210760.
We hope to be able to welcome you to the keynote lecture or/and the student presentations.