Ornament and Figure in Graeco-Roman Art: Rethinking Visual Ontologies in Classical Antiquity and Beyond
June 17–19, 2015
Where, when and how does visual representation become ‘figurative’? What does it mean to talk about ‘decoration’? And how does the ‘ornamental’ function within the visual field?
By exploring these questions in relation to Graeco-Roman visual culture, our Workshop will interrogate shifting ideas of the image both in classical antiquity and in ensuing western art historical traditions. The role and status of ‘ornament’ has of course been radically rethought in recent years, above all in the fields of aesthetics and art history. But Graeco-Roman materials have been conspicuously underplayed in such debates; indeed, scholars of classical art tend to fall back on an uncritical dichotomy, most often privileging the figurative over the ‘patterns’ of framing decoration.
In rethinking the ‘ornamental’ and the ‘figurative’, the Workshop brings together a host of international specialists. At the same time, participants have been encouraged to cross traditional disciplinary divides – between (material-bound) archaeology and (text-bound) philology, certainly, but also between different national traditions, and not least the fields of Kunstgeschichte and Klassische Archäologie.
Convener
Contact
Participants
Mont
Allen
Southern Illinois University
Nicola
Barham
University of Chicago
Vera
Beyer
Freie Universität Berlin
Maria Luisa
Catoni
Fellow
2009/2010
Universität Pisa
Francesco
De Angelis
Columbia University in the City of New York
Jas
Elsner
University of Chicago
Milette
Gaifman
Yale University, New Haven
Luca
Giuliani
Permanent Fellow
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Jonas
Grethlein
Fellow
2012/2013
Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg
David M.
Halperin
Fellow
2014/2015
Universität Michigan, Ann Arbor
Nikolina
Kei
Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne
Aden
Kumler
Fellow
2014/2015
Universität Chicago
François
Lissarrague
Fellow
2010/2011
École des hautes études en sciences sociales, Paris
Elizabeth
Mitchell
Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
Susanne
Muth
Fellow
2007/2008
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
Richard
Neer
University of Chicago
Stephanie
Pearson
University of California, Berkeley
Andrej
Petrovic
Durham University
Verity
Platt
Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
Arne
Reinhardt
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Margaret
Shortle
Freie Universität Berlin
Ittai
Weinryb
Ittai Weinryb Bard Graduate Center, New York