The Parallel Worlds of Classical Art and Text

Review
"[Small] offers a useful preface for informed new approaches

Book Description
Considering the relationship between artists and texts throughout classical antiquity, this study systematically applies new and objective criteria to judge the fidelity between picture and text. It becomes clear that artists illustrate stories, not texts, and Jocelyn Penny Small argues that artistic transmissions follow the model of oral, not textual, transmission where the variant rules and there is no original. Pictures on vases, she demonstrates, should not be used to reconstruct lost literary works.


Buy from Amazon     Compare Prices

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


Buy from Barnes & Noble     Compare Prices