The Hellenistic Aesthetic (Wisconsin Studies in Classics) - Softcover

Fowler, Barbara Hughes

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0299120449 ISBN 13: 9780299120443

Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press, 1990

Synopsis

"Fowler's . . . own insights are apparent throughout, and they seem to distill the personal appreciation and understanding of a scholar who has devoted much of her career to both contemplating and enjoying Hellenistic poetry. . . . [This book] would make an excellent background text for courses in later Greek and Roman art, and it can be read with profit by anyone interested in exploring the character of Hellenistic culture."-J. J. Pollitt, American Journal of Archaeology

"Outstanding is the range of examples discussed both in poetry and art. Theocritus, Callimachus, Appolonius, the epigrammatists, and others-that is, the major figures of the time-are considered at length and in several different contexts. Passages are quoted in the original Greek, translated, and analyzed. Fowler's sensitivity to poetic forms, evident in her other published writings, is again evident here. In addition, however, the philosophical context is not overlooked. . . . Also highly commendable are the liberal references to works of art. Sculpture in the round and in relief, portraits, terracotta figurines, original paintings (grave stelai) and Campanian murals, mosaics, gold and silver vessels, and jewelry are introduced at various points. Every work of art discussed is illustrated in astonishingly clear photographs, which are interspersed in the body of the text."-Christine Mitchell Havelock

"The Hellenistic Aesthetic provides classicists with their first thorough discussion of the aesthetic unity found in Hellenistic art and literature. . . . Fowler examines parallels both in subject matter and in artistic approach among a diverse group of literary genres and artistic forms. In twelve chapters, The Hellenistic Aesthetic surveys Alexandrian epigrams, pastorals, epics, sculptural groups, mosaics, paintings, and jewelry to supply a convincing, and frequently unexpected, picture of a unified aesthetic vision."-Jeffrey Buller, Classical Outlook

About this title

From the Back Cover:

This book is primarily about the poetry of the Hellenistic period. Then it is about certain of the visual arts: sculpture, painting, mosaics, and jewelry. I have not discussed philosophical of rhetorical schools, nor have I dealt with drama. I have not used the fragments in the Supplementum Hellenisticum of parsons and Lloyd-Jones or in Powell's Collecteana Alexandrina, because I though them too lacking in context to be of interest to my audience.

About the Author:

Barbara Hughes Fowler is the John Bascom Professor of Classics at the University of Wisconsin Madison. She is editor and translator of the volume Hellenistic Poetry: An Anthology, also published by the University of Wisconsin Press. "

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
• Publication date: 1990
• ISBN 10: 0299120449
• ISBN 13: 9780299120443
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 240