The Female Portrait Statue in the Greek World
The Female Portrait Statue in the Greek World
In this book, Sheila Dillon offers the first detailed analysis of the female portrait statue in the Greek world from the fourth century BCE to the third century CE. A major component of Greek sculptural production, particularly in the Hellenistic period, female portrait statues are mostly missing from our histories of Greek portraiture. Whereas male portraits tend to stress their subject's distinctiveness through physiognomic individuality, portraits of women are more idealized and visually homogeneous. In defining their subjects according to normative ideals of beauty rather than notions of corporeal individuality, Dillon argues that Greek portraits of women work differently than those of men and must be approached with different expectations. She examines the historical phenomenon of the commemoration of women in portrait statues and explores what these statues can tell us about Greek attitudes toward the public display of the female body.
- Only book-length study of the female portrait statue in Greek art
- Combines evidence from art, archaeology and epigraphy
- Utilizes theoretical approaches and comparisons from later periods in art history
Reviews & endorsements
'Dillon's book is a model demonstration of how changes in artistic representation over time (or their absence) can be used to enrich our understanding of changes in social relations.' The Times Literary Supplement
'… all in all, this book is intriguing, easy to read, and provides a lot of information, as well as stimulat[ing] scholarly interest in further research.' Histara - Les comptes rendus
Product details
No date availableHardback
9780521764506
260 pages
260 × 185 × 18 mm
0.74kg
78 b/w illus.
Table of Contents
- Introduction: finding the female portrait in Greek art
- 1. Portrait honors for women in late Classical and Hellenistic Greece
- 2. Clothes and the woman: statue formats and portrait costumes
- 3. The female portrait face
- 4. The 'non-portrait' style of female portraiture in the Roman period
- Conclusion.
