In this book, Sheila Dillon offers the first detailed analysis of the female portrait statue in the Greek world from the 4th century BCE to the 3rd 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.
List of Illustrations ix
Acknowledgments xiii
Abbreviations xv
Introduction: Finding the Female Portrait in Greek Art 1
Chapter 1 Portrait Honors for Women in Late Classical and Hellenistic Greece 9
Chapter 2 Clothes and the Woman: Statue Formats and Portrait Costumes 60
Chapter 3 The Female Portrait Face 103
Chapter 4 The "Not Portrait" Style of Female Portraiture in the Roman Period 135
Conclusion 164
Appendix 1 Female Portrait Statues in Fourth-Century Athens 169
Appendix 2 Female Portrait Statues on Independent Delos (before 166) 171
Appendix 3 Female Portrait Statues on Athenian-Controlled Delos (post-166) 173
Appendix 4 Female Portrait Statues in Athens, Third-First Centuries BCE 176
Notes 179
Selected Bibliography 229
Epigraphic Index 241
Museum Index 244
General Index 248
Overview
In this book, Sheila Dillon offers the first detailed analysis of the female portrait statue in the Greek world from the 4th century BCE to the 3rd 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 ...