The Female Portrait Statue in the Greek World

by Sheila Dillon

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 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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521764506
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	02/15/2010
Pages:	260
Product dimensions:	7.20(w) x 10.00(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Sheila Dillon is Associate Professor of Greek and Roman Art at Duke University. A recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Academy in Rome and the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, she is the author of Ancient Greek Portrait Sculpture, which was awarded the James R. Wiseman Book Award by the Archaeological Institute of America in 2008.

Table of Contents

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

Editorial Reviews

" This focused study nonetheless arrives at conclusions that extend beyond the art historical and could be of great value to classical historians of various types...The monograph should find a receptive audience amongst art historians, classicists, and scholars of early Christianity as well." —BMCR

From the Publisher