scholarly journals Olympian Jupiter. Winckelmann and Quatremère de Quincy on Ancient Polychromy

CLARA ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lasse Hodne
Keyword(s):  
Racial Prejudice ◽  
Classical Antiquity ◽  
Body Type ◽  
Roman Art ◽  
White Marble ◽  
Western Art ◽  
German Art ◽  
Ancient Polychromy ◽  
Concept Of Beauty ◽  
Marble Surface

A number of Western museums may boast of their important collections of Classical Greek and Roman art. Marble statues of deities or heroes from Classical Antiquity, and important works in painting and architecture from different historical epochs, have traditionally made up the canon of Western art. In recent years, critics have claimed that this tradition represents an idealisation of the white, Caucasian body type which excludes other races from the concept of beauty. Although we today know that ancient statues in marble were often painted in vivid colours, they say that art theorists have either been ignorant of, or glossed over, this fact. While the German art historian Johann Joachim Winckelmann has often been regarded as a proponent of our Western predilection for whiteness, the French archaeologist Antoine Chrysostome Quatremère de Quincy is by many celebrated as the first to realise the extent and importance of ancient polychromy. In this paper, I will try to show that this is a distorted view, especially where Winckelmann’s theories are concerned. Far from being ignorant about ancient polychromy, Winckelmann was an important source for Quatremère de Quincy. In addition, Winckelmann’s appreciation of the white marble surface was not the result of racial prejudice, but the expression of an aesthetic opinion that he shared with Quatremère de Quincy.

I. Portraits

2004 ◽  
Vol 34 ◽  
pp. 5-28
Keyword(s):  
Art History ◽  
Classical Antiquity ◽  
Roman Art ◽  
Roman World ◽  
Art Form ◽  
Roman Coins ◽  
Country Houses ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Point Of Departure ◽  
As If

Portraiture is among the most obvious legacies of classical antiquity. Roman busts of rulers and private individuals, sculpted in marble or occasionally cast in bronze, are the frequent inhabitants of museums and country houses. Imposing portrait-statues survive in great numbers, albeit frequently missing some of their extremities. We also have many smaller and more subtle images like those carved in gems and semiprecious stones, and, of course, the heads on Roman coins whose influence on the design of modern money is still obvious. The very custom of modern portraiture itself is, broadly speaking, derived from Rome, though it is easy to take it for granted as if it were an obvious or universal art-form. The Roman world was truly crowded with portraits. They are the subject of intense study and interesting debate. As such they present a useful point of departure for this survey of Roman art history.

Classical Antiquity: the maritime dimension

Antiquity ◽  
1990 ◽  
Vol 64 (243) ◽  
pp. 335-346 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. J. Parker
Keyword(s):  
Classical Antiquity ◽  
Central Position ◽  
Roman Art ◽  
Underwater Communications ◽  
Frequent Motif ◽  
Mediterranean World ◽  
Lost And Found ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Inshore Waters ◽  
The Mediterranean

IntroductionShips and the sea were an omnipresent theme of Greek and Roman art and life. Shipwreck was a well-recognized risk, and an essential ingredient of ‘lost and found’ stories in novels and comedies. Conversely, safe arrival in harbour, the successful end of a journey, was a frequent motif, especially of Roman art. These ideas were obviously underpinned by economic facts: the need for metals, the sea-girt nature of Greece, Rome’s central position in the Mediterranean, and the constant threat of food shortage in the cities of the Mediterranean world generally, necessarily involved transport and trade by sea.Into this scene has stepped, still less than 50 years old, a new character, namely underwater archaeology. Since 1945, over 1000 ancient and medieval shipwrecks have been reported in the Mediterranean, and the roll continues to grow at an unslackened pace. This rapid increase in archaeological resource has been due, of course, mainly to the widespread use of compressed-air diving gear for sport, so that most of the known wreck sites lie in inshore waters, and in popular diving areas. However, recent developments in offshore position-fixing and in underwater communications and robotics have made it possible to explore much deeper sites; the deepest so far to have been surveyed under archaeological direction (by A.M. McCann) is a late Roman wreck at 800 m deep between Sicily and Sardinia.

White marble sculptures from the National Museum of Roman Art (Mérida, Spain): sources of local and imported marbles

2014 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 333-354 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pilar Lapuente ◽  
Trinidad Nogales-Basarrate ◽  
Hernando Royo ◽  
Mauro Brilli
Keyword(s):  
National Museum ◽  
Roman Art ◽  
White Marble ◽  
Marble Sculptures

scholarly journals Marble Slabs Classification System Based on Image Processing (Ark Marble Mine in Birjand)

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 107
Author(s):  
Hossein Kardan Moghaddam ◽  
Amir Rajaei ◽  
Hamid Kardan Moghaddam
Keyword(s):  
Image Processing ◽  
Experimental Methods ◽  
Impurity Level ◽  
Fast Method ◽  
White Marble ◽  
Image Processing Techniques ◽  
Second Stage ◽  
Two Stages ◽  
Processing Techniques ◽  
Marble Surface

Marble is one of the semi-precious stones that has been used in decorating building façade and making decorative things. This stone is present in the nature in the form of rock or layered stone. Examining the kind of stone, extent of impurity and different streaks in white marble is a widely confronted subject by those who are involved in this industry. Obtaining the extent of impurity of white marble using methods of detecting and analyzing material is expensive and time-consuming. In this research carried out on while marbles of Arc Mine in Birjand, it has been attempted to present very fast method using Image Processing Techniques so that while preserving identity and appearance of stone and without any damage to it, we compute the impurity level and different streaks on white marble surface. The proposed method includes two stages; in the first stage applying image processing functions, it is attempted to segment the present impurities and streaks on marble surface from the stone background and in the second stage, the area of these impurities and streaks is computed. Results obtained in this paper (97.8%) in comparison with other researches and experimental methods indicate acceptability of this algorithm.

scholarly journals Dexiosis: a meaningful gesture of the Classical antiquity

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 209 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mgr. PhD. Lucia Nováková ◽  
Mgr. Monika Pagáčová
Keyword(s):  
Classical Antiquity ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Funerary Art ◽  
Roman Art ◽  
Funerary Monuments ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Family ◽  
Specific Meaning ◽  
Public Character ◽  
Modern Term

Dexiosis is a modern term referring to the handshaking motif appearing in ancient Greek art, which had specific meaning and symbolism. Though it was a characteristic iconographic element of the Classical antiquity, its roots can be traced back to the Archaic period. Dexiosis was not merely a compositional element connecting two people, but carried a deeper meaning. Most often, the motif was associated with funerary art of the Classical Athens. On funerary monuments the deceased were depicted in the circle of their families, which reflected the ideals of contemporary society. Particularly notable is the contrast between the public character of the funerary monument and the private nature of the depiction. Its meaning should be perceived in terms of both the intimate gesture expressing emotions and the formal presentation of the family. Dexiosis emphasized a permanent bond as the fundamental element of the family in particular, and society in general. At the same time, it was associated with the theme of farewell. The gesture was performed by two people in a dialogical composition, which clearly showed their mutual relationship and the figures were depicted in various compositions regardless of their gender or age. The motif was also used in the Hellenistic and the Roman art.

Impure stone and the threat to decency: marble tints and veins

2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 139-151
Author(s):  
Monika Wagner
Keyword(s):  
White Marble ◽  
Norbert Elias ◽  
Late Eighteenth ◽  
Female Figures ◽  
Marble Sculptures ◽  
Eighteenth And Nineteenth Centuries ◽  
Ancient Polychromy ◽  
White Material ◽  
Aesthetic Ideal ◽  
The Ideal

According to the classical tradition, marble sculptures were to be made of ‘pure’ white material. This remained an aesthetic ideal even after archaeological findings had revealed evidence of ancient polychromy. This article argues that tinting as well as natural staining on marble figures in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were not only aesthetically but also morally reprehensible, because they violated the ideal of homo clausus. This term, coined by the sociologist Norbert Elias, conceptualizes a subject that imposes ‘self-restraint’ to control its physical body and its emotions. Perfect control was seen embodied in the ancient images of the gods, which were assumed to have been made of immaculate white marble. Any colouring, whether of natural origin or deliberately produced, seemed to contaminate this concept. My investigation is focused on the historical justifications for John Gibson’s scandalous Tinted Venus, and figures of veined marble rejected in France on similar grounds in the late eighteenth century, such as Christoph-Gabriel Allegrain’s Venus and Jean-Antoine Houdon’s Frileuse. I examine how the coloured veins and tints of the stone gained semantic qualities in female figures, where a blush or a vein seemed to reveal emotions and desires and thus infringe the ideal.

Geography in Classical Antiquity

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniela Dueck ◽  
Kai Brodersen
Keyword(s):  
Classical Antiquity

Racial Prejudice Predicts Less Desire to Learn About White Privilege

2017 ◽  
Vol 48 (5) ◽  
pp. 310-319 ◽  
Author(s):  
John G. Conway ◽  
Nikolette P. Lipsey ◽  
Gabrielle Pogge ◽  
Kate A. Ratliff
Keyword(s):  
White Privilege ◽  
Racial Prejudice ◽  
Affective Responses ◽  
White People ◽  
Total N ◽  
Desire To Change

Abstract. White people often experience unpleasant emotions in response to learning about White privilege ( Phillips & Lowery, 2015 ; Pinterits, Poteat, & Spanierman, 2009 ). Two studies (total N = 1,310) examined how race attitudes relate to White people’s desires to avoid or learn information about White privilege. White participants completed measures of their race attitudes, desire to change White privilege, and their desire to avoid learning information about White privilege. Study 1 showed that participants who preferred their racial in-group reported less desire to change White privilege and greater desire to avoid learning information about White privilege. Inconsistent with expectations, Study 2 showed that participants who anticipated negative affective responses to learning about White privilege reported greater desire to change White privilege.

Does the Name-Race Implicit Association Test Measure Racial Prejudice?

2011 ◽  
Vol 58 (4) ◽  
pp. 271-277 ◽  
Author(s):  
Don van Ravenzwaaij ◽  
Han L. J. van der Maas ◽  
Eric-Jan Wagenmakers
Keyword(s):  
Diffusion Model ◽  
Implicit Association Test ◽  
Alternative Explanation ◽  
Group Membership ◽  
Racial Prejudice ◽  
Decision Time ◽  
Association Test ◽  
Implicit Association ◽  
Model Decomposition ◽  
Test Measure

Research using the Implicit Association Test (IAT) has shown that names labeled as Caucasian elicit more positive associations than names labeled as non-Caucasian. One interpretation of this result is that the IAT measures latent racial prejudice. An alternative explanation is that the result is due to differences in in-group/out-group membership. In this study, we conducted three different IATs: one with same-race Dutch names versus racially charged Moroccan names; one with same-race Dutch names versus racially neutral Finnish names; and one with Moroccan names versus Finnish names. Results showed equivalent effects for the Dutch-Moroccan and Dutch-Finnish IATs, but no effect for the Finnish-Moroccan IAT. This suggests that the name-race IAT-effect is not due to racial prejudice. A diffusion model decomposition indicated that the IAT-effects were caused by changes in speed of information accumulation, response conservativeness, and non-decision time.

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