The Pothos image is a QuickTime Virtual Reality object. You inspect it in three dimensions by clicking and holding on it and then moving the mouse.

 

COURSE DESCRIPTION

"Take care when you look at old statues." N. Spivey

"In the world remembered there is no bottom line, no horizon, no past-as-it-was, no ordained chronology. There are instead but enfoldings: the art and science of making contextual links." M. Shanks, Classical Archaeology of Greece

"Consumption of the past may be seen as an exchange: the past renovated, reincarnated, as it is taken within the self, providing material for personal and cultural construction. This reciprocality is the potential power of heritage-the past developed for the present. The active involvement of the past in the present's self-definition is a source of critique." M. Shanks, Classical Archaeology of Greece

 

This course examines Greek and Roman sculpture and the history of its survival in western art. Many people consider sculpture the ultimate form of Greek and Roman art. Statuary types created in Antiquity have been continuously adopted by all subsequent cultures in the west, from Mediaeval times through the present. How was it made, displayed, and viewed in Antiquity? How do we see it today?

 

REQUIRED BOOKS (all on reserve in the Art Library)

 

COURSE WEB SITE

http://www.oberlin.edu/~skane/Courses_9899/Art_222/Intro.html
http://www.oberlin.edu/~jromano/images/grkrom.html

 

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

A $4.00 lab fee is required for this course. All work must be completed in order to receive a passing grade. Any late work will be penalised.

 

Projects:

I. Tool mark analysis (CR/NE) (due 16 Feb)

II. Carving project (CR/NE) (due 23 Feb)

III. Sculpture analysis and reconstruction (due 02 Mar) (15% of grade)

IV. Getty Kouros analysis (due 06 April) (20% of grade)

 

Midterm:

Book review of Hersey (due 16 March) (25% of grade)

 

Cumulative Final Examination:

Wed 19 May - 2:00 - 4:00 pm (40% of grade)

 

CLASS SCHEDULE

Reading for first half of the semester: Spivey, Understanding Greek Sculpture

FEB 09 - Introduction

FEB 11 - The Power of Pygmalion

FEB 16, 18 - The Power of Daidalos

(Project I due 16 Feb)

FEB 23, 25, MAR 02 - The Logic of Anthropomorphism

(Project II due 23 Feb; Project III due 02 Mar)

Dutton, The Perfectible Body, Introduction and ch. 1, "The Emerging Body" pp. 20 - 51

MAR 04 - Video: "The Stone Carvers"

MAR 09, 11 - Sacred Decoration

MAR 16, 18- The Cult of Beauty

(Midterm due 16 March)

SPRING BREAK

Reading for second half of the semester: Elsner, Imperial Rome and Christian Triumph

MAR 30, APR 01 - The Patronage of Hellenistic Kings

APR 06, 08 - The Getty Kouros

(Project IV due 06 April)

APR 13, 15, 20, 22, 27, 29, MAY 04, 06 - As the Romans do...

MAY 11, 13 - Living among the Wreckage

CUMULATIVE FINAL EXAMINATION: Wed 19 May at 2:00 pm

 

PROJECT I: TOOL MARK ANALYSIS

DUE: 16 FEB

USEFUL READING:

B. Ridgway, "Stone Carving: Sculpture" pp. 96 - 117 in C. Roebuck, ed., The Muses at Work

D. Strong and A. Claridge, "Marble Sculpture" pp. 195 - 207 in D. Strong and D. Brown, ed., Roman Crafts

ASSIGNMENT:

Go into the AMAM Sculpture Court. Using the sculptures presently on display, find:
a. three examples of different carving tool marks

b. two examples of joining or special piecing

List the examples found and identify the sculpture on which each example is located. Use at least three different sculptures for your observations.

PROJECT II: CARVING PROJECT

DUE: 23 FEB

USEFUL READING:

See hand-out for a brief explanation of the Egyptian process of making a statue. Evidence suggests that early Greek sculptors adapted Egyptian carving techniques and used a canon of proportions (expressed in a grid system) that was scratched on the surface of the block before the carving process was begun.

ASSIGNMENT:

Carve a statue of a human figure (either seated or standing) out of your assigned foam block.

PROJECT III: GREEK SCULPTURE ANALYSIS AND RECONSTRUCTION

DUE: 02 MAR

USEFUL READING:

S. Barnet, A Short Guide to Writing About Art, ch. 2 (on permanent reference in the Art Library)

ASSIGNMENT:

Go into the AMAM Sculpture Court to look at a white marble male torso on display there (the so-called "Pothos" - inv. no. 41.43).

Your visual-analysis paper should be a basic description of the figure (in the manner shown by Barnet) and provide the following information: material, approximate height, and an analysis of the figure's present and original appearance.

Then draw a reconstruction of how you think the complete figure might have originally looked.

Use your own eyes only-this is an exercise in primary observation.

 

PROJECT IV: THE GETTY KOUROS

DUE: 06 APR

Materials to be handed out separately.