Book contents
- Relief in Greek, Roman, and Late Antique Art
- Relief in Greek, Roman, and Late Antique Art
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 Ancient Relief
- 2 Thinking through Marble
- 3 The Body in Relief in Archaic Funerary Sculpture
- 4 Relief in Athenian Vase Painting
- 5 Sculpture, Relief, and the Surrounding Space
- 6 Seeing the Past
- 7 Remedial Relief
- 8 Foregrounding the Background in Roman Relief Sculpture
- 9 Encrusted in Ancestors
- 10 Relief on and for the Body in Late Antique Numismatic Jewelry
- Index
- References
Introduction
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 October 2025
Book contents
- Relief in Greek, Roman, and Late Antique Art
- Relief in Greek, Roman, and Late Antique Art
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 Ancient Relief
- 2 Thinking through Marble
- 3 The Body in Relief in Archaic Funerary Sculpture
- 4 Relief in Athenian Vase Painting
- 5 Sculpture, Relief, and the Surrounding Space
- 6 Seeing the Past
- 7 Remedial Relief
- 8 Foregrounding the Background in Roman Relief Sculpture
- 9 Encrusted in Ancestors
- 10 Relief on and for the Body in Late Antique Numismatic Jewelry
- Index
- References
Summary
This introduction opens the volume by considering the inherent multiplicity of the idea of relief, which even in the limited purview of the visual arts crosses boundaries of material, form, technique, genre, scale, and style. As a technical term referring to art, moreover, relief is not an ancient idea but a modern one, which first emerged from specific discourses surrounding Italian Renaissance art. The introduction briefly surveys the significance of the historiography of relief in discussions of ancient art before turning to three case studies of ancient vessels decorated in relief – an Archaic Greek pithos from Mykonos, the Derveni krater, and the Townley Vase – which concretely articulate the complexity and variety of ancient relief practices. It then concludes by introducing and offering a synopsis of the ten chapters that follow.
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- Relief in Greek, Roman, and Late Antique Art , pp. 1 - 27Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2025
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