Vessels - The Object As Container

What is a vessel? In this volume, four essays by leading scholars tackle the category of the vessel in a comparative conversation between ancient Greece, Rome, China, and pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, offering an innovative art history of a particular class of object in ancient societies.

List of contents

• Frontmatter


• List of Illustrations


• List of Contributors


• 0: Claudia Brittenham with Jä Elsner: Introduction


• 1: Richard Neer: Ancient Greek Vessels between Sea, Earth, and Clouds


• 2: Jä Elsner: A Roman Vessel for Cosmetics: Form, Decoration, and Subjectivity in the Muse Casket


• 3: Claudia Brittenham: When Pots Had Legs: Body Metaphors on Maya Vessels


• 4: Wu Hung: Practice and Discourse: Ritual Vessels in a Fourth-Century BCE Chinese Tomb


• Endmatter


• Index

About the author

Claudia Brittenham is Associate Professor of Art History and the College at the University of Chicago. Her research focuses on the art of Mesoamerica, especially Central Mexico and the Maya area, with particular interests in the materiality of art and the politics of style. She is the author of The Murals of Cacaxtla: The Power of Painting in Ancient Central Mexico (University of Texas Press, 2015), The Spectacle of the Late Maya Court: Reflections on the Murals of Bonampak (University of Texas Press, 2013; co-authored with Mary Miller), and Veiled Brightness: A History of Ancient Maya Color (University of Texas Press, 2009; co-authored with Stephen Houston, Cassandra Mesick, Alexandre Tokovinine, and Christina Warinner).

Summary

What is a vessel? In this volume, four essays by leading scholars tackle the category of the vessel in a comparative conversation between ancient Greece, Rome, China, and pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, offering an innovative art history of a particular class of object in ancient societies.

Additional text

Innovative ... four authors discuss different sorts of objects as 'containers' – Attic pots, Roman cosmetic caskets, anthropomorphic Mayan vases, and 'ritual vessels in a fourth century BCE Chinese tomb'.

Product details

• Authors: Claudia (Associate Professor of Art Hi Brittenham
• Assisted by: Claudia Brittenham (Editor), Claudia (Associate Professor of Art History and the College Brittenham (Editor), Brittenham Claudia (Editor)
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 30.09.2019
• EAN: 9780198832577
• ISBN: 978-0-19-883257-7
• No. of pages: 196
• Series: Visual Conversations In Art And Archaeology; Visual Conversations in Art and Archaeology; Visual Conversations in Art and Archaeology Series; Visual Conversations in Art an
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Art > Art history; ART / History / Ancient & Classical, HOUSE & HOME / Power Tools, History of Art, Ancient World, Ancient History, Archaeology by period / region, Ancient history: to c 500 CE, Classical style, History of art: ancient & classical art,BCE to c 500 CE, BCE to c 500 CE, BCE period – Protohistory