Companion to Ancient Near Eastern Art

Provides a broad view of the history and current state of scholarship on the art of the ancient Near East
 
This book covers the aesthetic traditions of Mesopotamia, Iran, Anatolia, and the Levant, from Neolithic times to the end of the Achaemenid Persian Empire around 330 BCE. It describes and examines the field from a variety of critical perspectives: across approaches and interpretive frameworks, key explanatory concepts, materials and selected media and formats, and zones of interaction. This important work also addresses both traditional and emerging categories of material, intellectual perspectives, and research priorities. The book covers geography and chronology, context and setting, medium and scale, while acknowledging the diversity of regional and cultural traditions and the uneven survival of evidence.
 
Part One of the book considers the methodologies and approaches that the field has drawn on and refined. Part Two addresses terms and concepts critical to understanding the subjects and formal characteristics of the Near Eastern material record, including the intellectual frameworks within which monuments have been approached and interpreted. Part Three surveys the field's most distinctive and characteristic genres, with special reference to Mesopotamian art and architecture. Part Four considers involvement with artistic traditions across a broader reach, examining connections with Egypt, the Aegean, and the Mediterranean. And finally, Part Five addresses intersections with the closely allied discipline of archaeology and the institutional stewardship of cultural heritage in the modern Middle East.
 
Told from multiple perspectives, A Companion to Ancient Near Eastern Art is an enlightening, must-have book for advanced undergraduate and graduate students of ancient Near East art and Near East history as well as those interested in history and art history.

List of contents

Notes on Contributors ix
 
Preface xiii
 
Acknowledgments xvii
 
Abbreviations xix
 
1 The "Art" of the "Ancient Near East" 1
Ann C. Gunter
 
PART I Approaches and Methods of Analysis and Interpretation 23
 
2 Art and Material Culture 25
David Wengrow
 
3 Meaning and Interpretation 49
Astrid Nunn
 
4 Style 75
Margaret Cool Root
 
5 Connoisseurship and Classification 103
Eleonora Pappalardo
 
6 Visual Culture 129
Sarah B. Graff
 
7 Technical Examination and Material Analysis 153
Deborah Schorsch
 
8 Gender and Sexuality 179
John D. M. Green
 
9 Semiotics, Reception Theory, and Poststructuralism 209
Marlies Heinz
 
PART II Critical Terms and Concepts 231
 
10 Representation 233
Dominik Bonatz and Marlies Heinz
 
11 Narrative 261
Paul Collins
 
12 Ideology 283
Beate Pongratz-Leisten
 
13 Ritual 309
Carolyn Nakamura
 
14 Agency 333
Sophy Downes
 
15 Aesthetics 359
Gebhard J. Selz
 
PART III Materials, Media, and Artistic Environments 383
 
16 Statuary and Reliefs 385
Claudia E. Suter
 
17 Glyptic 411
Adelheid Otto
 
18 Religious Architecture 433
Jean M. Evans
 
19 Palaces and Elite Houses 457
Andreas Schachner
 
20 Rock Reliefs and Landscape Monuments 483
Ömür Harmansa' h
 
21 Reconstructing Artistic Environments 507
Mehmet-Ali Ataç
 
PART IV Interactions with Neighboring Regions and Artistic Traditions 531
 
22 The Ancient Near East and Egypt 533
Betsy M. Bryan
 
23 The Ancient Near East and the Bronze Age Aegean 565
Marian H. Feldman
 
24 Near Eastern Art in the Iron Age Mediterranean 585
James Whitley
 
PART V Intersections with Archaeology, Collecting, and Cultural Heritage 613
 
25 Archaeology and the Art of the Ancient Near East 615
D. T. Potts
 
26 Cultural Heritage across the Middle East, Ancient and Modern 637
Geoff Emberling and Katharyn Hanson
 
Index 661

About the author

Ann C. Gunter, PhD, is Professor of Art History at Northwestern University. She is also the former curator of ancient Near Eastern art at the Freer and Sackler Galleries, Smithsonian Institution, where she organized numerous exhibitions.

Summary

Provides a broad view of the history and current state of scholarship on the art of the ancient Near East

This book covers the aesthetic traditions of Mesopotamia, Iran, Anatolia, and the Levant, from Neolithic times to the end of the Achaemenid Persian Empire around 330 BCE. It describes and examines the field from a variety of critical perspectives: across approaches and interpretive frameworks, key explanatory concepts, materials and selected media and formats, and zones of interaction. This important work also addresses both traditional and emerging categories of material, intellectual perspectives, and research priorities. The book covers geography and chronology, context and setting, medium and scale, while acknowledging the diversity of regional and cultural traditions and the uneven survival of evidence.

Part One of the book considers the methodologies and approaches that the field has drawn on and refined. Part Two addresses terms and concepts critical to understanding the subjects and formal characteristics of the Near Eastern material record, including the intellectual frameworks within which monuments have been approached and interpreted. Part Three surveys the field's most distinctive and characteristic genres, with special reference to Mesopotamian art and architecture. Part Four considers involvement with artistic traditions across a broader reach, examining connections with Egypt, the Aegean, and the Mediterranean. And finally, Part Five addresses intersections with the closely allied discipline of archaeology and the institutional stewardship of cultural heritage in the modern Middle East.

Told from multiple perspectives, A Companion to Ancient Near Eastern Art is an enlightening, must-have book for advanced undergraduate and graduate students of ancient Near East art and Near East history as well as those interested in history and art history.

Product details

• Authors: Ann C. Gunter
• Assisted by: Ann C Gunter (Editor), Ann C. Gunter (Editor)
• Publisher: Wiley, John and Sons Ltd
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 19.01.2023
• EAN: 9781119112099
• ISBN: 978-1-119-11209-9
• No. of pages: 632
• Series: Blackwell Companions to the Ancient World; Blackwell Companions to the An
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Art > Art history; Kunst, Antike, Naher Osten, Klassisches Altertum, ancient culture, Classical Studies, Humanistische Studien, Naher Osten /Kultur, Künste