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The Hellenistic Aesthetic
“Fowler’s . . . own insights are apparent throughout, and they seem to distill the personal appreciation and understanding of a scholar who has devoted much of her career to both contemplating and enjoying Hellenistic poetry. . . . [This book] would make an excellent background text for courses in later Greek and Roman art, and it can be read with profit by anyone interested in exploring the character of Hellenistic culture.”—J. J. Pollitt, American Journal of Archaeology
“Outstanding is the range of examples discussed both in poetry and art. Theocritus, Callimachus, Appolonius, the epigrammatists, and others—that is, the major figures of the time—are considered at length and in several different contexts. Passages are quoted in the original Greek, translated, and analyzed. Fowler’s sensitivity to poetic forms, evident in her other published writings, is again evident here. In addition, however, the philosophical context is not overlooked. . . . Also highly commendable are the liberal references to works of art. Sculpture in the round and in relief, portraits, terracotta figurines, original paintings (grave stelai) and Campanian murals, mosaics, gold and silver vessels, and jewelry are introduced at various points. Every work of art discussed is illustrated in astonishingly clear photographs, which are interspersed in the body of the text.”—Christine Mitchell Havelock
“ The Hellenistic Aesthetic provides classicists with their first thorough discussion of the aesthetic unity found in Hellenistic art and literature. . . . Fowler examines parallels both in subject matter and in artistic approach among a diverse group of literary genres and artistic forms. In twelve chapters, The Hellenistic Aesthetic surveys Alexandrian epigrams, pastorals, epics, sculptural groups, mosaics, paintings, and jewelry to supply a convincing, and frequently unexpected, picture of a unified aesthetic vision.”—Jeffrey Buller, Classical Outlook
“Outstanding is the range of examples discussed both in poetry and art. Theocritus, Callimachus, Appolonius, the epigrammatists, and others—that is, the major figures of the time—are considered at length and in several different contexts. Passages are quoted in the original Greek, translated, and analyzed. Fowler’s sensitivity to poetic forms, evident in her other published writings, is again evident here. In addition, however, the philosophical context is not overlooked. . . . Also highly commendable are the liberal references to works of art. Sculpture in the round and in relief, portraits, terracotta figurines, original paintings (grave stelai) and Campanian murals, mosaics, gold and silver vessels, and jewelry are introduced at various points. Every work of art discussed is illustrated in astonishingly clear photographs, which are interspersed in the body of the text.”—Christine Mitchell Havelock
“ The Hellenistic Aesthetic provides classicists with their first thorough discussion of the aesthetic unity found in Hellenistic art and literature. . . . Fowler examines parallels both in subject matter and in artistic approach among a diverse group of literary genres and artistic forms. In twelve chapters, The Hellenistic Aesthetic surveys Alexandrian epigrams, pastorals, epics, sculptural groups, mosaics, paintings, and jewelry to supply a convincing, and frequently unexpected, picture of a unified aesthetic vision.”—Jeffrey Buller, Classical Outlook
- GenresNonfiction
236 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 1989
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 25, 2017
This is a remarkable little book. Like a lot of books by scholars of Greco-Roman antiquity, it seems a little unsure of its intended audience. On the one hand, it offers a great survey of Hellenistic poetry and art. If you want a crash course on the art of this period, this is a great place to start. On the other hand, it includes frequent quotations from the original Greek, sometimes without translations. I'm sure that the Greekless reader can still take a lot away from this book. I would recommend it to undergraduates studying ancient art or ancient poetry. You learn a lot from this book. I have been writing a dissertation on Hellenistic poetry for the last two years, and re-reading it gave me some new inspiration and ideas.
The literature covered in this book include selections from the Alexandrian triumvirate of Apollonius of Rhodes, Callimachus, Theocritus, as well as many epigrams from throughout the period. By studying both poetry and art, Fowler gives fuller dimension to the popular mythic stories, but also is able to focus on the techniques that artists of the period used to illustrate these stories. She also shows care for the Archaic and Classical sources of Callimachus' myths. Apollonius of Rhodes comes across as the most painterly of the poets. Fowler also offers a wonderful epilogue which shows how Lawrence Durrell and C.P. Cavafy continued the poetic traditions of their Alexandrian predecessors.
The book includes black and white photos of many important pieces of ancient art from the Hellenistic Period (323-31 BCE). Some of the pictures, especially of ancient paitings, are a little hard to see, but there are so many that it would have cost a fortune to print them all in color glossy inserts. In addition, the pictures share the page with Fowler's text, so separating them in a glossy section at the end would interrupt the flow, but I can't shake the idea of reprinting this book at museum quality. It would really do justice to Fowler's analysis. And her poetic prose would sit will on glossy pages.
If you have read this book and liked it. I highly recommend Zanker's Modes of Viewing in Hellenistic Poetry and Art. They are similar books, but published by the same press 15 years apart. Both books are similar in being broad surveys rather than focused studies, but they make you think about the relationship between poetry and art, a questions which has fascinated minds like Homer, Horace, and Simonides just to name a few. Both Fowler and Zanker help reveal the paintings within poetry and the poetics of sculpture and painting.
The literature covered in this book include selections from the Alexandrian triumvirate of Apollonius of Rhodes, Callimachus, Theocritus, as well as many epigrams from throughout the period. By studying both poetry and art, Fowler gives fuller dimension to the popular mythic stories, but also is able to focus on the techniques that artists of the period used to illustrate these stories. She also shows care for the Archaic and Classical sources of Callimachus' myths. Apollonius of Rhodes comes across as the most painterly of the poets. Fowler also offers a wonderful epilogue which shows how Lawrence Durrell and C.P. Cavafy continued the poetic traditions of their Alexandrian predecessors.
The book includes black and white photos of many important pieces of ancient art from the Hellenistic Period (323-31 BCE). Some of the pictures, especially of ancient paitings, are a little hard to see, but there are so many that it would have cost a fortune to print them all in color glossy inserts. In addition, the pictures share the page with Fowler's text, so separating them in a glossy section at the end would interrupt the flow, but I can't shake the idea of reprinting this book at museum quality. It would really do justice to Fowler's analysis. And her poetic prose would sit will on glossy pages.
If you have read this book and liked it. I highly recommend Zanker's Modes of Viewing in Hellenistic Poetry and Art. They are similar books, but published by the same press 15 years apart. Both books are similar in being broad surveys rather than focused studies, but they make you think about the relationship between poetry and art, a questions which has fascinated minds like Homer, Horace, and Simonides just to name a few. Both Fowler and Zanker help reveal the paintings within poetry and the poetics of sculpture and painting.
August 5, 2010
Fowler's Hellenistic Aeshetic has promise. The point of the book is to compare poetry and material culture in order to tease out themes of a unified Hellenistic Aesthetic. In some respects, her argument is successful. In general, she successfully aligns various literary and material works of art to highlight the eroticism, pathos, etc., at work in both. Unfortunately, such categories are never defined and hardly distinctive of the Hellenistic period. The pictures of works of art from the Hellenistic period (most of them) are a convenient collection. The force of the book on the whole, however, is indeed very mild. Far from describing a full Hellenistic Aesthetic, Fowler merely elucidates themes or maybe styles of art in the Hellenistic period. The idea of an aesthetic, one might think, lies more in the quality and nature of the connections between these themes and styles. Fowler never defines "aesthetic," but the reader is left feeling a little disappointed at what has been ostensibly demonstrated. Even so, many of the juxtapositions of material and literary art Fowler offers can be useful for the student of Hellenistic culture.
May 30, 2017
The writing is disorganized and inelegant. She sometimes refers to pictures of art, and sometimes not, which is confusing… and most of the art doesn't happen to be on the same page, which is sloppy. Overall her arguments are barely articulated at best, and involve a seemingly random set of art and literature that makes me think she's just drawing upon what she knows… the relevance of her choices is never explained, as if I should already know, or I should trust her judgement without having any basis for that. And she's really, super sexist.
The second star is because the stories she picked were interesting.
The second star is because the stories she picked were interesting.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews