The Art of Ancient Greece: Sources and Documents

This book, a companion volume to Professor Pollitt’s The Art of Rome: Sources and Documents (published by the Press in 1983), presents a comprehensive collection in translation of ancient literary evidence relating to Greek sculpture, painting, architecture, and the decorative arts. Its purpose is to make this important evidence available to students who are not specialists in the Classical languages or Classical archaeology. The author’s translations of a wide selection of Greek and Latin texts are accompanied by an introduction, explanatory commentary, and a full bibliography. An earlier version of this book was published twenty-five years ago by Prentice-Hall. In this new publication Professor Pollitt has added a considerable number of new passages, revised some of his earlier translations and presented the texts in a different order which allows the reader to follow more easily the development of sculpture and painting as perceived by the ancient writers. The new and substantial bibliography, organised by topics as they appear in the book, emphasises works that deal directly with the literary sources or that supplement our knowledge of the personalities and monuments described in the sources. This collection will be welcomed by students and teachers of Greek art who have long been in need of an authoritative and reliable sourcebook for their subject.

• A much-revised version of the popular The Art of Greece: 1400-31 BC • A substantial number of new translated passages added • Concludes with a detailed bibliography

Preface; List of illustrations; Abbreviations; Introduction; 1. Ancient memories and primitive beginnings; 2. Sculpture: early developments and the Archaic period (c. 650–510 BC); 3. Sculpture: the Late Archaic phase (c. 510–480 BC); 4. Sculpture: the Early Classical period (c. 480–450 BC); 5. Sculpture: the High Classical period (c. 450–400 BC); 6. Sculpture: the fourth century BC; 7. Sculpture: the Hellenistic period; 8. Painting: earliest developments and the fifth century BC; 9. Painting: the fourth century BC; 10. Painting and mosaics: the Hellenistic period; 11. Architecture; 12. The decorative arts; 13. Art history, aesthetics, and comparative criticism; Bibliography; Ancient authors whose works are excerpted in this book; Index of artists; Geographical index; General subject index.