The Parallel Worlds of Classical Art and Text

The Parallel Worlds of Classical Art and Text is the first study to consider the relationship between artists and texts throughout classical antiquity and to cover the entire range of illustrated text from traditional literary to technical works. By systematically applying new and objective criteria to judge the fidelity between picture and text, it becomes clear that artists illustrate stories, not texts. Jocelyn Penny Small argues that artistic transmissions follow the model of oral, not textual, transmission where the variant rules and where there is no original. Pictures on vases, she demonstrates, should not be used to reconstruct lost literary works. Finally, Small offers an analysis of literary sources on pictures in texts, proving that the appearance of the first illustrated literary classical texts occurred at the end of the Late Roman Republic.

• No other work systematically covers the entire gamut of classical art • New and timely topic • Argument is well illustrated

1. What does it mean to illustrate a text?; 2. The evidence from Archaic and Early Classical Greek art; 3. The evidence for Greek plays; 4. The evidence from Hellenistic and Roman art; 5. Illustrated text from antiquity; 6. There is no original!

‘… addresses a fundamental issue in the study of ancient art and deals head-on with the many inherent contradictions and ambiguities therein … her methodology is always excellent and instructive and makes this book valuable reading for anyone studying ancient art in its mythological or literary context.’ JACT

\'… a readable and provocative reflection on the subject, of interest to any art historian.\' The Burlington Magazine