The article deals with the ancient metrology and a possible recognition of the rules determining ornamentation observed on Attic geometric pottery. While referring to former studies, the author presents ornamentation of Attic geometric pottery, revealing an exceptional standardisation and repetitiveness of elements, as having two developmental tendencies. One concerns horizontal arrangement of decorative motifs, placed in surrounding belts, while the other decoration is put in vertical panels, focusing. These both tendencies in the course of development of Attic geometric period become one harmonized whole. It is also possible to demonstrate on an example of monumental became from Athens (inv. NM 804), that the vessel was exactly twice as tall as the biggest width of its body, as well as that ornaments covering its whole surface have been made according to an accepted module. The author suggests that such a way of thinking and ordering activities should not be interpreted as proving the beginnings of classical mathematical thinking, which is to develop later. However, metrological analyses of ancient artefacts suggests that such objects as Attic geometric pottery may permit recognition of already existing disposition of its creators for visual representations of experienced reality and for attempts made to generalize these experiences.
The article defines classical archaeology as one of the first and oldest branches of archaeology practised in Europe by stressing that interests in the relics of ancient civilisations have been deeply embedded in the cultural self-identification of various peoples of Europe. The author aims to recognize how the modern world values contribute to interpretation and conservation of the classical past, especially Greek art and architecture, alongside other ancient objects, and how the Western elites treated them in the past centuries. The issue of common roots of classical archaeology and history of art as well as their long-lasting relationships are also thoroughly discussed. Discrepancies between major research procedures of classical archaeology and art history are scrutinized, especially in terms of an arguable irrelevance of modern concept of art in relation to archaeological evidence. The role of museums in relation to art and antiquities trade is also raised. Furthermore, the author discusses classical archaeology within broader issues of contemporary archaeology. It is recognized that classical archaeology has certainly changed by resigning from the previously dominant connoisseur knowledge approach to artefacts, concentrated solely on the works of art often seen as autonomous entities devoid of the context of their production, meaning and perception. Finally, the author defines contemporary classical archaeology as a rapidly changing discipline, reformulating its research agenda and opening up to cooperation with numerous other disciplines. Nevertheless, this should not mean a wholesale rejection of its great legacy of being a history of ancient art. On the contrary, this traditions ought to be redefined and incorporated into contemporary research agenda of the discipline.
The portrait sculpture from the Republican era, better recognisable since the second century BC, although gaining in popularity particularly in the first century, constitutes one of the most unique portrait collections ever created. Variability of the portraits reveals combination of abstract features, expressed in an appropriate visual language, with definite physiognomic features and characteristics of persons being portrayed. A new type of portraiture was created at the time, different from the traditional Hellenistic one. Although it was the latter that was a source of the idea itself, and a provider of formal tools used to implement the idea. With this new concept the portraiture obtained an unprecedented capacity to articulate and project the interior processes of human experience. The Roman concept of portraying was most distinctive in so called veristic portraits, usually assumed to represent the essence of what was socially Roman. The collection consists mainly of the portraits of old men, frequently bold and toothless, with wry faces, full of wrinkles and scars – depicted in a stern manner, the manner that was not limited only to a persistent portraying of irregularities in physiognomies. Also emotional states were shown – almost with no exception these emaciated faces were gloomy and graceless. Looking at them might mislead viewers into assumption that they represented uncompromising images of their models. However, according to some studies, they were often just conventional types of representations, with features resulting from ideological motivation. And manipulating particular elements of physiognomy and character, these portrayed people – public images – were supposed to carry a particular message, to play desired and expected political and propaganda roles. What the role was remains a disputable issue, depending on various interpreting approaches. The papers dealing with the history of ancient art have been revealing, for the several years, various attempts made to extend interpretative interest beyond formal and stylistic interpretations of antique pieces of art and to look at these visual representations in a wider cultural and political context of their times. The study of the Republican portrait – traditionally explaining the origin of so called verism of these images in terms of the influence of the preceding realistic Hellenistic or Egyptian portraiture and images of ancestors – has been replaced by the approach promoting interpretation of these portraits as the signs existing in particular historical and political context which helps to explain their special visual expression. Such new interpretative perspectives significantly improved our understanding of forms and meanings of the portraits, although there are still several unclear issues, such as the social functioning of art. What is more, various researchers represent significantly different approaches. Thus, the portraits of the old men, especially popular towards the end of the republican era, on the one hand were interpreted as signs of protest against the contemporary reality, with which they argued, not allowing for what was approaching. While emphasising their age, the portrayed persons were supposed to emphasise their long-lasting service for the Republic, as well as the values they were devoted to, which were virtues, such as gravitas, dignitas, fides. On the other hand, these Republican portraits of old men are sometimes interpreted as efficient medium of social and cultural activities, and more precisely, as a result of relationships with authorities, and even as a tool used to build these relationships, especially if there was a patronage system functioning. In my paper, I confront various attitudes towards the portraits of old men and present the most convincing, in my opinion, interpretations, also trying to extend them.
In the paper concerning the new approaches in the study of Greek sculptural production at first the author considers the problem of putting the ancient artefacts with the modern works of art on the same level and the need for the new conceptualisation of them. In the next step she outlines historiography of the Greek sculpture with the particular reference to the study on its stylistic development. Further on the author presents selected, new approaches in the study on Greek sculpture, the ones which are breaking the long tradition of research on them, rooted in the Enlightenment and Hegelian thought and historicism. She focusses on the results of these research which shift the interpretative emphasis from the relation between the image/sculpture and its model to that of the image and its viewer.
The article presents the history of Classical Archaeology as a research and study area in Poznań, from the perspective of the times in which it was created and developed. The author of the text also outlines scientific achievements of Poznań university centre in the field. The subject was established already in 1919 with the creation of the University of Poznań itself, and it grew steadily in the interwar period, mainly through the efforts of the only specialist -Mieczysława S. Ruxer, PhD. After World War II, Classical Archaeology had been taught at the University since the resumption of its activities in 1945 until 1969, when it was closed. Archaeologists, however, continued both research and teaching in the area - working in the Institute of History and the Institute of History of Art. Moreover, since 1970 Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań has had its own archaeological mission excavating the ancient legion camp and the city of Novae (present Bulgaria). After the fall of communism and the political transformation in 1989, endeavours were made to reactivate Classical Archaeology in Poznań. As a result, it was re-created in 1999, being a part of the Archaeology subject at the Institute of Prehistory, as a specialisation of Archaeology of the Mediterranean. In 2004 it was renamed and since then there has been the specialisation of Oriental and Ancient Archaeology, developing at the Institute of Prehistory at Adam Mickiewicz University.
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