A Companion to Ancient Aesthetics

The first of its kind, A Companion to Ancient Aesthetics presents a synoptic view of the arts, which crosses traditional boundaries and explores the aesthetic experience of the ancients across a range of media--oral, aural, visual, and literary.

• Investigates the many ways in which the arts were experienced and conceptualized in the ancient world
• Explores the aesthetic experience of the ancients across a range of media, treating literary, oral, aural, and visual arts together in a single volume
• Presents an integrated perspective on the major themes of ancient aesthetics which challenges traditional demarcations
• Raises questions about the similarities and differences between ancient and modern ways of thinking about the place of art in society

Auteur
Pierre Destrée is Associate Researcher at the FNRS and Associate Professor at the University of Louvain, Belgium, where he teaches ancient philosophy. He is the author of a French translation of Aristotle's Poetics (2014) and editor of Plato and the Poets (with F.G. Herrmann, 2011), Plato and Myth: Studies on the Use and Status of Platonic Myths (with C. Collobert and F. Gonzalez, 2012); The Cambridge Companion to Aristotle's Politics (with M. Deslauriers, 2013) and What is Up to Us? Causality and Responsibility in Ancient Philosophy (with R. Salles and M. Zingano, 2014). Penelope Murray was Senior Lecturer and a founding member of the Department of Classics at the University of Warwick, UK, before retiring in 2008. She continues to work on early Greek poetry and poetics, on philosophical responses to Athenian song-culture, especially the views of Plato, and on ancient literary criticism. Her publications include Genius: The History of an Idea (Blackwell, 1989); Plato on Poetry (1996); Classical Literary Criticism (2000); Music and The Muses: The Culture of Mousike in the Classical Athenian City (edited with P. Wilson, 2004).

Texte du rabat
A Companion to Ancient Aesthetics responds to, and reflects on, the arts in the ancient world. The history of Western thinking about such matters goes back to the Greeks, when the arts, in one form or another, were a central feature of public life, evaluated and discussed long before Alexander Baumgarten published his Aesthetica in 1750 and established aesthetics as a distinct philosophical discipline. Greek speculations on the nature of artistic experience have profoundly shaped our culture, and this volume explores the many ways in which the arts were experienced and conceptualized in the ancient world. The contributors take a broad view in their discussions, moving away from analysis of the classical antecedents of 18th century aesthetics, to discuss ancient aesthetics as a subject in its own right. The first of its kind, the volume presents a synoptic view of the arts, which crosses traditional boundaries and explores the aesthetic experience of the ancients across a range of media--oral, aural, visual, and literary. The essays present an integrated perspective on the major themes of ancient aesthetics that challenges traditional demarcations and raises questions about the similarities and differences between ancient and modern ways of thinking about the place of art in society.

Contenu
Illustrations viii Notes on Contributors ix Acknowledgments xiv Introduction 1 Pierre Destrée and Penelope Murray Part I Art in Context 15 1 Greece 17 Richard P. Martin 2 Figures of the Poet in Greek Epic and Lyric 31 Deborah Steiner 3 The Hellenistic World 47 Graham Zanker 4 Rome 68 Thomas Habinek 5 Music and Dance in Greece and Rome 81 Eleonora Rocconi 6 Greek Sculpture 94 Rosemary Barrow 7 Painting and Private Art Collections in Rome 109 Agnès Rouveret 8 Architecture and Society 128 Catherine Saliou Part II Reflecting on Art 141 9 Literary Criticism and the Poet's Autonomy 143 Andrew Ford 10 Poetic Inspiration 158 Penelope Murray 11 The Canons of Style 175 Jeffrey Walker 12 Sense and Sensation in Music 188 Armand D'Angour 13 Dance and Aesthetic Perception 204 Anastasia?]Erasmia Peponi 14 Greek Painting and the Challenge of Mimes is 218 Hariclia Brecoulaki 15 Ways of Looking at Greek Vases 237 François Lissarrague 16 Displaying Sculpture in Rome 248 Thea Ravasi 17 Perceiving Colors 262 M. Michela Sassi 18 The Beauties of Architecture 274 Edmund Thomas 19 Stylistic Landscapes 291 Nancy Worman 20 Conceptualizing the (Visual) "Arts" 307 Michael Squire Part III Aesthetic Issues 327 21 Mimesis 329 Paul Woodruff 22 Fiction 341 Stephen Halliwell 23 Imagination 354 Anne Sheppard 24 Beauty 366 David Konstan 25 Unity, Wholeness, and Proportion 381 Malcolm Heath 26 The Sublime 393 James I. Porter 27 Poikilia 406 Adeline Grand?]Clément 28 Wonder 422 Christine Hunzinger 29 Tragic Emotions 438 Christof Rapp 30 Laughter 455 Ralph M. Rosen 31 Pleasure 472 Pierre Destrée 32 Art and Morality 486 Elizabeth Asmis 33 Art and Value 505 Michael Silk Index of Subjects 518 Index of Ancient Texts Discussed 527