The Invention of Art History in Ancient Greece: Religion, Society and Artistic Rationalisation

In this book contemporary perspectives in the sociology of art are brought to bear on a series of fundamental questions in the history of Greek art: the causes and the cultural significance of the development of naturalism in classical Greek religious art; the sociogenesis and social functions of portraiture; the role, status and agency of artists; and the origins of art history writing in Hellenistic Greece. It is argued that artists sought to enhance their status and autonomy in the classical period by writing theoretical treatises and producing works of art intended for purely aesthetic contemplation. This ultimately gave rise to the practice of art history writing, and the development of art collecting. The Greeks, however, developed their own very specific ethos of connoisseurship, advocating a rational involvement with art, and using the term ‘art-lover’ only to stigmatise deviant sensuous and erotic attachments to works of art.