Alexander the Great changed the face of the ancient world. During his life and after his death, his image in works of art exerted an unprecedented influence-on marbles, bronzes, ivories, frescoes, mosaics, coins, medals, even painted pottery and reliefware. Alexander's physiognomy became the most famous in history. But can we really know what meaning lies behind these images? A...
Alexander the Great changed the face of the ancient world. During his life and after his death, his image in works of art exerted an unprecedented influence-on marbles, bronzes, ivories, frescoes, mosaics, coins, medals, even painted pottery and reliefware. Alexander's physiognomy became the most famous in history. But can we really know what meaning lies behind these images? Andrew Stewart demonstrates that these portraits--wildly divergent in character, quality, type, provenance, date, and purpose--actually transmit not so much a likeness of Alexander as a set of carefully crafted cliches that mobilize the notion "Alexander" for diverse ends and diverse audiences. Stewart discusses the portraits as studies in power and his original interpretation of them gives unprecedented fullness and shape to the idea and image called "Alexander."
原文摘录
· · · · · ·
Alexander's supposed edict giving the bronze caster Lysippos, the painter Apelles, and the gem cutter Pyrgoteles a monopoly on his image (Appendix 2: T 51-58) was evidently honored more in the breach than in the observance. (查看原文)
Sitting safely at home, the philosophers could afford the luxury of criticism. Yet surprisingly, their judgments tended to be no less crude than those of the poets. As usual, little survives, but to judge from the Romans who quoted and paraphrased them, there is no evidence that any of them seriously attempted to come to grips with Alexander and with the new world that he was creating. Instead, they wrote him off as the prototypical tyrant, "haughty, cruel, and unrestrained," as Cicero put it. In their view, success had turned Aristotle's well-taught prince into a monster of depravity. (查看原文)
还没人写过短评呢
还没人写过短评呢