Looking at Greek Art

Looking at Greek Art, by Mark D. Stansbury-O'Donnell, offers a practical guide to the methods for approaching, analyzing, and contextualizing an unfamiliar piece of Greek art. It demonstrates how objects are dated and assigned to an artist or region; how to interpret the subject matter and narrative; how to reconstruct the context for which an object was made, distributed, and used; and how we can explore broader cultural perspectives by looking at questions of identity, gender, and relationships to surrounding cultures. Each section focuses on different theoretical approaches, providing an overview of the theories, key terms, and required evidence. Case studies serve to demonstrate each process and some key issues to consider when using a given approach. This book explores a variety of media, including terracotta, metalwork, and jewelry, in addition to works found in major museum collections in the United States and Europe.

Mark D. Stansbury-O'Donnell is a Professor of art history at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota. He is the author of Pictorial Narrative in Ancient Greek Art (Cambridge, 1999) and Vase Painting, Gender, and the Social Identity of Archaic Athens (Cambridge, 2006). He has published in the American Journal of Archaeology and has contributed to several other books on Greek art and vase painting.