Ancient Greek Portrait Sculpture Contexts, Subjects, and Styles

This book offers a new approach to the history of Greek portraiture by focusing on portraits without names. Sheila Dillon considers the few original bronze and marble portrait statues preserved from the Classical and Hellenistic periods together with the large number of Greek portraits known only through Roman copies. This study calls into question two basic tenets of Greek portraiture: first, that it was only in the late Hellenistic period, under Roman influence, that Greek portraits exhibited a wide range of styles, including descriptive realism; and second, that in most cases, one can easily tell a subject's public role from the visual traits used in this portrait. The sculptures studied here instead show that the proliferation of portrait styles takes place much earlier, in the late Classical period, and that the identity expressed by these portraits is much more complex and layered than has previously been realized.

1. Facing up to anonymity; 2. Making portraits of the Greeks; 3. Displaying portraits of the Greeks; 4. The appearance of Greek portraits; 5. Greek portraits in practice.

This book offers a new approach to the history of Greek portraiture by focusing on portraits without names. It calls into question two basic tenets of Greek portraiture, arguing that the proliferation of portrait styles often associated with the late Hellenistic period took place in the late Classical period, and that the identity expressed by these portraits is more complex and nuanced than previously realized.

Sheila Dillon is Associate Professor in the Department of Art, Art History and Visual Studies at Duke University, with a secondary appointment in the Department of Classical Studies. She is the author of The Female Portrait Statue in the Greek World (2010) and co-editor of A Companion to Women in the Ancient World (2012).

This book offers a new approach to the history of Greek portraiture by focusing on portraits without names. It calls into question two basic tenets of Greek portraiture, arguing that that the proliferation of portrait styles often associated with the late Hellenistic period took place in the late Classical period, and that the identity expressed by these portraits is more complex and nuanced than previously realized.