Art in the Hellenistic World

What was Hellenistic art, and what were its contexts, aims, achievements, and impact? This textbook introduces students to these questions and offers a series of answers to them. Its twelve chapters and two ‘focus’ sections examine Hellenistic sculpture, painting, luxury arts, and architecture. Thematically organized, spanning the three centuries from Alexander to Augustus, and ranging geographically from Italy to India and the Black Sea to Nubia, the book examines key monuments of Hellenistic art in relation to the great political, social, cultural, and intellectual issues of the time. It is illustrated with 170 photographs (mostly in color, and many never before published) and contextualized through excerpts from Hellenistic literature and inscriptions. Helpful ancillary features include maps, appendices with background on Hellenistic artists and translations of key documents, a full glossary, a timeline, brief biographies of key figures, suggestions for further reading, and bibliographical references.

Author Biography

Andrew Stewart is Professor of Ancient Mediterranean Art and Archaeology and Nicholas C. Petris Professor of Greek Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. He is also Curator of Mediterranean Archaeology at Berkeley’s Phoebe Apperson Hearst Museum of Anthropology. He has taught at the University of Cambridge, the University of Otago (New Zealand), and Columbia University. A member of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens and the Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, and an Honorary Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities, he has received fellowships and grants from the Guggenheim and Getty Foundations, and the American Council of Learned Societies. He is the author of Greek Sculpture: An Exploration (1990), which won the George Wittenborn Memorial Book Award, and of Classical Greece and the Birth of Western Art (2006), which was a finalist for the Runciman Prize for the best book of the year on a Hellenic topic.