2.4 Theories and Interpretations of Ancient Mediterranean Art

Art historians interpret a work by combining what it shows with where it was found, what ancient writers said and comparisons with similar works. An attribution is a judgment about who made something, based on style rather than a signature. Reconstruction means rebuilding a lost or broken work, on paper or physically, from evidence. Each work below has a question scholars still argue about.

Palette of King Narmer (Predynastic Egypt; c. 3000–2920 BCE; greywacke). A palette was a stone slab for grinding eye makeup; this one is too large and decorated for that, so it was ceremonial and was found in a temple. On one side, Narmer wears the white crown of Upper Egypt and strikes a kneeling enemy; on the other, he wears the red crown of Lower Egypt. Registers (horizontal bands), hierarchical scale (more important figures are larger) and composite view (head and legs in profile, shoulders frontal) set rules Egyptian art used for 3,000 years. It is often read as recording the unification of Egypt, but many scholars think it shows royal ideas of order and victory rather than one event.

Standard of Ur (Royal Tombs at Ur, modern Tell el-Muqayyar, Iraq; Sumerian; c. 2600–2400 BCE; wood inlaid with shell, lapis lazuli and red limestone). Two long sides, often called 'war' and 'peace', are read from bottom to top in registers. One shows chariots trampling enemies and captives brought before the king; the other shows goods and animals brought in and a banquet with a musician. The king is the largest figure. Its excavator called it a standard, carried on a pole, but that is a guess; it may have been the soundbox of an instrument or a box. Lapis lazuli came from Afghanistan, evidence of long-distance trade.

Temple of Minerva (Veii, near Rome) and sculpture of Apollo (master sculptor Vulca; c. 510–500 BCE; temple of wood, mud brick or tufa; terra cotta sculpture). Only the foundations survive. Scholars reconstruct it using them and the Roman writer Vitruvius's description of Etruscan temples: a high podium, stairs only at the front, a deep porch and three rooms inside. Life-size terra cotta statues stood on the roof's ridgepole, including Apollo striding forward with an Archaic smile, part of a myth scene about a contested deer. The Roman writer Pliny names Vulca of Veii as a sculptor, so the Apollo is sometimes linked to his workshop. That link is an attribution, not a fact.

Tomb of the Triclinium (Tarquinia; Etruscan; c. 480–470 BCE; tufa and fresco). A chamber tomb cut into soft volcanic rock (tufa). Fresco (paint on wet plaster) shows musicians and men and women dancing, and a banquet on the back wall. A triclinium is a Roman dining room, the name modern scholars gave the tomb. Because Etruscan writing is only partly understood and few Etruscan texts survive, we read these scenes partly through Greek and Roman writers, who could be biased.

Niobides Krater (Niobid Painter; c. 460–450 BCE; clay, red-figure technique with white highlights). A krater is a large bowl for mixing wine and water. In red-figure, figures stay the clay's red while the background is painted black, so details can be drawn with a brush. One side shows Apollo and Artemis killing the children of Niobe, who boasted about them. Figures stand on different ground lines, an early try at showing depth, perhaps copying lost wall paintings. Scholars still debate who the warriors on the other side are. It was found in Etruria, where Greek vases were prized.

Grave stele of Hegeso (attributed to Kallimachos; c. 410 BCE; marble and paint). Hegeso sits and lifts a piece of jewelry, once painted, from a box held by a servant. The calm mood and clinging drapery are typical of late Classical Athens. 'Attributed' signals the link to Kallimachos is based on style.

Winged Victory of Samothrace (Hellenistic Greek; c. 190 BCE; marble). Nike, goddess of victory, lands on a ship's prow, her wet, wind-whipped drapery clinging to her body. Found in fragments in 1863 and reassembled, she is thought to mark a naval victory; which one, and who paid for her, is debated.

Seated boxer (Hellenistic Greek; c. 100 BCE; bronze). A worn athlete sits with a broken nose, swollen ears and cuts inlaid in copper to look like blood. Hellenistic artists liked realism and pathos (strong emotion). Who he is, and whom he looks up at, is unknown.

Ludovisi Battle Sarcophagus (Late Imperial Roman; c. 250 CE; marble). Romans and barbarians fill the surface in a chaotic tangle with no ground line. In the center, a bareheaded Roman general rides out calmly. He may be Hostilian, son of the emperor Decius, but the identification is debated. The crowding and loss of classical space point toward later Roman and medieval art.