Includes bibliographical references (pages 237-252) and index. New Book -- June -- 2016
Contents:
The problem with beauty. Beauty and history ; Did the ancient Greeks recognize art? ; Did the ancient Greeks recognize beauty? ; Beauty, sex, and virtue ; Beauty in art and life -- Beauty in Greek. Is there a Greek word for beauty? ; Beauty : the earliest evidence ; Beauty in archaic poetry ; The classical period -- The nature of beauty. Beauty and desire ; Beauty and gender : women, boys, and effeminate men ; Beauty and virtue ; Beauty and the best : the role of class -- Beauty transfigured. Aesthetic beauty ; Ecphrasis or pictures into words ; Transcendent beauty ; Back to beauty : Themistius's oration to Gratian -- Beauty across cultures : Israel and Rome. Beauty in the Bible ; Beauty and desire between Greece and Rome ; Beauty and art -- Greek beauty today. The varieties of aesthetic experience ; Beauty ascendant ; Beauty dethroned ; Beauty reinstated.
Summary:
"Beauty offers an elegant investigation of ancient Greek notions of beauty and, in the process, sheds light on how we ought to appreciate the artistic achievements of the classical world. The book opens by reexamining the commonly held notion that the ancient Greeks possessed no term that can be unambiguously defined as "beauty" or "beautiful." Author David Konstan discusses a number of Greek approximations before positioning the heretofore unexamined term kállos as the key to bridging the gap between beauty and desire, and tracing its evolution as applied to physical beauty, art, literature, and more. The book then examines corresponding terms in Biblical Hebrew and ancient Latin literature to highlight the survival of Greek ideas in the Latin West. The final chapter compares the ancient Greek conception of beauty with modern notions of beauty and aesthetics. In particular, it focuses on the reception of classical Greek art in the Renaissance and how Vasari and his contemporaries borrowed from Plato the sense that the beauty in art was transcendental, but left out the erotic dimension of viewing. Even if Greece was the inspiration for modern aesthetic ideals, this study illustrates how the Greek view of the relationship between beauty and desire was surprisingly consistent-and different from our own. This fascinating and magisterial exploration makes it possible to identify how the Greeks thought of beauty, what it was that attracted them, and what their perceptions can still tell us about art, love, desire-and beauty." -- Publisher's description.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.