Portraits and Politics in Classical Greece and Early Imperial China: An Institutional Approach to Comparative Art

This article develops a comparative approach to the history of portraiture in classical Greece and early imperial China, with a particular focus on institutions of state honorific portraiture. It argues that a key role in the development of portraiture in classical Greece and early imperial China was played by the formation of differentiated political organisation in the two societies, and the need to develop new forms of reward symbolism to engage emergent elites in the project of state building entailed by the new forms of political organisation. The distinctive forms and formats of portraiture in the two traditions were shaped by the specific character of the political organisation of the two states, democratic and monarchic respectively, and by the correspondingly distinctive social values which informed elite bodily comportment in each case.