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STATUE, CULT AND REPRODUCTION
Author(s) -
GAIFMAN MILETTE
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
art history
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.1
H-Index - 19
eISSN - 1467-8365
pISSN - 0141-6790
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-8365.2006.00501.x
Subject(s) - cult , statue , emblem , realm , archaic period , art , phenomenon , ancient greek , literature , history , classics , ancient history , art history , archaeology , philosophy , epistemology
The article examines replications of Greek monuments of cult in the fifth and fourth centuries bce . It considers the process which allows a grand statue to be copied and analyses specific cases of replications of Phidias's Athena ‘Partnenos’ to demonstrate how an image of the god, which was not easily viewable at any time, could become an iconic emblem that was embedded in daily experience outside the realm of ritual. In addition to the ‘Parthenos’, the paper explores a literary text of the fourth century bce – Xenophon's account of his establishment of a sanctuary to Ephesian Artemis. By visually marking the propagation of the cult itself, replications of cult monuments in ancient Greece could be instrumental for the establishment of filial cults and the creation of cultic affiliations, a phenomenon in Greek religion which was inextricably bound up with the politics of pre‐Roman classical antiquity.