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art styles, social stratification, and cognition: an analysis of Greek vase painting 1
Author(s) -
DRESSLER WILLIAM W.,
ROBBINS MICHAEL C.
Publication year - 1975
Publication title -
american ethnologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.875
H-Index - 78
eISSN - 1548-1425
pISSN - 0094-0496
DOI - 10.1525/ae.1975.2.3.02a00050
Subject(s) - social stratification , vase , stratification (seeds) , pottery , style (visual arts) , painting , ancient greek , art , archaeology , sociology , history , literature , art history , social science , seed dormancy , botany , germination , dormancy , biology
In a diachronic study of the relationship between social stratification and formal design elements on painted vases in ancient Greece it was found that during periods of greater social stratification in the Greek city‐state of Athens there was comparatively more (1) complexity of style, (2) utilization of space, and (3) enclosure of figures in Attic painted pottery than during periods of less stratification. These results support Fischer's (1961) hypotheses concerning the relationship of social structure to art style and the value of comparative historical methods for investigating cross‐cultural hypotheses.