The Herculaneum Women and the Origins of Archaeology

by Jens Daehner; Kordelia Knoll; Christiane Vorster; Moritz Woelk

• ISBN13: 9780892368822
• ISBN10: 0892368829
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-02-18
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Summary

About 1710, three life-size marble statues of women were found near Portici on the Bay of Naples. This discovery led to further exploration of the site, which was soon identified as the ancient city of Herculaneum, one of the towns buried in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79. The statues became famous throughout Europe as the "Herculaneum Women." First brought to Vienna, they have been in the Antiquities Collection in Dresden since 1736. This book presents for the first time in any language the comprehensive story of these famous statues, including their discovery, archaeological context, art history, interpretation, (an ongoing debate), and the impact of the Greek statuary types on representations of Roman women throughout the Mediterranean. No other models of the draped female body were used more often in Roman sculpture to carry individual portraits, including those of empresses, than the Large and Small Herculaneum Women.

Author Biography

Jens Daehner is assistant curator of antiquities at the J. Paul Getty Museum; Kordelia Knoll is curator of the sculpture collection at the State Art Collections, Dresden; Christiane Vorster is professor at the Institute of Classical Archaeology, University of Bonn; and Moritz Woelk is director of the sculpture collection at the State Art Collections, Dresden.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Discovery and Archaeological Context	p. 1
From Herculaneum to Dresden: The Modern History	p. 19
Plates 1-20
The Large and Small Herculaneum Women Sculptures	p. 59
The Statue Types in the Roman World	p. 85
Greek Origins: The Herculaneum Women in the Pre-Roman World	p. 113
From the Menagerie to the Plaster Gallery: The Herculaneum Women in Dresden	p. 141
Addendum	p. 156
Bibliographic Abbreviations	p. 158
Notes	p. 160
Index	p. 175
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