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- Title
Introduction: From Grecian Urn to Embodied Object.
- Authors
Gaifman, Milette; Platt, Verity
- Abstract
This essay introduces the theme of the ‘embodied object’. The concept describes artefacts which assume, interact with, substitute for and/or become parts or extensions of human bodies. In doing so, it puts recent work in cognitive archaeology, material culture studies and Actor-Network-Theory into conversation with a longer tradition of phenomenological approaches to art history. To demonstrate how Graeco-Roman artefacts might be understood as ‘embodied’, the authors focus on a fifth-century BCE bronze water-jar with a handle shaped as a female figure. When considered in its original religious context and as a handled container, the vessel’s vitality, agency, and close relationship to the bodies of its users and beholders are made more manifest. Drawing on the essays in this special issue of Art History, the introduction explains how the concept of the ‘embodied object’ applies to classical antiquity in particular, where one can trace the philosophical roots for conceiving of inert things as possessing or interacting with bodies. At the same time, it argues that a concern with questions of embodiment pertains to arthistorical research across all cultures and periods
- Subjects
GREEK urns; HUMAN body &; society; ROMAN antiquities
- Publication
Art History, 2018, Vol 41, Issue 3, p402
- ISSN
0141-6790
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1111/1467-8365.12381