Hedreen’s aim is to demonstrate how socio-historical and self-representational concepts merge in the oeuvre of this artisan. Although readers expecting a handbook on the Greek artist in general will be disappointed, the book offers all patient friends of representation theory surprising and worthwhile insights and an innovative approach to a famous master of τέχνη: Euphronios, perhaps the most innovative vase painter and workshop owner in Athens around 500 BC. Guy Hedreen’s book clearly follows the second alternative, since it deals with the interrelations between two complex concepts of the artist, as a historical and sociological subject on the one hand, and as the performed image of the artist’s self on the other. Their antithetical approaches define a framework for future studies on the artist, since scholars will have to establish themselves between the methods of Altertumswissenschaft and modern iconology. Some recent publications, for example the revised version of Overbeck’s well-known collection of testimonia 1 or Marcello Barbanera’s investigation of the Daidalos topos, 2 indicate a change. In the later 20th century, scholars seemed to have lost interest in the life and work of ancient artists, although Apelles, Phidias and others had been among the main concerns of classical studies since the Renaissance.

Euphronios download