In the 4th century B.C., the most important patrons of Greek art were dynastic rulers at the western edges of the Persian Empire. This political, social and spatial context contradicts the dated idea that Classical art was particularly connected to the free Greek polis. The papers collected in this volume of conference proceedings succeed in outlining characteristic aspects, media and topics of this 4th century “royal art”, as well as asking more profound questions about why this Greek style was chosen. The 15 contributions make use of archaeological, epigraphic and written sources, thus providing multifaceted insights into artistic creation, architecture and cultural life in Asia Minor, Cyprus and the Levant, as well as in the northern Aegean and Black Sea regions. Seen from this perspective, the 4th century B.C. emerges as a highly dynamic artistic period with great innovative power, which was to provide the template for artistic production in the Hellenistic royal courts.

Sonstiges