Greco-Scythian Art and the Birth of Eurasia: From Classical Antiquity to Russian Modernity
Caspar Meyer
Abstract
Since their discovery in nineteenth-century Russia, Greco-Scythian artefacts have been interpreted as masterpieces by Greek craftsmen working according to the tastes of the Scythian nomads and creating realistic depictions of their barbarian patrons. Drawing on a broad array of evidence from archaeology, art history, and epigraphy to contextualise Greco-Scythian metalwork in ancient society, this volume confronts the deep confusion between ancient representation and historical reality in contemporary engagements with classical culture. It argues that the strikingly life-like figure scenes of G ... More
Since their discovery in nineteenth-century Russia, Greco-Scythian artefacts have been interpreted as masterpieces by Greek craftsmen working according to the tastes of the Scythian nomads and creating realistic depictions of their barbarian patrons. Drawing on a broad array of evidence from archaeology, art history, and epigraphy to contextualise Greco-Scythian metalwork in ancient society, this volume confronts the deep confusion between ancient representation and historical reality in contemporary engagements with classical culture. It argues that the strikingly life-like figure scenes of Greco-Scythian art were integral to the strategies of a cosmopolitan elite who legitimated its economic dominance by asserting an intermediary cultural position between the steppe inland and the urban centres on the shores of the Black Sea. Investigating the reception of this ‘Eurasian’ self-image in tsarist Russia, the book unravels the complex relationship between ancient ideology and modern imperial visions, and its legacy in current conceptions of cultural interaction and identity.
Keywords:
museum,
artefacts,
craftsmen,
nomads,
metalwork,
Greco-Scythian art,
Black Sea,
self-image,
Russia,
Scythia
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2013 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780199682331 |
| Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: April 2015 |
DOI:10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780199682331.001.0001 |
Authors
Affiliations are at time of print publication.
Caspar Meyer, author
Lecturer in Classical Archaeology, Birkbeck, University of London
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