Search results for ""Author Tonio Holscher""

The ancient Greeks have developed a culture of sight of extraordinary density and diversity. They lived surrounded by images that were present in all meaningful living spaces and responded to the essential needs of social life. In this book, which was created in connection with a cycle of lectures by the Chaire du Louvre, Tonio Hölscher poses a fundamental question: What role did these images play in the lives of the inhabitants of the Greek cities? All the images had a precise function, be it in public spaces - sanctuaries and temples, political buildings, sports facilities, theaters, necropolises - or in private homes. They represented a 'society' with its own vital life force. Tonio Hölscher's research focuses on the image culture and the social rules and norms that guided the interaction between members of the urban communities and the images. It is necessary to break away from the modern "museum habitus" of the art viewer and to develop an understanding of "living with pictures".

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Visual culture was an essential part of ancient social, religious, and political life. Appearance and experience of beings and things was of paramount importance. In Visual Power in Ancient Greece and Rome, Tonio Hölscher explores the fundamental phenomena of Greek and Roman visual culture and their enormous impact on the ancient world, considering memory over time, personal appearance, conceptualization and representation of reality, and significant decoration as fundamental categories of art as well as of social practice. With an emphasis on public spaces such as sanctuaries, agora and forum, Hölscher investigates the ways in which these spaces were used, viewed, and experienced in religious rituals, political manifestations, and social interaction.

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