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October 22, 2009
Mark D. Stansbury-O'Donnell Vase Painting, Gender, and Social Identity in Archaic Athens Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2006. 330 pp.; 76 b/w ills. Cloth $90.00 (9780521853187)
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The device of figures framing a central mythological or non-mythological composition is a frequent phenomenon in Athenian vase painting. These spectators have been interpreted as stock characters, super-numeraries, aristocrats, or simply onlookers. In his innovative Vase Painting, Gender, and Social Identity in Archaic Athens, Mark Stansbury-O’Donnell examines the role of spectators on Athenian vases as “guides to the construction of social identity in sixth-century Athens” (11). Stansbury-O’Donnell bases his investigation on the assumption that the...