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)
About caa.reviews
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...