Prayers in Stone: Greek Architectural Sculpture (c. 600-100 B.C.E.) (Sather Classical Lectures)

Sather Classical Lectures

by Brunilde Sismondo Ridgway

The meaning of architectural sculpture is essential to our understanding of ancient Greek culture. The embellishment of buildings was common for the ancient Greeks, and often provocative. Some ornamental sculpture was placed where, when the building was finished, no mortal eye could view it. And unlike much architectural ornamentation of other cultures, Greek sculpture was often integral to the building, not just as decoration, and could not be removed without affecting the integrity of the building structure. This book is the first comprehensive treatment of the significance of Greek architectural sculpture. Brunilde Sismondo Ridgway, a world-class authority on ancient Greek sculpture, provides a highly informative tour of many dimensions of Greek public buildings―especially temples, tombs, and treasuries―in a text that is at once lucid, accessible, and authoritative.

Ridgway's pragmatism and common sense steer us tactfully and clearly through thickets of uncertainty and scholarly disagreement. She refers to a huge number of monuments, and documents her discussions with copious and up-to-date bibliographies. This book is sure to be acknowledged at once as the standard treatment of its important topic.

344 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 1999

About the author

Brunilde Sismondo Ridgway was an Italian-American archaeologist and specialist in ancient Greek sculpture.

Reviews

[Kate]

In six papers delivered as part of a special lecture series, Ridgway helps her audience to place themselves in the role of the ancient viewer of Greek architectural sculpture. Ridgway is one of the few writers to take the very obvious perspective that architectural sculpture was created for its architectural setting and therefore must be studied in that context. Throughout my reading, I've been annoyed and disappointed by the scholarly tendency to study architectural sculpture in a vacuum, ignoring the buildings for which it was created. At least Ridgway has some common sense.