Order No: AAC 3051119
Title: Dance scenes in early archaic Greek vase-painting
Author: Buboltz, Lisa Ann
School: HARVARD UNIVERSITY (0084) Degree: PhD Date: 2002 pp: 382
Advisor: Mitten, David G.
Source: DAI-A 63/04, p. 1159, Oct 2002
Subject: ART HISTORY (0377)
ISBN: 0-493-65555-7
Abstract: Late eighth- and early seventh-century Greek vase-painting presents us with several hundred dance images: processional figures, acrobats, mourners, men clapping their hands, musicians, armed warriors, and even seated rattle players—all of these can be fairly and accurately termed “dance scenes.” Yet the majority of these images conform to a recognized iconography: a group of figures who are similar in clothing, attribute and pose, and who often hold hands. This iconography is consistent with what we know of Greek choral performance.
The first chapter introduces the reader to the images themselves, some of the problems of researching them, and attempts to define the most important terms. The second chapter gives a brief history of the ways in which research into ancient dance and choral performance have been conducted in the past. The third chapter is a chronological introduction to the images, and focuses on the emergence of choral performance as a visual theme in the LGII period. The next chapter proposes a more productive approach, a typology arranged by general context. Two major and five minor categories are proposed and examined. The fifth chapter covers the various categories in more detail, beginning with the larger categories of funerary and nonfunerary choral performance, and ending with the smaller categories: acrobatic, armed, competitive, ritual and processional, and mixed dance. The sixth chapter explores what anthropological evidence can contribute to an investigation of these images of choral performance. The last chapter, the conclusion, emphasizes broader readings which can be applied to larger numbers of dance scenes, and the usefulness of anthropological approaches in general.
Above all, this dissertation emphasizes two points: that these images must be properly understood as depictions of the popular Greek practice of choral performance, and that choral performance, a common feature in preliterate societies, should be viewed as a positive social force.