The Invention of Art History in Ancient Greece: Religion, Society and Artistic Rationalisation

In this book contemporary perspectives in the sociology of art are brought to bear on a series of fundamental questions in the history of Greek art. It is argued that artists sought to enhance their status and autonomy in the classical period by writing theoretical treatises and producing works of art intended for purely aesthetic contemplation. This ultimately gave rise to the practice of art history writing, and the development of art collecting. The Greeks, however, developed their own very specific ethos of connoisseurship.