Includes bibliographical references (p. 232-236) and index.

Partial contents: The Greek revolution -- Daedalus and the wings of techne -- Sacred decoration -- Heroes apparent -- From Marathon to the Parthenon -- In search of Pheidias -- Revealing Aphrodite -- The patronage of kings -- Graecia Capta.

Many pieces of Greek sculpture are very familiar to us - the Discobolus, the Venus de Milo and the Parthenon frieze, for instance - but our appreciation of them as "works of art," enshrined in museums, is far removed from the ways in which the ancient Greeks saw and perceived them. To comprehend why Greek sculpture looks as it does we have to recreate the conditions of its production and consider those who commissioned, used and viewed it as much as the sculptors whom we traditionally associate with its creation. In a stimulating new approach to the subject, Understanding Greek Sculpture re-examines the contexts in which Classical statuary was made and displayed. In its original intended setting, Greek sculpture not only looked quite different - massed together or elevated on pediments and friezes, and brightly painted - but it also served social, religious and political purposes that might surprise us.