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Document Details :

Title: Three Silens from Olympia and 'The International Style' in Late Archaic Greek Bronze Statuettes
Author(s): STIBBE, Conrad M.
Journal: BABESCH
Volume: 82    Issue: 1   Date: 2007   
Pages: 1-28
DOI: 10.2143/BAB.82.1.2020759

Abstract :
This paper aims to demonstrate that the many contradictory attributions of late archaic bronze statuettes in modern scholarship originate in a failure to comprehend the tendency at this time (starting around 530 BC) for such statuettes to become absorbed into what has been called ‘the international style’ in marble sculpture. The different archaic schools slowly loose their own character in favour of a style which seems to be more or less neutral and therefore causes problems to those scholars who want to continue to recognize local schools, not only in marble sculpture, but also in bronze statuettes. The emerging school of Attic bronze workers at about the same time (ca 530 BC) contributes to the confusion. As a result in many cases it becomes almost impossible to distinguish between the characteristic features of the Attic and the older leading schools of Sparta and Corinth. An escape from the deadlock is offered by the recognition of our own shortcomings and the acceptance of the phenomenon of the ‘international’ conflation.

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