2007

Marian H. Feldman

  • Associate Professor
  • University of California, Berkeley
Picture of Marian H. Feldman

Project

Luxury Arts, Literature, and Memory: the Construction of a "Golden Age" in the Mediterranean and Near East, 1200-600 BCE

Program

Frederick Burkhardt Residential Fellowships for Recently Tenured Scholars

Department

Near Eastern Studies

Location

For residence at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences during academic year 2008-2009

Abstract

Sumptuous Phoenician and North Syrian ivories and metal vessels, with striking formal connections to Late Bronze Age (1600-1200 BCE) luxury arts, flooded the Mediterranean and Near East during the early Iron Age (1200-1600 BCE). This project investigates the ways in which these artifacts drew upon the earlier arts, alongside contemporary literature, to construct a golden age (or ages) through the intentional selection of artistic elements freighted with Late Bronze Age connotations of heroic kingship. Incorporating cross-disciplinary concerns (politics, economics, comparative literature) to pursue a contextualizing art historical analysis, the study offers new perspectives on the visual culture of the period by reinstating the arts in the rich historical setting of their production and use.