The question of narrative in Aegean Bronze Age art

grantor: University of TorontoThose who study the cognitive development of Homo sapiens maintain that our specialized communication skills evolved from the desire to narrate. Societies define themselves through their histories and their traditional stories; the socio-political significance of narrative in any given civilization is considerable. Until quite recently, narrative in visual media has been identified with recognizable story content, particularly of a mythological or historical nature. The figural arts of the Aegean Bronze Age have, consequently, been largely overlooked in discussions of pictorial narration in ancient art. The present study seeks to correct the omissions of earlier writings by favouring a broad conception of narrative derived from the field of narratology, employing a system of analysis that concentrates on the essential features or structures of narrative relating, and assessing pictorial texts in terms of degrees of narrativity. Chapter 1 introduces the subject, situating this project within the art historical tradition. Chapter 2 reviews research on the topic of pictorial narrative that has been conducted in the areas of Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Assyrian, and Greek art, with a view to isolating models of use to the present investigation. Chapter 3 sets out the methodological approach employed in Chapter 4, where, after an overview of pertinent literature in the field of Aegean scholarship, the narrative possibilities of three monuments from the Aegean Late Bronze Age are analyzed. Some concluding remarks and observations are given in Chapter 5. Although the story matter of Aegean figure scenes is often minimal and we shall never be able to "read" these images with the facility and sophistication possible in cultures where extra-pictorial information is available, we are remiss to ignore the narrative potential of Aegean art. Indeed, this examination discloses that some of the presentations of visual narrative produced in the Aegean Bronze Age represent early and precocious statements in pictorial storytelling, notwithstanding their generalizing and conventional character.Ph.D