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Diplomacy by Design: Luxury Arts and an "International Style" in the Ancient Near East, 1400-1200 BCE

Diplomacy by Design: Luxury Arts and an "International Style" in the Ancient Near East, 1400-1200 BCE
By Marian H. Feldman

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Product Description

Art and international relations during the Late Bronze Age formed a symbiosis as expanded travel and written communications fostered unprecedented cultural exchange across the Mediterranean. Diplomacy in these new political and imperial relationships was often maintained through the exchange of lavish art objects and luxury goods. The items bestowed during this time shared a repertoire of imagery that modern scholars call the first International Style in the history of art.

Marian Feldman's Diplomacy by Design examines the profound connection between art produced during this period and its social context, revealing inanimate objects as catalysts—or even participants—in human dynamics. Feldman's fascinating study shows the ways in which the exchange of these works of art actively mediated and strengthened political relations, intercultural interactions, and economic negotiations. Previous studies of this international style have focused almost exclusively on stylistic attribution at the expense of social contextualization. Written by a specialist in ancient Near Eastern art and archaeology who has excavated and traveled extensively in this area of the world, Diplomacy by Design provides a much broader consideration of the symbolic power of material culture and its centrality in the construction of human relations. 


Product Details

  • Amazon Sales Rank: #644428 in Books
  • Published on: 2006-05-15
  • Original language: English
  • Number of items: 1
  • Binding: Hardcover
  • 272 pages

Editorial Reviews

Review
"This is a superb piece of scholarship, as well crafted as the objects it describes in fluent and knowledgeable detail. Diplomacy by Design is a strikingly original, lucid volume bound to entice a diverse readership."-A. Bernard Knapp, University of Glasgow (A. Bernard Knapp, University of Glasgow )

"Diplomacy by Design is a fine book that offers readers a useful and sophisticated synthesis of the late second millennium B.C. in the Ancient Near East. Feldman has written an excellent and innovative book, bringing together both anthropology and art history."-Elizabeth Carter, University of California, Los Angeles (Elizabeth Carter, University of California, Los Angeles )

"This thoughtful scholarship, applied to an explanation of a set of strange luxury goods of the 14th to 12th century BCE in the ancient New East, can broaden one''s view of history and current globalization including art. In intense text with copious footnotes, bibliography, and index, Feldman uses ancient correspondence to clarify a unique style on gold and silver, ivory, alabaster, faience, and linen."--Choice (Choice )

"The book is a dense read, rich in theory and terminology. . . . [Diplomacy by Design] is a wonderful resource not only for scholars specializing in the particular questions the book probes, but also for scholars and teachers of the ancient Near East at large in putting together the many pieces of one of the most complicated eras of ancient Near Eastern history. Feldman brings together within her expertise elements belonging to the study of Egypt, Assyria, the Hittites, the Aegean, each a discipline in its own right, and does not come across as amateur in any of them. The book certainly goes beyond the luxury objects it examines, becoming an authoritative study on the social, cultural, and intellectual history of the period."-Mehmet-Ali Atac, Bryn Mawr Classical Review (Mehmet-Ali Atac Bryn Mawr Classical Review )

"Diplomacy by Design is that rarest of things: a stunningly produced book that also contains a bold argument and makes the reader think. Feldman has worked hard to question conventional boundaries of scholarship. . . . The outcome is likely to generate considerable debate, and should embolden all students of epigraphy, art history and archaeology to look beyond their ordinary specialisms towards a more holistic view of cross-cultural relations in the Bronze Age."-David Wengrow, Cambridge Archaeological Journal (David Wengrow Cambridge Archaeological Journal )

"Feldman's argument is elegant and persuasive: that luxury goods and ceremonial exchange played a significant role, not only in elite interaction, but also in the very rhetoric of social and political relations. It is an eloquent testimony to the relationship between `style' and `meaning.'"--Irene Winter, Harvard University (Irene Winter, Harvard University )

From the Inside Flap

During the fourteenth and thirteenth centuries BCE, the kings of Egypt, Babylonia, Assyria, and Hatti participated in a complex international community. These two hundred years also witnessed the production of luxurious artworks made of gold, ivory, alabaster, and faience—objects that helped to foster good relations among the kingdoms. In fact, as Marian H. Feldman makes clear here, art and international relations during the Late Bronze Age formed an unprecedented symbiosis, in concert with expanded travel and written communications across the Mediterranean. And thus diplomacy was invigorated through the exchange of lavish art objects and luxury goods, which shared a repertoire of imagery that modern scholars have called the first International Style in the history of art.
 
Previous studies have focused almost exclusively on stylistic attribution of these objects at the expense of social contextualization. Feldman’s Diplomacy by Design instead examines the profound connection between art produced during this period and its social and political contexts, revealing inanimate objects as catalysts—or even participants—in human dynamics. Feldman’s fascinating study shows the ways in which the diplomatic circulation of these works actively mediated and strengthened political relations, intercultural interactions, and economic negotiations and she does so through diverse disciplinary frameworks including art history, anthropology, and social history. Written by a specialist in ancient Near Eastern art and archaeology who has excavated and traveled extensively in this area of the world, Diplomacy by Design considers anew the symbolic power of material culture and its centrality in the construction of human relations.

About the Author

Marian H. Feldman is assistant professor of ancient Near Eastern art in the Department of Near Eastern Studies at the University of California, Berkeley.