Tag: Orientalizm

Sappho loved the glamour of the Lydian ladies, with their stylish apparel and cosmetics. The soldier Alcaeus could not help admiring a Babylonian shield. The anonymous Corinthian miniaturist vase painters were apparently enchanted by the colours, shapes and designs of Syrian, Mesopotamian or Anatolian fabrics, leather, or works wrought in bronze, silver or gold, adorned with fantastic hybrid creatures. They all expressed their fascination in verse or the figural arts. Their works are exactly what I mean by „Orientalism” as a component of literary or figural style. Through their work the Hellenic craftsmen and poets expressed their fascination with foreign exotic forms, adapted to a different style, based on different artistic doctrines. Consequently my perspective is one taken by an outsider by one who directly or indirectly accedes to and establishes contact with a world that remains unknown or almost unknown to his own paideia or basic, standard education within hist indigenous cultural milieu.