Crafting Encounters in the Art of Early Italy

Temples decorated with brightly coloured terracotta sculpture and tombs frescoed with carefully chosen imagery were sites of heightened encounter in early Italy. These places were points of connection between the mortal realm and the worlds of the gods and of the dead. Artworks that adorned sacred buildings and funerary spaces amplified such confrontations, structuring ancient emotional responses. This volume reconstructs the crafting of encounters and the ways that such encounters were experienced, seeking to glimpse how the inhabitants of early Italy saw the images that filled their world. The contributors are Allia Benner, Fabio Colivicchi, Sophie Crawford-Brown, Nancy deGrummond, Alexander Ekserdjian, Maurizio Forte, Fay Glinister, Daniele Maras, Jacqueline Ortoleva, Corinna Riva, P. Gregory Warden, and Cristiana Zaccagnino.