Rediscovery Of Greece: Travellers And Painters Of The Romantic Era
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Edition: First Edition Thus
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Very good
Pages: Good
Condition remarks: Book is in original shrink-wrapping. An unread, clean copy.
At the dawn of the nineteenth century, a wave of adventurous travellers and passionate artists set sail for the crumbling remnants of ancient Greece, driven by an insatiable Romantic hunger for the classical world — and what they brought back forever transformed how the West saw Hellas. Rediscovery of Greece: Travellers and Painters of the Romantic Era chronicles this extraordinary cultural phenomenon, presenting a rich tapestry of paintings, sketches, and written accounts produced by European artists and Grand Tourists who journeyed to Greece between the late eighteenth and mid-nineteenth centuries. With an authoritative introduction by Sir Steven Runciman, the work situates each artist and traveller within the broader sweep of Philhellenism, illuminating how their romanticised visions of ruined temples, sun-bleached landscapes, and noble inhabitants shaped the ideology of the Greek War of Independence and stirred the European imagination. Fani-Maria Tsigakou argues with scholarly precision and visual eloquence that these images were never mere documentation — they were acts of cultural myth-making, projecting ancient glories onto a living, breathing land. Her analysis uncovers the tension between archaeological ambition and artistic licence, revealing how painters such as Edward Lear, J.M.W. Turner, and William James Müller constructed an idealised Greece that resonated deeply with Romantic sensibilities. This landmark study stands as an indispensable reference for anyone captivated by the intersection of art, history, and the enduring power of a civilisation's legend — leaving one to wonder just how much of ancient Greece we still see through the Romantics' eyes.
Author: Fani-Maria Tsigakou
Format: Hardback
Published: 1981, Caratzas
Genre: History of arts
Edition: First Edition Thus
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Very good
Pages: Good
Condition remarks: Book is in original shrink-wrapping. An unread, clean copy.
At the dawn of the nineteenth century, a wave of adventurous travellers and passionate artists set sail for the crumbling remnants of ancient Greece, driven by an insatiable Romantic hunger for the classical world — and what they brought back forever transformed how the West saw Hellas. Rediscovery of Greece: Travellers and Painters of the Romantic Era chronicles this extraordinary cultural phenomenon, presenting a rich tapestry of paintings, sketches, and written accounts produced by European artists and Grand Tourists who journeyed to Greece between the late eighteenth and mid-nineteenth centuries. With an authoritative introduction by Sir Steven Runciman, the work situates each artist and traveller within the broader sweep of Philhellenism, illuminating how their romanticised visions of ruined temples, sun-bleached landscapes, and noble inhabitants shaped the ideology of the Greek War of Independence and stirred the European imagination. Fani-Maria Tsigakou argues with scholarly precision and visual eloquence that these images were never mere documentation — they were acts of cultural myth-making, projecting ancient glories onto a living, breathing land. Her analysis uncovers the tension between archaeological ambition and artistic licence, revealing how painters such as Edward Lear, J.M.W. Turner, and William James Müller constructed an idealised Greece that resonated deeply with Romantic sensibilities. This landmark study stands as an indispensable reference for anyone captivated by the intersection of art, history, and the enduring power of a civilisation's legend — leaving one to wonder just how much of ancient Greece we still see through the Romantics' eyes.