Reference Reviews

Lawrence Looks at Books

The Grove Encyclopedia of Classical Art and Architecture, edited by Gordon Campbell. 2 vols. 1,474p. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007. 978-0-19-530082-6; 2007-487. $250.

The Grove Encyclopedia of Classical Art and Architecture Based in part on the massive The Dictionary of Art (Grove, 1996) and its electronic revisions, this specialized art encyclopedia provides a handy, up-to-date, and authoritative guide to classical art, architecture, and archaeology. Art historian Gordon Campbell selected and edited nearly 1,000 entries from the base corpus to form the foundation of this survey of art in the Greek and Roman world. Approximately 100 new entries were commissioned for this encyclopedia, including such topics as the collection and display of art in the ancient world, Cycladic art, Roman private portraiture, the Villa of Maxentius, Roman Spain, mummy portraits, and Macedonian tombs. Almost all bibliographies and many entries have also been revised. Entries range in length from single line definitions of art terms to 100-page essays on sculpture or architecture. Surveys of major art forms (painting, pottery, and metalwork) and archaeological sites are frequently divided by period. With occasional regional overviews and essays on nearly 300 major archaeological sites, the encyclopedia serves as a useful survey current work in classical archaeology. Other articles feature specific artists, scholars, art patrons, primary sources, frequent subjects of classical art, popular media, and the decorative arts. With a detailed index and over 600 illustrations, including 32 pages of color plates, scholars of classical art will find this set a valuable guide to research.

— John Lawrence