Fenomenologia della scultura greca: un paradigma interpretativo per le società antiche del Mediterraneo

Among the best preserved works of the artistic repertoire of the ancient world, marble and stone sculptures are those well arrived to us in a greater number. Therefore, they are very useful for the historical understanding of ancient societies, since they are expression of the artistic culture and figurative language of a social group. At the same time, they become material evidence of social relationships within that same group. The paper investigates the phenomenon of the production and use of sculptures in the cities of Sicily and Southern Italy, between the late Archaic and early Classical ages, a time of significant political and social changes, offering, at least, five historiographical questions designed now systematically for the first time. The analysis allows to recompose apparent contrasts paving the way to decipher some methodological disagreements, underlining a rich and varied overall framework looking at the topic of exchange of clients, artists and models between the different contexts of the Mediterranean area. The five historiographic questions through which the analysis develops represent the backbone of an interpretative paradigm of general validity, i.e., a model capable to generate new knowledge when applied to the analysis of any artistic expression, not only ancient, within the broader framework of the relationships between it and the society that produced and enjoyed it.