Figurines in Hellenistic Babylonia: Miniaturization and Cultural Hybridity

In this volume, Stephanie M. Langin-Hooper investigates the impact of Greek art on the miniature figure sculptures produced in Babylonia after the conquests of Alexander the Great. Figurines in Hellenistic Babylonia were used as agents of social change, by visually expressing and negotiating cultural differences. The scaled-down quality of figurines encouraged both visual and tactile engagement, enabling them to effectively work as non-threatening instruments of cultural blending. Reconstructing the embodied experience of miniaturization in detailed case studies, Langin-Hooper illuminates the dynamic process of combining Greek and Babylonian sculpture forms, social customs, and viewing habits into new, hybrid works of art. Her innovative focus on figurines as instruments of both personal encounter and global cultural shifts has important implications for the study of tiny objects in art history, anthropology, classics, and other disciplines.

Author: Stephanie M. Langin-Hooper
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 03/12/2020
Pages: 350
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.90lbs
Size: 10.20h x 7.50w x 0.80d
ISBN: 9781108488143

Review Citation(s):
Choice 10/01/2020

About the Author
Langin-Hooper, Stephanie M.: - Stephanie M. Langin-Hooper is Assistant Professor and Karl Kilinksi II Endowed Chair in Hellenic Visual Culture in the Department of Art History at Southern Methodist University, Texas. She is co-editor of The Tiny and the Fragmented: Miniature, Broken, and Otherwise Incomplete Objects in the Ancient World (2018), she served as lead curator for the exhibition 'Life in Miniature: Identity and Display at Ancient Seleucia-on-the-Tigris' at the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, University of Michigan.