Please join us for a prospectus presentation by Chris King.
Nothing To Do With Mimesis: Design, Form, and the Non-Mimetic in Ancient Aesthetics
In this dissertation, I explore a little-discussed aspect of ancient aesthetics: the role of non-mimetic artistic features such as abstract design in ancient theories of art. Plato and Aristotle group the mimetic arts together and separate them from other tekhnai such as shipbuilding and farming based on their quality of imitation. This leaves the status of non-mimetic objects that we would classify as fine art uncertain. Is the Parthenon “Art?” Is the pleasure one takes in looking at it “aesthetic” pleasure? I will explore these questions, taking account of the presocratic legacy as well as the fourth-century philosophers.
