Bilderwelt, Lebensordnung und die Rolle des Betrachters im antiken Griechenland

Abstract

This article addresses the question what role sculptures played in the social life of ancient Greece. Sculptures met social and cultural needs in specific situations; a close relationship existed between their functions and their installation in diverse living spaces in accordance with various norms, usages, rules and laws. The role of sculptures consisted in lending a permanent presence to events and personages that were far removed temporally and spatially. Human interaction with sculptures took place not in a »museal habitus« of interpretive contemplation exclusively within the confines of »art« or »culture;« rather, it consisted in a participatory »life with images.« In a social context, sculptures enjoyed, along with other environmental elements, personages and events, a greater or lesser degree of attention depending on their significance in a given situation. Of particular interest is the noteworthy fact that although ancient, especially Greek, sculptures were often set up in clearly visible locations, they could also be installed with surprisingly little consideration for the viewer. Sculptures constituted, along with other cultural elements, an ordered world (kosmos) in which mankind established and found its bearings, but a world which, independent of the rules of optimal visibility, possessed a certain degree of autonomy.