The Penn-Leiden Colloquia on Ancient Values, VI
University of Pennsylvania, June 25-27, 2010
Greek and Roman cultures were alive with the arts and deeply interested in questions of aesthetic value. Whether it was poetry, music, the plastic arts or architecture, functional or ornamental craftsmanship, public drama or private recitation, the arts were continually discussed and contested by people of all social classes and backgrounds. Our sources suggest that there were in fact many kinds of responses to the arts in classical antiquity, not all of them positive or consonant with one another. This colloquium concerns how Greeks and Romans ascribed or denied value to the arts, what criteria they invoked in distinguishing between "good" and "bad" art, whether we can accurately speak of an ancient concept of the "fine arts," and how aesthetic value varied as a function of social class or political ideology. We will consider the complex and fluctuating interaction between conceptions of beauty, pleasure and utility, especially from the perspective of general audiences and fans or devotees, not just theorists or philosophers. In particular, we will attempt to access the aesthetic discourse of non-specialists as they responded emotionally and intellectually to the arts.
Saturday, June 26, 2010:
8:30-9:00: Coffee
9:00-9:20: Welcome and Introduction: Ralph Rosen (University of Pennsylvania)
9:20-10:00: Opening Keynote: Stephen Halliwell (University of St Andrews): Amousia: Living without the Muses
Paper Session 1
(Chair: Paul Guyer, University of Pennsylvania)
10:00-10:40: Alexandra Pappas (University of Arkansas): "The Aesthetics of (Non)sense: Inscriptions and the Ancient Greek Symposium"
10:40-11:20: James Porter (University of California, Irvine): "Is the Sublime an Aesthetic Value?"
11:20-11:40: Coffee break
Paper Session 2
(Chair: Andrew Ford, Princeton University)
11:40-12:20: Myrthe Bartels (Leiden University): "The Beat of the Elders: An Objective Aesthetics of Seniors in Plato's Laws"
12:20-1:00: Eleonora Rocconi (University of Pavia): "The Aesthetic Value of Music in Platonic Thought"
1:00-2:30: Lunch
Paper Session 3
(Chair: Susan Sauvé Meyer, University of Pennsylvania)
2:30-3:10: Elizabeth Jones (Stanford University): "Allocating Musical Pleasure: Performer and Spectator in Aristotle's Politics"
3:10-3:50: Elsa Bouchard (University of Montreal/University of Paris IV Sorbonne): "Aristotle on Poetic Popular Taste"
3:50- 4:10: Coffee Break
Paper Session 4
(Chair: Sheila Murnaghan, University of Pennsylvania)
4:10-4:50: Jeroen Bons (Univerity of Utrecht/University of Amsterdam): "Isocrates, Polycleitus and Moral Virtue: kairos in Rhetoric and Art"
4:50-5:30: Craig Hardimann (University of Waterloo): "Personal Art Appreciation in the Hellenistic Age"
5:30-6:45: Reception
Sunday, June 27, 2010
9:00-9:30: Coffee
Paper Session 5
(Chair: Jeroen Bons, University of Leiden)
9:30-10:10: Jeremy McInerney (University of Pennsylvania): "Herakleides Kritikos and Middle-Brow Aesthetics"
10:10-10:50: Irene Peirano (Yale University): "Authenticity as an Aesthetic Value: Ancient and Modern Reflections
10:50-11:10: Coffee break
Paper Session 6
(Chair: Cynthia Damon, University of Pennsylvania
11:10-11:50: Joseph Farrell (University of Pennsylvania): "Art, Aesthetics and the Hero in Vergil's Aeneid"
11:50-12:30: Bettina Reitz (Leiden University): "Tantae molis erat: On Valuing Roman Imperial Architecture"
12:30-12:50: Coffee Break
Paper Session 7
(Chair: Christoph Pieper, University of Leiden)
12:50-1:30: Jennifer Ferriss-Hill (University of Miami): "The Literary Criticism of Roman Verse Satire"
1:30-2:10: Caitlin Gillespie (University of Pennsylvania): "Creating Chloe: The Aesthetics of Education in Daphnis and Chloe"
2:10-3:30: Lunch
Paper Session 8
(Chair: Joseph Farrell, University of Pennsylvania)
3:30-4:10: Carrie Mowbray (University of Pennsylvania): "Captive Audience? The Aesthetics of nefas in Senecan Drama"
4:10-4:40: Curtis Dozier (Vassar College): "Poetic License and Poetic Pleasure in Quintilian"
General Discussion, Summation and Conclusion of Colloquium: Ineke Sluiter (Leiden University)