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Hellenistic paintings in Italy and Sicily

The parameters of the conference whose proceedings appear in the book under review are stated in the Introduction. One of the outcomes of an inter-university project “Traditions and languages of Hellenistic painting in Italy and Sicily”,1 it sets out to examine the interaction between local traditions and the new artistic language introduced from the East during the Hellenistic period. Among the more important problems with which it grapples is the chronology of the diffusion of Hellenistic painting styles in the West — a problem for which it is able to offer new insights, thanks to recent archaeological discoveries at Pompeii and at Licata (Sicily). But it ranges much more widely than this: indeed, the overriding impression conveyed by the papers is one of heterogeneity, both in content and in presentation. Some are descriptive, others discursive; some make fundamental contributions to their field, others are flimsy and barely relevant to the conference theme; some are built on careful analysis of the evidence, others float on a tide of conjecture; some are replete with detail, others superficial and ill-focused.2 The definition of painting, moreover, is very broad. It includes not just wall-paintings (and mosaics), but also polychrome pottery from Sicily (a cluster of three interesting contributions by C. Lucchese, F. Mollo and E. C. Portale [127-83]) and other classes of painted ceramics, including red-figure, from Apulia (G. Gadaleta, C. Roscino, L. Todisco [319-46]). All in all, there is much of value in this volume, but, like many conference proceedings, it is a mixed bag, and the editors have clearly had some difficulty imposing order and consistency upon the material that they received.