VISUAL NARRATIVES IN STATIUS - (C.) Chinn Visualizing the Poetry of Statius. An Intertextual Approach. (Mnemosyne Supplements 449.) Pp. xii + 348. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2022. Cased, €119, US$143. ISBN: 978-90-04-49885-3.

Abstract

discussion of finitude, where Apelles' unfinished Aphrodite seeds a richly detailed meditation on the resonance of the artist's cogitationes even in certain incomplete pieces, and the ineffable quality of gratia that may reveal to the artist when a work is finished.A. displays an Apelles-like restraint in crafting a short book about these complex questions. Her writing flows readily and readably; one is always tempted to keep diving back in for more, not unlike the Natural History itself (though obviously on a very different scale). The text reads like a kind of thematic commentary to A.'s judicious selection of themes from Pliny; she includes supplementary references to other ancient texts on occasion, but the focus remains firmly on Pliny's own words. Extensive endnotes to each chapter provide more detailed references to textual parallels, as well as an up-to-date guide to contemporary scholarship on relevant themes. A.'s surefooted confidence in what this book is meant to cover manifests as a striking absence of half-hearted analyses of topics from outside that remit: readers will not, for example, find a critical discussion of whether the term 'encyclopaedia' is appropriate, but will find pointers in the endnotes to studies of the question.The book's images are singularly well chosen, from a luminous icosahedron carved from rock crystal to an agate relief vessel whose images seem to emerge of their own accord from the variegations of the stone. The images are in black and white, which no doubt robs them of some of their sensual detail, but they are detailed and clear. There are three useful indexes: an index locorum of Plinian passages, an index of other Greek and Latin sources, and a brisk general index. The book is quite affordable and would make an excellent textbook for a course in Roman art history aimed at graduate students or advanced undergraduates.