The Art Bulletin ISSN: 0004-3079 (Print) 1559-6478 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rcab20 Luxurious Forms: Redefining a Mediterranean “International Style,” 1400–1200 b.c.e. Marian H. Feldman To cite this article: Marian H. Feldman (2002) Luxurious Forms: Redefining a Mediterranean “International Style,” 1400–1200 b.c.e., The Art Bulletin, 84:1, 6-29 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00043079.2002.10787009 Published online: 09 May 2014. Submit your article to this journal Article views: 58 View related articles Citing articles: 5 View citing articles Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=rcab20 Download by: [UCL Library Services] Date: 21 August 2017, At: 12:49 Luxurious Forms: Redefining a Mediterranean "International Style," 1400-1200 B.e.E. Marian H. Feldman Scholars have postulated the existence of an international able diversity of documentary material: archaeological, epi­ style for the arts of the eastern Mediterranean of the four­ graphic, and artistic. The broad range of evidence permits a teenth and thirteenth centuries B.C.E. because they exhibit multifaceted reconstruction of the social, political, and eco­ shared formal features that cut across cultural and geopolit­ nomic systems that overlapped and interconnected with one ical boundaries. In particular, easily portable luxury objects another during this period. Ugarit, in particular, offers a rich made of ivory, gold, alabaster, and faience defy attribution to body of material by which to refine the application of the anyone cultural region because of extensive hybridism in term international style. which motifs from multiple regions intermix with one an­ Internal features of the luxury goods from Ugarit have led other. The time period, known as the Late Bronze Age, me to define at least two artistic traditions: an indigenous witnessed intense interactions among the polities of Egypt, Levantine and a hybrid international. The Levantine tradi­ the Levant, Mesopotamia, Anatolia, Cyprus, and the Aegean tion itself presents complexities of definition and is best (Fig. 1). These took place through a variety of means, includ­ comprehended in the small-scale arts excavated at sites along ing entrepreneurial and royal trade, diplomatic relations, the eastern coast of the Mediterranean. Often viewed as and military conflict. The general international climate ofthe merely derivative, in several instances it draws on the iconog­ time has been considered, therefore, a primary agent for the raphy of its neighbors, in particular Egypt, while creating a artistic internationalism exhibited in the works. The category unique visual expression. I would argue, however, that prod­ of "international style," however, has remained ill-defined, ucts of the Levantine tradition that incorporate foreign ele­ obscuring nuances of form and meaning. This article reex­ ments should not be considered "international," since their amines the term international style based on an analysis and primary sphere of use and audience remained at the local or classification of a group of luxury goods from the ancient regional level. A truly international tradition can be seen in kingdom of Ugarit. In so doing, it fragments this corpus to the small number of luxury works whose culturally hybrid reveal a multiplicity of coexistent artistic forms previously motifs, shared compositional devices, and common reper­ regarded as part of a single stylistic class. These reclassified toire of materials and object types conspire to elude attribu­ representational elements are then explored in light of the tion to anyone particular region. Shifting the emphasis from objects on which they occur and the function of these objects artistic origination and authorship to the "social life" of ob­ within the dynamic relations of theperiod. jects leads to an examination ofsocially ascribed significance, The kingdom of Ugarit on the Mediterranean coast of which helps to illuminate the differing forms of artistic ex­ Syria (Fig. 2), which includes the sites of Ras Shamra and pression. I propose that each tradition manifests subtly idio­ Minet el-Beida, presents, among its luxury arts, a microcosm syncratic signification within the multidimensional social and of multiple artistic forms, making it a particularly informative political network of its use. case study of artistic internationalism. The formal evidence gains support from an analysis of the archaeological record Defining an "International Style" and surviving texts, which makes it possible to reconstruct The concept of a commonly shared repertoire of motifs various sociopolitical factors. Instead of sequential chrono­ found throughout the eastern Mediterranean and the Near logical divisions and contiguous geographic zones, the anal­ East has long fascinated scholars, who began to conceive of ysis reveals superimposed spheres of interaction, including this repertoire as an artistic phenomenon as early as the Downloaded by [UCL Library Services] at 12:49 21 August 2017 trade, diplomacy, and warfare; their coalescence underlies beginning of the twentieth century.' The Egyptologist Wil­ the divergent artistic expressions. Given that artistic expres­ liam Stevenson Smith first applied the term international style sion is embedded in and embodies complex social, political, to the arts of the Late Bronze Age in the 1960s. 3 According to and economic structures, then the multiple forms and ico­ Smith, the unusual combination of multiple foreign or non­ nographies of the luxury goods from Ugarit signal a richly indigenous elements characterizes such an international layered visual rhetoric. style, causing confusion as to the place ofmanufacture. Smith This conclusion should come as little surprise considering further noted that the international style occurs most com­ that in 1953 Meyer Schapiro, in his highly influential discus­ monly on objects of a "small, costly, ornamental character" sion of artistic style, wrote that "the stratification of social and attributed its emergence to the exchange of gifts be­ classes often entails a variety ofstyles, not only with respect to tween rulers of widely separated states." While most scholars the rural and urban, but within the same urban community."} accept the presence and general characteristics of an inter­ Yet the dominant approach in archaeology and ancient stud­ national style, few have considered in depth the composition ies tends toward the one-to-one mapping ofstyle to culture in of a unified corpus of objects in relation to such a style." a continuous and linear sequence. Often this arises from a Scholars tackling this phenomenon, most notably Helene paucity of material and information. In the case of the Late Kantor, in a series ofpublications from the 1940s through the Bronze Age, however, we are fortunate to possess a consider- 1960s, have wrestled with the inability to determine a locus of REDEFINING A MEDITERRANEAN "INTERNATIONAL STYLE" 7 oHllttusas HAITI ANATOLIA ~\> CYPRUS MEDITERRANEAN SEA 1 Map of eastern Mediterranean and the Near East production for individual objects and sought to map direc­ longer be attributed to a single specific regional tradition, tions of influence by tracking specific motifs back to their and they are found over several geopolitical entities. The cultural origin." An interest in revealing the cultural-cum­ application of the term international is, strictly speaking, ethnic identity of the individual maker is predicated on mod­ anachronistic during the Bronze Age, since "nations" did not ern notions of nationalism and the dominant mode of the exist according to current definitions.l' More properly, it artist's biography, in which cultural and even racial traits might be called intercultural. Nevertheless, I have retained stand as substitutes for personal characteristics. More recent the term international in this paper because it best conveys research has turned to scientific material analysis in an at­ what I see as the highly politicized use ofvisual hybridization. tempt to determine origins.7 This approach, however, can In addition, I employ a hierarchy of terms to distinguish demonstrate only the source of the material, not necessarily semantically among those formal traits ascribed to individual the location of manufacture or identity of the producer. artists, those ascribed to cultural regions, and those ascribed Given the emphasis on the moment and place of creation, a to sociopolitical sectors that are within or stretch across cul­ tactic that meets with the objects' continued resistance, stud­ tural regions. The term style is restricted to the minutiae of ies have, for the most part, overlooked distinctions among formal details, such as line, volume, and form, that can cut the individual works." Likewise, the hybrid nature of their across themes and compositions and that may be indicative of imagery, such as winged composite animals and voluted pal­ a single artist or workshop.i" The term tradition is employed mettes, has been taken as a lack of originality, a view that here as a synonym for "cultural style" so as to distinguish it tends to stifle interest in iconographic meaning." Recent clearly from personal/workshop style in the Morellian work on material culture and social history offers new ave­ sense.l" Tradition encompasses the larger domain of clus­ nues for understanding this phenomenon of artistic hy­ tered themes, compositions, material,