Neo-Attic

Neo-Attic is a classicizing style of Greek sculpture, especially reliefs, produced mainly in Athens during the late Hellenistic and Roman periods. It adapts earlier Greek forms for contemporary patrons and settings.

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Attic sculpture: Sculpture made in Attica, the region of Greece centered on Athens. Neo-Attic artists drew on Attic sculptural traditions while reviving earlier styles.
Roman copies of Greek sculptures: Roman-period reproductions or adaptations of Greek sculptures, often made in marble from earlier models. Neo-Attic workshops similarly translated admired Greek forms into works for Roman audiences.
Roman sarcophagi: Stone coffins used in the Roman world, often decorated with mythological or biographical reliefs. Their mythological imagery shared Neo-Attic interest in classical figures and compositions.
Athens in the Hellenistic period: The history and culture of Athens from the death of Alexander the Great through the Roman conquest of Greece. Athens remained the principal production center associated with Neo-Attic sculpture.
Borghese Vase: A monumental marble krater from the first century BCE, decorated with dancing figures in relief. Its classicizing figures and composition exemplify the taste associated with Neo-Attic sculpture.
Classical Greek sculpture: Greek sculpture of the fifth and fourth centuries BCE, known for idealized form and balanced composition. Its forms and artistic authority supplied major models for Neo-Attic work.
Eclecticism in art: An artistic approach that selects and combines forms from different styles or periods. Neo-Attic works often joined borrowed figures and motifs into newly composed scenes.
Roman villas: Country residences in the Roman world, ranging from working estates to elaborate elite retreats. Villa interiors and gardens offered settings for Greek-style relief decoration.
Roman Greece: The Greek territories governed by Rome from the second century BCE onward. Roman political rule reshaped the patrons and markets for Athenian workshops.
Puteoli reliefs: A group of Roman-period marble reliefs from Puteoli, notable for their adaptations of Greek sculptural models. They demonstrate how Greek-derived relief designs circulated beyond Athens.