The new book by Dimitris Plantzos offers a comprehensive overview of ancient Greek painting through the surviving monuments. At the same time, it attempts a unique interdisciplinary study of archaeological remains through the philosophical notions and theoretical approaches of both antiquity and our time.

With the help of ancient literary sources – from Plato and Xenophon to Cicero, Pliny, Lucian, and Philostratus – the author analyzes iconographic and stylistic trends of ancient painting, while also re-examining the views of contemporary research. With frequent references to art history, anthropology, psychoanalysis, and cultural studies, the book suggests a new, groundbreaking perspective on the world of ancient Greek painting.

After a brief reference to the painting of the Aegean during the Bronze Age (Cyclades, Crete, Thera, Mycenaean Greece), the book covers the technical, stylistic, iconographic, and aesthetic developments during the Archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic periods, concluding with a study of painting in the Greco-Roman world, up to the 2nd-3rd centuries AD.

This way, not only the most significant periods of Greek painting from prehistoric to Roman times are covered, but also all the more or less known works, as well as the work of the most important painters of antiquity. The introduction to the study presents a brief overview of the materials and methods of ancient painting, while also analyzing contemporary techniques and theoretical research methods.

The text is accompanied by exhaustive color illustrations, a complete bibliography, and an index. The study The Art of Painting in the Ancient Greek World is aimed at admirers of ancient Greek art, scholars of classical antiquity, students of archaeology and art history, and every antiquity enthusiast, Greek or foreign.