Images of Athens in the Iberian World: Study of the Iconography and Reception of Greek Materials on the Iberian Peninsula in the 4th Century BC

• Timeframe: 2010-2012
• Lead Institution: Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
• Instituciones participantes: Departamento de Historia del Arte de la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, MAN.
• Lead researcher: Carmen Sánchez Fernández. Departamento de Historia del Arte, UAM
• MAN researchers: Paloma Cabrera y Margarita Moreno Conde

This project was a study of the Greek materials imported to the Iberian Peninsula during the fourth century BC, a period not frequently studied by historical researchers in terms of the presence of Greek trade in the far western Mediterranean. The project involved a formal, iconographic and stylistic analysis of fourth-century BC Attic vases found in Spain, and the study of the Athenian workshops where they were made, the painters who decorated them and the repertoire of images covering their surfaces.

The project also examined the integration of these vases in the Iberian world, how Iberians incorporated these exotic objects into their own ritual and social customs, and the transformation of their original purposes and meanings.

The documentation collected in the course of our research allowed us to compare and contrast the way that the Greek image was traded and integrated in the Iberian Peninsula with processes in other similar Mediterranean regions, primarily Sicily, Sardinia and Macedonia. This made it possible to identify trade routes and possible intermediaries, painting a general picture of how trade was organised during the final century of the classical period.

Related publications and events