A digital edition of Greek and Roman Sculptors’ signatures (323 BCE-138 CE)

ended

SculpSi aims at reconstructing the lives and the works of Greek and Roman sculptors between the Hellenistic period and the reign of Hadrian (323 BCE-138 CE) in the areas corresponding to Roman Italy and the provinces of Achaia and Asia. SculpSi focusses on sculptors’ signatures, taking them as a source of information and a starting point for reconstructing their professional careers: signatures open up many research paths that have yet remained unexploited: their wording, their position on statues or bases, palaeographic dating, language and dialect, etc. They can also help us to reconstruct the work of individual sculptors, attribute them specific artworks and track their mobilities in the Mediterranean. SculpSi will be the first systematic study on sculptors’ signatures between 323 CE and 138 CE: the analysis will be carried out on a corpus of ca. 550 signatures, and will be based on bibliographic data and, whenever relevant, autoptic study; such data will be used to feed Polycles, a prosopographic database already created by the LIMC team at my host institution, but still awaiting launching. The project breaks down disciplinary barriers by combining art history, epigraphy, archaeology, and digital humanities and posing theoretical questions (e.g. role of the artist within society, the idea of authorship) which go well beyond Classical studies. The database -only one of the research products of Sculpsi- will constitute a perennial gate for scholars and students of several disciplines, giving access to data scattered in different parts of Europe and beyond and to the first English and French translations of many inscriptions. Besides being trained in digital humanities, the researcher will develop a unique expertise in Epigraphy and ancient Art History, filling a gap between disciplines which rarely communicate. Collaborations with international museums and academic institutions will open up several opportunities for the researcher, both in France and abroad.