Music and Image in Classical Athens

During the fifth century BC, Athens witnessed the explosion of images depicting musical performance, such as Apollo and the Muses, frisky satyrs, the poet Orpheus, youths at school, brides at weddings, and the dead at tombs. Primarily found in vase paintings, but also in sculpture and now-lost wall paintings, these images provide insight into the musical culture of the time, In this study, Sheramy Bundrick proposes that the depictions of musical performance were intimately linked to contemporary developments in the field of music itself, such as the debate over music in education, theories of musical ethos, and the growing popularity of professional musicians. Moreover, she argues that music became a visual metaphor for the harmony - or disharmony - of the city. Her book is the first to consider the broad range of musical images in the dynamic classical period, as well as their sociocultural and artistic implications.