Donohue, A.A. 1952- (Alice A. Donohue)

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Donohue, A.A. 1952- (Alice A. Donohue)

PERSONAL:

Born 1952.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Department of Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology, 101 North Merion Ave., Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, PA 19010-2899. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, PA, current professor of classical and Near Eastern archaeology and acting graduate advisor.

WRITINGS:

Xoana and the Origins of Greek Sculpture, Scholars Press (Atlanta, GA), 1988.

(Editor, with Mark D. Fullerton) Ancient Art and Its Historiography, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 2003.

Greek Sculpture and the Problem of Description, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 2005.

(Editor, with Carol C. Mattusch and Amy Brauer) Proceedings of the XVIth International Congress of Classical Archaeology, Boston, August 23-26, 2003: Common Ground: Archaeology, Art, Science, and Humanities, Oxbow Books (Oakville, CT), 2006.

SIDELIGHTS:

A.A. Donohue is a professor in the classical and Near Eastern archaeology department at Bryn Mawr College, where she teaches history and historiography of Greek and Roman art. She is also an acting graduate advisor there. In addition to her work as a professor, she has edited and written several books in her areas of expertise, including her debut work, 1988's Xoana and the Origins of Greek Sculpture, 2003's Ancient Art and Its Historiography, 2005's Greek Sculpture and the Problem of Description, and 2006's Proceedings of the XVIth International Congress of Classical Archaeology, Boston, August 23-26, 2003: Common Ground: Archaeology, Art, Science, and Humanities.

Ancient Art and Its Historiography, which Donohue edited with Mark D. Fullerton, is a collection of essays on ancient art and its historiography by various experts in the field. It is based on two colloquiums organized for the Annual Conferences of the College Art Association: 1997's "Ripeness Is All: Metaphors of the Classical Norm in Ancient Art" and 2000's "Same as It Never Was: Issues in the Historiography of Ancient Art." In a review of Ancient Art and Its Historiography, a Reference & Research Book News critic noted: "It is a welcome contribution to the history of ancient art that will spur interest in the methodological and epistemological models that most of us take for granted. In general terms, it is a must for students of ancient visual culture." The same critic also observed that "while the book is unified by common historiographic concerns, the individual chapters treat different subjects and vary in terms of mode and effectiveness of argument."

Donohue developed Greek Sculpture and the Problem of Description from her first book, Xoana and the Origins of Greek Sculpture, which analyzes the concept of the xoanon (a venerable image carved out of wood) and early Greek sculpture. Examining scholarship from the eighteenth century to the present, she analyzes the role of description in the interpretation of ancient Greek statuary by focusing on two early, well-known stone statues of draped women in Greek art: the statue dedicated by Nikandre on the island of Delos and the small-scale "Lady of Auxerre" located in the Musée du Louvre in Paris, France. The author "sets out the aims and premises of the book clearly in the first chapter. She is concerned with explicating the ways in which the intellectual interests and concerns that shaped and informed the creation of the modern discipline of classical archaeology in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries continue to have a profound effect on how we write the history of ancient art today," remarked Sheila Dillon in a review of Greek Sculpture and the Problem of Description for Art Bulletin. Dillon also stated that Donohue's "command of this intellectual history is impressive, and she has done all students of Greek art a tremendous favor not only by bringing so much of it to our attention but also by translating extended sections into English and including the original language in the footnotes." Dillon concluded in her review that "while narrowly focused on a select number of statues, Greek Sculpture and the Problem of Description so thoroughly undermines traditional approaches to the analysis of draped female statues from all periods of Greek art that the category as a whole appears ripe for reassessment. Donohue … [shows] how the historiography of Greek sculpture has direct relevance to current praxis; all who are interested in moving the study of Greek sculpture away from its obsession with chronology and the construction of master narratives based on artistic progress will profit from engaging with the issues raised in this book."