Manufacturing miniaturisation: The making of miniature deities in the GrecoRoman world

“小型化”一词意味着一个过程：减少的过程，而不是简单地制造小事的过程。通过专注于微型化在代表神灵方面的作用，我将研究这个过程，就像它在希腊和罗马古代所表现的那样，提出关于这个过程如何发生以及为什么发生的关键问题，以及答案是否随着时间的推移保持不变。在过去的15年里，古代对微小物体的兴趣迅速增长，学者们建立在苏珊·斯图尔特(Susan Stewart)的文学理论(1992)和阿尔弗雷德·盖尔(Alfred Gell)的人类学理论(1998)的基础上。值得注意的例子包括苏珊·阿尔科克关于“小事”日益重要的笔记(2006)和麦晋桁对“小事的艺术”的世界研究(2007)，到更专业、更关注古代的作品，如世界考古学特刊(2015)探索“微型化”。尽管所有这些案例研究提供了令人信服的快照，但我们仍然缺乏一个全面的概念性机制来理解微型化标本的实际作用。此外，这种分析没有充分考虑到古代复制的研究(例如米兰达·马文(Miranda Marvin)(2008)和塞尔瓦托·塞蒂斯和安娜·安吉索拉(Anna Anguissola)(2015))，尤其重要的是，许多纪念性雕像只能通过它们的微型复制品才能知道。在一个完全机械复制的时代，复制既是重复的问题，也是解释的问题。正如Jennifer Trimble(2011)所探索的那样，没有必要让“复制品”看起来与他们所引用的物品一模一样；相反，雕塑家们利用一套“关系美学”来达到他们想要的目标。“认知度”是我们的目标。小型化真的起到作用了吗？这个项目将复制和小型化的主题通过观察神灵的框架统一起来，探讨是什么让小型化变得如此完美。从不列颠到巴克特里亚，从古代到古代晚期，这个项目将执行Jas Elsner(2020)所说的对神的综合微缩处理的“概念性重物”。利用物质文化和从Posidippus到Pliny的文学来源，我旨在探索如何通过收缩的方式将与神的形象相遇的焦点从顿悟转移到精致的愉悦。对于视觉数据，我从希腊化时期之前开始，将所学到的教训应用到一切东西上，从瑙克拉提斯的微型雪花石膏库罗到亚历山大时代出现并在庞贝桌面上找到家的众神的青铜雕像。这些微型神像，无论它们是作为虔诚的艺术品、纪念品，还是两者兼而有之，都将历时地进行探索，试图发现是什么驱使了对这种装置的需求。雕刻的宝石也提供了一个富有成效的途径，来比较从青铜时代开始使用的微型代表在不同时间的功能，以及他们自己参与复制的功能。通过这一点，我的作品将探索理解微缩模型所需的文化背景，并试图动摇“微缩模型诞生于需要而不是意志”的想法。(Bartman，1992，第147页)

The term "miniaturisation" implies a process: the process of reduction rather than of simply making small things. By focusing in on the role of miniaturisation in representing divine beings, I will study this process as it played out in Greek and Roman antiquity, asking crucial questions about how and why this process occurs, and whether the answers remain the same over time.There has been a burgeoning interest in tiny objects in the ancient world over the last fifteen years, with scholars building both on the literary theory of Susan Stewart (1992) and the anthropological theory of Alfred Gell (1998). Notable examples range from Susan Alcock's note on the growing importance of "small things" (2006), and John Mack's world study of "the art of small things" (2007), to more specialised, ancient-focused works, such as the World Archaeology special issue (2015) exploring 'Miniaturization'.For all that these case studies provide compelling snapshots, we still lack an overarching conceptual apparatus for understanding specimens of miniaturisation in action. Moreover, this analysis is insufficiently keyed into studies of replication in antiquity (e.g. Miranda Marvin (2008) and Salvatore Settis and Anna Anguissola (2015)) and, especially crucial as many monumental statues are only known through their miniature copies.In an age before fully mechanical reproduction, replication was as much a matter of interpretation as of repetition. As Jennifer Trimble (2011) has explored, there was no need for "copies" to look identical to the objects that they referenced; instead, sculptors worked with a set of "relational aesthetics" to meet their desired aims. "Recognisability" was the goal. Did miniaturisation make a difference?Unifying the themes of replication and miniaturisation through the framework of looking at the gods, this project will examine what makes miniaturisation so bonnes à penser. Spanning from Britannia to Bactria, from the Archaic period to Late Antiquity, this project will perform what Jas Elsner (2020) terms the "conceptual heavy-lifting" for a comprehensive treatment of the gods in miniature.Utilising both material culture, and literary sources ranging from Posidippus to Pliny, I aim to explore how the focus of an encounter with an image of a god shifts from epiphany to exquisite delight by means of shrinking. For visual data, I begin before the Hellenistic period, applying the lessons learned to everything from the miniature alabaster kouroi from Naucratis to the bronze statuettes of the gods which came to prominence in the age of Alexander and find their home on the table-tops of Pompeii. These miniature gods, whether they function as devotional artefacts, souvenirs, or both, will be explored diachronically, seeking to discover what drove the need for such devices. Engraved gemstones also provide a productive avenue to compare the function of miniature representations across time, having been in use from the Bronze Age onwards, and themselves participating in replication. Through this, my work will explore the cultural context required for understanding the miniature, and seek to destabilise the idea that the "miniature was born out of necessity rather than volition." (Bartman, 1992, p. 147)