Greek World

The catalogue of an exhibition at the Palazzo Grassi in Venice, this extraordinary album presents the Greek legacy to Western civilization. Contributors focus on the sculpture, painting, architecture, artifacts, literary culture, religious cults and philosophical questings of Magna Graecia, the Greek colonies that flourished along Italy's west coast between the eighth and sixth centuries B.C. Yet the temporal scope extends from Minoan and Mycenaean settlements, typified by Cretan palaces dating from the 16th century B.C., up through Byzantine influences on medieval art. Italian archeologist Carratelli leads an international team of 70 specialists who discuss such topics as the Celts' galvanizing contacts with the Hellenic world, the genesis of the Greek alphabet and urban planning as a systematic expression of the Greek colonizers' culture. Among the 1600 plates (600 in color) are some recent discoveries: the cargo of a Greek ship that sank in the Mediterranean around 500 B.C., a splendid bearded bronze head and the goods found in graves from Campania and Sicily. (Sept.)