Research
of Hellenistic original. CG-H045.
The Gallery staff is committed to the study and publication of the collection of casts and to research targeted at selected categories of sculpture from the classical world. The large database for ancient sculpture created within the Research Archive for Greek and Roman Sculpture is constantly updated. It combines photographs of ancient sculpture with scholarly text and bibliography, providing important and easily accessible information (available on the Web upon application) for students and scholars.
Members of the department have individual research interests and are involved in different research projects and publications, as follows:
2nd century AD. CG-B170.
- Prof. R R R Smith, Curator
- Prof. Smith gives university lectures on classical Greek sculpture, Greek and Roman painting, and Roman imperial art, and organizes research seminars on the ancient world. He has published a number of scholarly books and articles on ancient sculpture, continues his archaeological fieldwork in Aphrodisias (Turkey) and recently authored a forthcoming volume on the portrait sculpture from the same site. His main research interests are: art and visual cultures of the ancient Mediterranean world in the Hellenistic and Roman periods; Greek and Roman sculpture and in ancient portraits and self-representation; Aphrodisias excavations and the art and archaeology of the Greek cities of the Eastern Roman Empire.
- Dr Milena Melfi, Assistant Curator
- Milena Melfi assists Prof. Smith in his research and publications and collaborates with Rune Frederiksen on the publication of the catalogue of the Cast Gallery collections. She is currently working on the publication of a volume on the sanctuaries of Asklepios in Greece and on a British Academy funded project for the edition of materials from ancient Sparta. Her main research interests are: topography and architecture of Hellenistic and Roman Greece, especially sanctuaries; the archaeology of central Crete.
- Dr Rune Frederiksen, Sackler Fellow in Classical Art and Archaeology
- Rune Frederiksen is working on the publication of the Cast Gallery catalogue, updating the existing database and shaping it into a new form aimed at a wide audience. He contributes to publications on casts and ancient sculpture and is involved in the excavation and publication of the Great Temple at Petra. His main research interests are: early Greek urbanisation; Greek and Roman architecture and monumental art; museology.
- To find out more about research carried out by the Ashmolean's curators and staff between 1999 and 2006 please download the Research Profile.
Cast Gallery Online Archives
Catalogues and Publications
Donna Kurtz, The Reception of Classical Art in Britain: An Oxford Story of Plaster Casts from the Antique (Oxford 2000).