Petits musées en vers. Épigramme et discours sur les collections antiques (review)

Petits musées en vers is the second monograph originating from Prioux's 2004 doctoral thesis, and its publication is to be welcomed as enthusiastically as that of Regards Alexandrins (Leuven 2007). While her first study focused on the engagement of Hellenistic epigrammatists with art and aesthetic theories of the period, this book is mainly concerned with the appearance of epigrams in the context of art collections, both real and imaginary. Its two parts each deal with three artistic/literary ensembles dating from the third century b.c. to the second century a.d. In "Anthologies peintes," the author discusses the grouping of paintings and epigrams in the "Casa degli Epigrammi" in Pompeii (29–63) and the so-called "House of Propertius" in Assisi (65–121), as well as two herms from the "Villa of Aelian" inscribed with cycles of epigrams that celebrate Homer and Menander respectively (123–40). Part 2 ("Muséographie poétique"), in turn, deals with sets of poems by Nossis (151–58), Posidippus (159–252), and Martial (253–353), which constitute a sort of fictional gallery by describing various pictures, statues, and other objets d'art.

In recent years scholars have become increasingly aware of the influence that the literary context of anthologies or single-authored libelli can have on the semantic potential of the epigrams contained within them. Prioux convincingly applies the method of contextualized reading to the text–image ensembles examined in the first two chapters. It is indeed fascinating to see how connections between individual pieces are engendered within a three-dimensional space, where the possibilities for interaction are even more manifold than on the written page (pictures on opposing walls, for instance, can be shown to relate to one another as much as juxtaposed paintings). Of particular interest, in my view, is Prioux's contention that the creator of the décor in the "Casa degli Epigrammi" may have been inspired by Meleager's editorial technique, the scenes and poems of his painted pinacotheca evoking the epigrammatic subgenres of the Garland's four books (dedicatory, funerary, epideictic, and amatory). Remarkable too is her metapoetic reading of several images, in particular that of Homer's death, which resulted from his inability to solve a riddle posed to him by fisher boys: "si l'on admet que les pêcheurs symbolisent le genre epigrammatique, le tableau central pourrait apparaître à la fois comme une célébration d'Homère et comme le manifeste d'un renoncement au style épique au profit du genre épigrammatique" (55). The master poet is, so to speak, killed by a one-line poem—a marvelous instance of epigram's insolent rivalry with epic!

In the confines of this review it is impossible to give an adequate impression of the book's numerous and complex observations. Everyone interested in Hellenistic poetry and/or ancient art will find plenty of precious insights here. What makes Prioux's work stand out is precisely her expertise in archaeology and art history on the one hand and literary criticism on the other—a rather rare combination of skills: Prioux's interpretations of pictorial ensembles are enriched by her profound knowledge of Greek and Latin literature, while her readings of e.g. Posidippus' lithika and andriantopoiika profit deeply from her archaeological background.

My sole point of criticism from a philological perspective is Prioux's claim that we only possess "une succession de florilèges" from Martial's oeuvre, which does not permit us "d'étudier, dans les details, la structure interne des livres initialement publiés par le poète" (254), the Xenia and Apophoreta being the only exceptions. In fact, various scholars have shown how artfully Martial's Epigrammaton libri XII were composed, among them Sven Lorenz, whose study Erotik und Panegyrik: Martials epigrammatische Kaiser (T...