The graphic medium and artistic style: Thomas Hope (1769-1831) and two-dimensional encounters with Greek vases

The chapter analyses Thomas Hope’s graphic engagements with ancient Greek vases. It treats them according to style, dealing first with paintings in the picturesque style, and second with engravings in published books in the neoclassical outline style. The analysis aims to show the different effects of presenting Greek vases in these two artistic styles; and to explore the way that the publications, though finished products in their own right, were also intended to serve as models for further use by painters in new compositions, and by furniture and fashion designers. The chapter therefore investigates how these graphic encounters with Greek vases actively mediated between original artefacts and further two- or three-dimensional artwork. In so doing a case is made for the crucial role played by graphic images in creative receptions of Greek vases at a time when the boundaries between scholarship, archaeology, and contemporary design were fluid.