The Infinite Image Art, Time and the Aesthetic Dimension in Antiquity

In The Infinite Image Zainab Bahrani makes a case for art and the aesthetic dimension being present in antiquity, particularly in Mesopotamia, and more generally in the ancient near Eastern and Mediterranean world. Such objects were seen in those civilizations as transcending time, becoming the focus of collective memory and reaching out to the infinite. This is contrary to accepted Western scholarship, which drew a line between the birth of art” in pre-Platonic antiquity and the ancient world. In the second half of the twentieth century art came to be defined as a modern or even Western category. Yet earlier in the 20th century artists like Alberto Giacometti and Henry Moore and intellectuals such as Georges Bataille were captivated by the ancient sculptures they encountered newly displayed in Western Museums.