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Dr. Martin Kovacs


 b1 martin kovacs.jpg

Academic Résumé

  • 2000-2006: studied Classical Archaeology, Ancient History and Christian Archaeology and Byzantine Art History in Göttingen, Cologne and again in Göttingen (degree received: M.A.)
  • 2007-2011: doctoral graduate studies; dissertation title: “Kaiser, Senatoren und Gelehrte – Untersuchungen zum spätantiken männlichen Privatporträt“ (defense on February 4, 2011)
  • 2011/12: travel scholarship from the German Archaeological Institute
  • Since September 2012: research associate at the SFB 948 “Heroes – Heroizations – Heroisms” at Albert-Ludwigs-University Freiburg (Project B1)

 

Publications

 

SFB Project

In archaeological research images of Alexander the Great still present a challenge. Not only are the basic questions such as naming, dating and classifying contentious, but questions regarding the semantic content of Alexander portraits from the fourth until the first century BC as well. This conflict relates to the essential core problems of the SFB 948. In an archaeological as well as cultural and historical analysis these numerous images will be presented as copies of the great Macedonian king and references to the ‘heroic code’ of Alexander stylization will be made. In this diachronic examination the focus will be on the different adaptations, changes and conjunctures of these images.

For this analysis an examination of the imitatio Alexandri in Hellenistic and Roman portraiture (from the third century BC to the fourth century AD) will also be undertaken. The iconographic and hermeneutic clarification of this phenomenon will take into account all facets of the image representation such as the reference to individual, characteristic, iconographic formulae (e.g. the typical anastolé) or, for instance, the evocation of a unique Alexander dynamic in specific statue or body types. The cultural and historical significance of the person Alexander for Hellenism and the Roman Empire is also a central question of the project. What information could an Alexander-like stylization contain and through this adaptation what meaning(s) were in turn connected with Alexander himself as a long honored and yet controversial character?