Bryn Mawr Classical Review · 2011.02.14
“The author is thorough and I can think of no genre of Greek humour which he has overlooked, and he has been as thorough with the relevant literary evidence as with the representational.”Full review
Publications
Books, articles
and chapters.
Research on ancient visual humour, classical reception, political cartoons, caricature, disability and the history of the ancient body.
Monograph
Greek Vase-Painting and the Origins of Visual Humour
A study of visual humour in ancient Greece, bringing together archaeology, art history, classics and the anthropology of humour. The book examines comic imagery not simply as entertainment, but as evidence for social behaviour, politics, religion, gender and popular culture.
140+drawings and photographs
2009first publication
Reception
Reviews of the book
Selected assessments of Greek Vase-Painting and the Origins of Visual Humour. Boardman’s review is shown below; six further reviews can be opened if wanted.
View 6 more reviews
American Journal of Archaeology 115.1 · 2011
“This broad survey of scenes of visual humor will serve as a valuable starting point for further research. The extensive lists and citations will make the book an aid for further work on humor and should encourage more synthesis and refinement of theoretical approaches to visual humor.”Full review
Choice Review
“Caricature, parody, overt sexual imagery, drunkenness, gender stereotyping, and the deconstruction of myths are investigated, categorized, and interpreted with exemplary thoroughness and psychological subtlety.”Full review
Arctos 46
“Until recently, the study of ancient humour has been based on literary evidence… Mitchell’s book is the first comprehensive study of visual humour in ancient Greece.”Full review
Revue archéologique 51 · 2011
“Un contributo chiaro e prezioso, in alcuni casi nuovo, in altri di conferma, sugli elementi che provocavano il riso negli antichi Greci.”Full review
Classical World 104.2 · 2011
“The book is an important standard work and will be a basis for all further study of this fascinating aspect of Ancient Greek culture.”Full review
Journal of Hellenic Studies 131 · 2011
“His generous division of the material makes for an effortless read, free from the burden of excessive secondary sources and citations.”Full review
Books & catalogues
Edited and exhibition publications
2024
CatalogueCities of Lost Memory. Catalogue of the exhibition “Cities of Lost Memory, artworks by Alexandre Mitchell”, Full Circle, Brussels, 3 February–25 April 2024, 64 pp.
2022
Edited volumePerikles Christodoulou & Alexandre G. Mitchell (eds.), When Walls Talk! Posters – Promotion, Propaganda and Protest. Temporary exhibition catalogue, House of European History, Brussels. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, 248 pp.
Forthcoming
Current publications
Work that has been accepted or is in press. Research still in preparation belongs on the Research page rather than in the bibliography.
Forthcoming
Chapter“Laughter in Clay: The Archaeology of Humour and Branding on Greek Vases”, in Pierre Destrée, Ralph Rosen & Arnaud Zucker (eds.), A Companion to Ancient Greek Humour, Cambridge University Press.
Explores comic imagery within the commercial world of Greek pottery, asking how humour, distinctive visual motifs and workshop identity could help vase-painters differentiate their products and attract buyers.
2000–2023
Articles & chapters
A chronological bibliography with DOI, publisher or reading links where a stable version is available.
2023
“La réception de l’antiquité gréco-romaine dans les dessins de presse en Chine et à Singapour”, in Yue Yue and Jean-Claude Gardes (eds.), La perception de la Chine dans la caricature occidentale, Ridiculosa [hors-série], 1–12.
2022
2022
2021
2018
“Les handicaps et malformations à l’époque de Galien”, in Au temps de Galien, exhibition catalogue, Musée royal de Mariemont, 175–180.
2016
2016
“The Hellenistic turn in bodily representations: venting anxiety in terracotta figurines”, in C. Laes (ed.), Disability in Antiquity, Routledge, ch. 13, 182–196.
2016
“Drôles de vases grecs”, L’Histoire, no. 423, 72–75.
2015
2014
“La caricatura nell’antichità”, in L. Lorusso and E. Fazzi (eds.), Il sorriso della mente: la caricatura nella storia delle neuroscienze, Pavia: Edizioni Santa Caterina, 13–31.
2014
“Greek Visual Humor”, in S. Attardo (ed.), Encyclopedia of Humor Studies: A Social History, Sage, 271–275.
2013
2013
Earlier publications · 2000–2010
2010
“Grotesque terracotta in the Greco-Roman world: the role of caricature in visual humour, of theatrical masks in the realm of Comedy and of portraits of deformity in ancient medical centres”, Rivista Italiana di Neurobiologia.
2008
“Greek gods and mortals”, in R. Wace (ed.), In Our Own Image: Gods and Mortals in Ancient Art, London.
2007
“Ancient Greek visual puns: a case study”, in S. Attardo and D. Popa (eds.), New Approaches to the Linguistics of Humor, Galați.
2005
“www.beazley.ox.ac.uk”, in A. Lambrakis and V. Lezine (eds.), État de la publication scientifique dans le domaine de l’archéologie, des arts et traditions populaires, Athens.
2004
2002
Comic Pictures in Greek Vase-Painting: Humour in the Polis and the Dionysian World, in the Sixth and the Fifth Centuries B.C. D.Phil thesis, University of Oxford.
2000
“Une outre outrée: parodie et jeu iconographique à propos d’une coupe de Leipzig”, KTEMA 25, 115–122.
Reviews
Book reviews by Alexandre G. Mitchell
Selected scholarly reviews written since 2008.
2024
Review of A. Meintani, The Grotesque Body in Graeco-Roman Antiquity, The Classical Review 74.1, 230–231.
2023
Review of A. Gangloff, V. Huet and C. Vendries (eds.), La notion de caricature dans l’Antiquité. Textes et images, Latomus 82.2.
2018
Review of D. Dutsch and A. Suter (eds.), Ancient Obscenities: Their Nature and Use in the Ancient Greek and Roman Worlds, L’Antiquité Classique 87.
2010
Review of D. Walsh, Distorted Ideals in Greek Vase-Painting: The World of Mythological Burlesque, The Classical Review 60.2, 561–562.
2008
Review of J. Clarke, Looking at Laughter: Humor, Power, and Transgression in Roman Visual Culture, 100 B.C.–A.D. 250, Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2008.09.55.
Published references are linked to DOI, publisher or available reading copies where possible. Research still in preparation is intentionally kept on the Research page.