Chap. V Conoisseurship and Classification

This chapter briefly describes how the art of the ancient Near East has been, and could further be, the focus of processes of connoisseurship and classification. A work of classification and connoisseurship should consider principles based on the assumption that there is no type of property that may not satisfy the uniqueness condition. As style can be used as an active form of communication, it can be manipulated, like iconography, to convey information according to a specific requirement of self‐representation. In this respect, the concept of different levels of style becomes more prominent and a significant assumption in connoisseurship and classification. Neo‐Assyrian palace reliefs comprise a further class of material that has stimulated an approach based on detailed analysis of stylistic and iconographic elements useful for classification and attribution.