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WORK TITLE: American Arcadia
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE:
CITY:
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http://www.art.csulb.edu/faculty/profile/index.php?fullname=Holliday_Peter&part=bio&pkey=39 * https://global.oup.com/academic/product/american-arcadia-9780190256517?cc=us&lang=en&# * http://www.art.csulb.edu/faculty/profile/index.php?fullname=Holliday_Peter&part=intro&pkey=39
RESEARCHER NOTES:LC control no.: n 89642284
LCCN Permalink: https://lccn.loc.gov/n89642284
HEADING: Holliday, Peter James
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100 1_ |a Holliday, Peter James
670 __ |a nuc89-72445: His The origins of Roman historical relief sculpture, c1983 |b (hdg. on NjP rept.: Holliday, Peter James; usage: Peter James Holliday)
670 __ |a Parker, J.H. The fascination with the past, c1991: |b CIP t.p. (Peter J. Holliday) data sheet (b. 12/14/52) author fact sheet (Ph.D., Dept. of Hist. of Art, Yale Univ.; assist. prof., Dept. of Art, Calif. St. Univ., San Bernardino)
952 __ |a *bt26 042 02-06-91
953 __ |a ne13 |b bt26
PERSONAL
Male.
EDUCATION:Columbia University, B.A.; Yale University, M.A. and Ph.D.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Historian, writer, editor, and professor. California State University, San Bernardino, assistant professor, Department of Art; California State University, Long Beach, professor of the history of art and classical archaeology.
AWARDS:Awarded postdoctoral support from the American Academy in Rome, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, J. Paul Getty Trust, and National Endowment for the Humanities.
WRITINGS
Contributor of articles to scholarly publications, including Art Bulletin, American Journal of Archaeology, and Etruscan Studies.
SIDELIGHTS
Peter J. Holliday is a historian of classical art and archaeology, writer, and editor. He is also professor of the history of art and classical archaeology at California State University, Long Beach. An academic studying Roman and Etruscan visual art, he has received postdoctoral support from the American Academy in Rome, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, J. Paul Getty Trust, and National Endowment for the Humanities. Holliday researches the reception, influence, and construction the classical past has had on later cultures. He has published articles about Hellenistic conventions, Etruscan and other Italic traditions, Roman monuments, and cultural practice in such publications as Art Bulletin, American Journal of Archaeology, and Etruscan Studies. Holliday holds a bachelor’s degree from Columbia University and a master’s and Ph.D. from Yale University.
Holliday edited and contributed to the 1993 Narrative and Event in Ancient Art, part of the Cambridge Studies in New Art History and Criticism series. In a series of essays, the book explores narrative representation and ancient narrative structures using major monuments of antiquity, such as the Pergamon Altar, the Apollo Belvedere, and the François Tomb. Contributors focus on distinctive objects created by a variety of ancient societies to show the interplay between text and linguistic structure, time and style used in narratives, static versus sequential images, and ways observers can interact with art.
In 2002, Holliday published The Origins of Roman Historical Commemoration in the Visual Arts, in which he discusses the reception and appropriation of artistic sources and how one culture interprets and utilizes the artistic practices of another. Drawing on classical literary sources, recent archaeological discoveries, and theoretical debates, Holliday reveals that at the beginning of the Roman Empire, people began to create a sense of historical commemoration through art in order to recognize Roman achievements, primarily those of the aristocracy. The Romans built a narrative through artistic images and exploited the greatness of the Roman elite, which helped justify Roman conquest of lesser nations. Holliday also analyzes how Romans created political significance through art and how they interacted with the artistic achievements of the Greeks, Etruscan, and Italian peoples.
Holliday next published the 2016 American Arcadia, a guide to the ancient world’s influence on Southern California and contribution to American identity. Holliday contends that from the beginning of California’s founding, people chose to visually and culturally craft their region using the rhetoric and images of classical antiquity. Ancient artistic imagery evocative of ancient Greece and Rome was used in marketing to draw Yankees away from the industrial East and toward California as an Arcadian paradise. As time went by and gentleman farms turned into urban areas, city planners used examples from classical antiquity to create villas and utopian communities.
A few examples are California’s state seal, which features the Roman goddess Minerva, and the town of Pomona, named after the Roman goddess of fruit, not to mention Hollywood’s spectacle with movies like Ben-Hur and Cleopatra. Holliday covers a variety of topics, such as architecture (the Getty Villa and Hearst Castle), fine art, film, sculpture, religion and spiritualism, landscape architecture, water policy, and aqueducts. He also showcases artistic contributions from well-known figures, such as the wealthy William Randolph Hearst and Andrew Carnegie, writer John Muir, and Mexican painter Diego Rivera.
In an interview with Annelisa Stephan online at the Iris, Holliday talked about his research for the book: “For me the most enjoyable aspect of research is when I begin to make connections, to discover some totally insignificant details that have a tangential link to something else.” Critics recognized Holliday’s quality research. “The author’s research is that of a master scholar, translating mountainous amounts of knowledge into fascinating parallel chronicles,” noted Douglas F. Smith in Library Journal. A Publishers Weekly contributor commented: “Well-researched and all-encompassing, this is a thoughtful analysis of how contemporary Californian culture came to be.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Library Journal, May 1, 2016, Douglas F. Smith, “Holliday, Peter J.: American Arcadia: California and the Classical Tradition,” p. 67.
Publishers Weekly, May 2, 2016, review of American Arcadia: California and the Classical Tradition, p. 45.
ONLINE
California State University Long Beach Web site, http://www.art.csulb.edu/ (March 1, 2017), author profile.
Iris, https://blogs.getty.edu/ (September 8, 2016), Annelisa Stephan, “Talking Greco-Roman L.A. with Art Historian Peter J. Holliday,” author interview.
American Arcadia: California and the Classical Tradition
Publishers Weekly.
263.18 (May 2, 2016): p45.
COPYRIGHT 2016 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
American Arcadia: California and the Classical Tradition
Peter J. Holliday. Oxford Univ., $45 (432p) ISBN 978-0-19-025651-7
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
Holliday (The Origins of Roman Historical Commemoration in the Visual Arts) catalogs and examines the many ways in which classicism has
influenced visual culture, architecture, and society in California. Writing from a place of personal interest, California native Holliday, a professor
of the history of art and classical archaeology at California State University, Long Beach, describes the importance of the Roman classical
civilization in early American society and traces its influence on California, where Arcadian imagery was used to sell the state to outsiders and to
help develop its identity in contrast to "the dense 'industrial cities of the East and Midwest." Holliday discusses film, architecture, landscape
painting, agriculture, water policy, and even fitness trends and spiritualism. Many noteworthy figures who helped cement the idea of California as
an Arcadian paradise (intentionally or not) are also taken up, including writer John Muir, Mexican painter Diego Rivera, and public intellectual
Charles Fletcher Lummis, who advocated for the preservation of California's missions. In the last chapter, Holliday reflects on contemporary
issues that stand in stark contrast against the concept of California as blissful utopia, namely urban sprawl, industry, and drought. Well-researched
and all-encompassing, this is a thoughtful analysis of how contemporary Californian culture came to be. Photos. (June)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"American Arcadia: California and the Classical Tradition." Publishers Weekly, 2 May 2016, p. 45+. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA452884032&it=r&asid=1eefef323aa84099bfd7dddfaa4c215e. Accessed 5 Feb. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A452884032
2/5/2017 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1486357104101 2/2
Holliday, Peter J.: American Arcadia: California and the
Classical Tradition
Douglas F. Smith
Library Journal.
141.8 (May 1, 2016): p67.
COPYRIGHT 2016 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.libraryjournal.com/
Full Text:
Holliday, Peter J. American Arcadia: California and the Classical Tradition. Oxford Univ. Jun. 2016.432p. illus. notes. bibliog. index. ISBN
9780190256517. $45. FINE ARTS
Tales of California's settlement and expansion since the Gold Rush in the late 19th century have long been infused by a combination of
hucksterish boosterism and fabrication--notably, the romance of its "Spanish" missions. In this engaging history, Holliday (art & archaeology,
California State Univ., Long Beach) opens a wider vista into the Golden State's persona by focusing on manifestations of Greco-Roman antiquity
crafted into the area's physical and psychological landscapes. The author's research is that of a master scholar, translating mountainous amounts
of knowledge into fascinating parallel chronicles that cover architecture, urban planning, aqueducts, and cinema. Opening with a farcical account
of the creation of the pretentious state seal design, he moves on to themes such as the impact of the City Beautiful movement on civic design and
the peculiarly Californian urge to refashion the human body according to classical ideals. In a chapter limning the "heroic" architecture
underwritten by private capital, Holliday describes the appearance of libraries in California cityscapes funded by Andrew Carnegie and built
according to "the Carnegie formula." Not above colorful digressions, Holliday tells of evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson's faked kidnapping,
and L.A.'s first-ever "trial of the century," of industrialist Griffith J. Griffith for attempted murder. VERDICT An eminent and absorbing
contribution to the literature of California--Douglas F. Smith, Oakland P.L.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Smith, Douglas F. "Holliday, Peter J.: American Arcadia: California and the Classical Tradition." Library Journal, 1 May 2016, p. 67. General
OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA450998876&it=r&asid=e7dda4cf872585d38e88912a9ebfcb9c. Accessed 5 Feb.
2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A450998876
http://www.art.csulb.edu/faculty/profile/index.php?fullname=Holliday_Peter&part=bio&pkey=39
People & Places
Talking Greco-Roman L.A. with Art Historian Peter J. Holliday
Greco-Roman influence abounds in Southern California, if you know where to look. Peter J. Holliday just wrote the book on the subject
ANNELISA STEPHAN | SEPTEMBER 8, 2016 | 6 MIN READ
Talking Greco-Roman L.A. with Art Historian Peter J. Holliday
The Getty Villa in Malibu, completed in 1974, is modeled after an ancient Roman countryside home in Herculaneum, Italy.
Oscar Wilde once wrote that California is “very Italy, without the art.” As art historian Peter J. Holliday discovered in writing his new book American Arcadia: California and the Classical Tradition, ancient Greece and Rome are everywhere in our state. Consider place names like Pomona, Roman goddess of fruit, or Arcadia, verdant paradise of Virgil and Horace. Minerva, the Roman goddess of wisdom and war, presides over our state seal. Even our motto, “Eureka,” comes from ancient Greece—it’s mathematician Archimedes’ famous exclamation, “I’ve found it!”
And that’s not even to mention the many monuments—Hearst Castle, the Huntington, the Getty Villa, L.A. City Hall—that take inspiration directly from ancient Greek or Roman models. Holliday comes to speak at the Getty Villa on October 5 about the surprisingly prevalent classical influence in the Southland—that’s L.A. writ large, from San Simeon to San Diego. We asked him to fill in the blank on a few tidbits from his book, and his life as a historian and professor of classical art and archaeology.
Art historian Peter J. Holliday wearing a suit and standing against a landscape at the Getty Center
Peter J. Holliday at the Getty Center. Photo: Marc Harnly. All rights reserved
Favorite discovery made while researching your book, American Arcadia: After giving public lectures related to the material in this book, people have frequently come up to me to share stories about their memories and experiences of the people and places I just discussed. It’s like a living oral history project, providing a font of information you would never find in books.
American Arcadia book cover
Holliday’s book American Arcadia explores California’s debt to the ancient world. (Oxford University Press, 2016).
Most memorable story revealed in the book: So many colorful characters make an appearance in the book; it’s hard to choose one! But I suppose most people might find the origins of Griffith Park surprising. In 1882 Griffith J. Griffith, a Welshman who made his fortune in mining, acquired about 4,000 acres of the old Rancho Los Feliz land grant. In 1903, while vacationing in Santa Monica, the supposed teetotaler shot his wife while he was in a drunken rage. The shot did not kill Christina, but it did leave her disfigured. In what was the first of Los Angeles’s numerous “trials of the century,” Christina was granted a divorce on the grounds of cruelty, the decree being made in the record time of four-and-a-half minutes. In 1904 Griffith was forced to sell more than 60 acres of his Los Feliz property for $36,000 to settle a lawsuit brought by his ex-wife. In December 1896 he donated 3,015 acres for a public park, calling it “a Christmas present” to the people of Los Angeles. That gift was simply part of a major public relations ploy.
Most fun I had while writing the book: For me the most enjoyable aspect of research is when I begin to make connections, to discover some totally insignificant details that have a tangential link to something else. For example, Billy Wilkerson, founder of the Hollywood Reporter and a notable figure on the Sunset Strip, originally began the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas, until Bugsy Siegel “took over.” Wilkerson engaged George Russell of Russell and Samaniego, who had collaborated with Charles Selkirk on developing Sunset Plaza. Russell’s partner Eduardo Samaniego’s brother was an actor better known by his screen name, Ramon Novarro. Thus from the very beginning we find a series of unexpected links between Hollywood and Las Vegas.
Aimee Semple McPherson, February 14, 1927
Aimee Semple McPherson, February 14, 1927. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, npcc-16474.
Most delicious character—hero, scamp, or villain: Aimee Semple McPherson—Sister Aimee—covers all those bases, and more. She preached against the excesses of the Jazz Age, but every service was a spectacle performed for a congregation living in the entertainment capital of the world. Scandal continually shadowed her personal life, so she frequently based her sermons on her own trials and tribulations. She emphasized the love of God, and eschewed the fire and brimstone sermons popular with her peers.
She racially integrated her services, fostered ecumenical outreach and inclusion, fed thousands during the Depression, and worked tirelessly for the war effort during World War II. After relishing the fall of so many corrupt evangelists in our own day, it would be easy to mock her; but I come away much like Carey McWilliams did: admiring her for all the selfless work she accomplished.
Most surprising adaptation of ancient Greece or Rome in California: The copy of the Mausoleum of Halikarnassos atop the Los Angeles City Hall. It was common practice to adapt versions of historical architecture to house the various machinery (water tower, elevator apparatus, and such) necessitated by the height of early skyscrapers. So few people recognize the Mausoleum as the source here until it is pointed out to them, and it draws attention to how many other examples of the creative use of antiquity we “see” every day but remain unaware of. It also underscores how tedious and boring the flat-topped towers of late 20th-century L.A. are.
Vintage postcard showing L.A. city hall
Los Angeles City Hall, completed in 1928, is capped by a ziggurat-style structure inspired by the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus. Postcard dated 1930–45 from the Boston Public Library, Print Department, CC BY 2.0
Favorite classically influenced California building: There are so many classically influenced structures in California that I love, but if I had to choose a favorite it might be the house William Tanner designed in Los Feliz for film director Dorothy Arzner and choreographer Marion Morgan, with landscaping designed by Florence Yoch. It’s not an attempt at recreating an actual structure like the Getty Villa, and it’s much more modest than the fantastic Hearst Castle. In spite of several changes and renovations, you can still get a sense of the personalities of both the patrons and the designers, four profoundly creative people who each drew upon classical antiquity to fashion a truly modern place and identity.
The Greek-inspired Arzner-Morgan house in Los Feliz
The Greek Revival–style Arzner-Morgan house in Los Feliz. Photo: Peter J. Holliday. All rights reserved
Least favorite classically influenced California building: Any of the “mega-mansions” blighting older neighborhoods throughout the Southland. Attaching overscaled balustrades and florid columns to a façade does not evoke the “noble simplicity and quiet grandeur” of classical antiquity. A couple of Sundays ago I dared myself to go into an open house at one built on spec. Like most of these eyesores, it was built literally lot-to-lot. In this particular case the only way for the pool cleaner and gardeners to reach the back yard was to follow a path through the living room, kitchen and family room, and then back again. No amount of faux-marble adornment can make up for bad design.
Weirdest classically influenced California building: The Mount Olympus housing tract off Laurel Canyon. When I call it weird, I am not being pejorative or condescending. I love it. In fact, it is sad that so many people there are remodeling their houses and removing the stucco columns, cypress trees, and other bits of classical ornamentation. I hope a few will remain untouched, and that some of the fountains placed at the intersections will survive our prolonged drought. Mount Olympus captures another, lesser-known face of L.A. in the swinging sixties.
Mt. Olympus sign in Laurel Canyon
The unmistakable Mt. Olympus sign in Laurel Canyon. Photo: Peter J. Holliday. All rights reserved
The Getty Villa in a sentence: A special place that offers continuing pleasure and inspiration to both scholar and layperson.
Caesars Palace in a word: Camp. High camp. Okay, it takes more than a word! Perhaps this anecdote can capture Caesars for me. One December afternoon in 1976 I was flying home from New York for Christmas break. During the flight LAX was shut down due to heavy fog. We were diverted to McCarran, where it was eventually determined that the airline would put us up at a hotel. About 2:30 a.m. our shuttle bus drove past the brightly lit fountains leading to the main lobby at Caesars. As we got off the bus (mind you, our bags were still on the plane), a speaker fitted into a gilded Augustus of Prima Porta announced: “Hail! Caesar welcomes you to his palace! The white zone is for the loading and unloading of passengers only.” Oh, and we all got a wake up call at 5:00, not long after finally settling into our rooms. Bleary fatigue, however it is induced, is the only way to appreciate Vegas.
Favorite movie set in ancient Greece or Rome: The original 1925 Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ. Directed by Fred Niblo, script by June Mathis, and a cast with Ramon Novarro, Francis X. Bushman, and May McAvoy. It’s one of the great silent spectacles, and with luck you can find a showing featuring a print with the original colored tints and restored Technicolor scenes.
Best part of being an art historian of the classical world: I get to immerse myself in studying material that I love, and learning from colleagues who share that love.
Richard Burton as Mark Antony or Kirk Douglas as Spartacus? Pace Brando as Marc Antony, but Hollywood has taught us that only Brits can play Roman aristocrats. Actually, I’d go with Laurence Olivier as Crassus in Spartacus. They used the Neptune Pool at Hearst Castle as the set for his villa. That is living!
American Arcadia: California and the Classical Tradition
Publishers Weekly.
263.18 (May 2, 2016): p45.
COPYRIGHT 2016 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
American Arcadia: California and the Classical Tradition
Peter J. Holliday. Oxford Univ., $45 (432p) ISBN 978-0-19-025651-7
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
Holliday (The Origins of Roman Historical Commemoration in the Visual Arts) catalogs and examines the many ways in which classicism has
influenced visual culture, architecture, and society in California. Writing from a place of personal interest, California native Holliday, a professor
of the history of art and classical archaeology at California State University, Long Beach, describes the importance of the Roman classical
civilization in early American society and traces its influence on California, where Arcadian imagery was used to sell the state to outsiders and to
help develop its identity in contrast to "the dense 'industrial cities of the East and Midwest." Holliday discusses film, architecture, landscape
painting, agriculture, water policy, and even fitness trends and spiritualism. Many noteworthy figures who helped cement the idea of California as
an Arcadian paradise (intentionally or not) are also taken up, including writer John Muir, Mexican painter Diego Rivera, and public intellectual
Charles Fletcher Lummis, who advocated for the preservation of California's missions. In the last chapter, Holliday reflects on contemporary
issues that stand in stark contrast against the concept of California as blissful utopia, namely urban sprawl, industry, and drought. Well-researched
and all-encompassing, this is a thoughtful analysis of how contemporary Californian culture came to be. Photos. (June)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"American Arcadia: California and the Classical Tradition." Publishers Weekly, 2 May 2016, p. 45+. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA452884032&it=r&asid=1eefef323aa84099bfd7dddfaa4c215e. Accessed 5 Feb. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A452884032
---
2/5/2017 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1486357104101 2/2
Holliday, Peter J.: American Arcadia: California and the
Classical Tradition
Douglas F. Smith
Library Journal.
141.8 (May 1, 2016): p67.
COPYRIGHT 2016 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.libraryjournal.com/
Full Text:
Holliday, Peter J. American Arcadia: California and the Classical Tradition. Oxford Univ. Jun. 2016.432p. illus. notes. bibliog. index. ISBN
9780190256517. $45. FINE ARTS
Tales of California's settlement and expansion since the Gold Rush in the late 19th century have long been infused by a combination of
hucksterish boosterism and fabrication--notably, the romance of its "Spanish" missions. In this engaging history, Holliday (art & archaeology,
California State Univ., Long Beach) opens a wider vista into the Golden State's persona by focusing on manifestations of Greco-Roman antiquity
crafted into the area's physical and psychological landscapes. The author's research is that of a master scholar, translating mountainous amounts
of knowledge into fascinating parallel chronicles that cover architecture, urban planning, aqueducts, and cinema. Opening with a farcical account
of the creation of the pretentious state seal design, he moves on to themes such as the impact of the City Beautiful movement on civic design and
the peculiarly Californian urge to refashion the human body according to classical ideals. In a chapter limning the "heroic" architecture
underwritten by private capital, Holliday describes the appearance of libraries in California cityscapes funded by Andrew Carnegie and built
according to "the Carnegie formula." Not above colorful digressions, Holliday tells of evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson's faked kidnapping,
and L.A.'s first-ever "trial of the century," of industrialist Griffith J. Griffith for attempted murder. VERDICT An eminent and absorbing
contribution to the literature of California--Douglas F. Smith, Oakland P.L.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Smith, Douglas F. "Holliday, Peter J.: American Arcadia: California and the Classical Tradition." Library Journal, 1 May 2016, p. 67. General
OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA450998876&it=r&asid=e7dda4cf872585d38e88912a9ebfcb9c. Accessed 5 Feb.
2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A450998876