The book is indebted to the intellectual stimulus of the Karlsruhe research group Image – Body – Media of which I was an associate member from 2002 to 2004, especially the conversations with Hans Belting, Martin Schulz, Birgit Mersmann, and Jutta Held. My interest in the methods of art-historical interpretation and the historiography of classical archaeological study was and still is stimulated by Jaṡ Elsner, not least because of his suggestion to embark together on the adventure of translating some of Erwin Panofsky's writings, an experience that has greatly shaped this book. Peter von Möllendorff and Ivana Petrovic introduced me to the work of David Wellbery; our many discussions of pictures and narratives emboldened me and gave the book its framework. A first draft of this book was prepared with support from the Arts and Humanities Research Council. My warmest thanks to all.

The book has also benefited enormously from discussion and debates with numerous colleagues and friends, including Mont Allen, Ting Chang, Esther Eidinow, Tonio Hölscher, Andreas Kropp, Susanne Muth, Stephanie Pearson, Verity Platt, Michael Squire, Jeremy Wood, and Richard Wrigley. While working on the book I was fortunate to enjoy the hospitality of the Winckelmann Institut at Humboldt Universität Berlin – here, Nikolaus Dietrich, Arne Reinhardt, and Christoph Klose offered their time for discussion and made many useful suggestions. My thanks also go to the undergraduate and graduate student cohorts of the Nottingham–Humboldt Universität Berlin exchange, QKolleg, and those of my Nottingham module, Q83VIS Visual Mythology, who, mostly without knowing it, helped to shape the argument; I would like to thank especially William Leveritt and Jodie Martyndale-Howard, who read and commented on parts of the text.

I owe special thanks to Michael Sharp, Elizabeth Hanlon, and Marianna Prizio of Cambridge University Press for their enthusiastic support of the project. The anonymous readers for the press provided thoughtful and encouraging reports that have helped steer my revisions of the text. My sincere gratitude goes to Rona Johnston Gordon for her meticulous editorial scrutiny and her skill at stamping out linguistic vagaries and improving the text.