Although the theme of the 'Other', and particularly the deformed and disabled 'Other', has experienced a surge in scholarship in recent years, the figure of the hunchback has remained relatively unexplored territory. The Hunchback in Hellenistic and Roman Art gives the representations of the figure of the hunchback the attention they have been hitherto denied. In so doing, it provides a much-needed way of re-thinking and re-reading images of the 'Other' as well as key issues that lie at the very heart of ancient representation.
Lisa Trentin takes an art-historical approach, examining three key iconographic features of the corpus of hunchbacks as well as representations of the deformed and disabled in general. This provides fertile ground for a re-assessment of current scholarship on the miniature in ancient art, the hyperphallic nature of ancient art, and the emphasis on the male body in ancient art. More generally, she also interrogates the relationship created between an image and its referent and an image and its viewer
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