ABSTRACT
Naturalism has traditionally been understood as a particular artistic style, and is, according to evolutionist accounts, the zenith of human visual culture. This chapter rejects both of these ideas, arguing that the possibility of naturalism is always latent in art, even though it was a rare phenomenon in the ancient world. A new theoretical perspective is proposed, wherein naturalism is presented not as a style, but rather as a particular ontology of media. More specifically, naturalism is a media ontology in which the material characteristics of the medium itself are negated. When a shift toward increasing naturalism can be detected in a particular historical or archaeological context, this should therefore be interpreted as evidence for profound ontological changes. These arguments are explored through a number of case studies, including the Moche of the ancient Andes, often regarded as the only society of the pre-colonial Americas to create naturalistic portraiture. The chapter concludes with the idea that naturalism can thus provide a means for identifying ontological differences in ancient contexts.
