Stephen Andrew Cooper
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- February 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780198270270
- eISBN:
- 9780191603396
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198270275.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Early Christian Studies
This chapter traces the development of the first hundred years of Pauline iconography in all media (sarcophagi, catacomb frescos, church mosaics, small objets d ’art). Particular attention is paid to ...
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This chapter traces the development of the first hundred years of Pauline iconography in all media (sarcophagi, catacomb frescos, church mosaics, small objets d ’art). Particular attention is paid to the variety of ternary scenes featuring the apostles Peter and Paul flanking Christ. The various depictions of Christ (denominated Christus magister and traditio legis) in the scenes with his chief apostles are correlated to the verbal portraits of Paul, and his relation to Christ evident in the early commentaries on the Pauline epistles. Victorinus presents Paul as a direct recipient of Christ’s revelation, and thus as a prime authority in matter of both doctrine and morals; such an understanding of Paul is also suggested by the depictions of Christ with Paul which become common after the mid-point of the fourth century. The development of both Pauline iconography and commentary on the epistles in Rome are shown to be part of the popular piety arising around the various Roman sites claiming the relics of the chief apostles.Less
This chapter traces the development of the first hundred years of Pauline iconography in all media (sarcophagi, catacomb frescos, church mosaics, small objets d ’art). Particular attention is paid to the variety of ternary scenes featuring the apostles Peter and Paul flanking Christ. The various depictions of Christ (denominated Christus magister and traditio legis) in the scenes with his chief apostles are correlated to the verbal portraits of Paul, and his relation to Christ evident in the early commentaries on the Pauline epistles. Victorinus presents Paul as a direct recipient of Christ’s revelation, and thus as a prime authority in matter of both doctrine and morals; such an understanding of Paul is also suggested by the depictions of Christ with Paul which become common after the mid-point of the fourth century. The development of both Pauline iconography and commentary on the epistles in Rome are shown to be part of the popular piety arising around the various Roman sites claiming the relics of the chief apostles.
David J. Mattingly
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691160177
- eISBN:
- 9781400848270
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691160177.003.0009
- Subject:
- History, Ancient History / Archaeology
This chapter concerns the intersection of art and power in the Roman world, as well as how we study Roman art. A common emphasis on the formal qualities of so-called Romanized art has created the ...
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This chapter concerns the intersection of art and power in the Roman world, as well as how we study Roman art. A common emphasis on the formal qualities of so-called Romanized art has created the perception of art as symbolic of the success of Rome and of the acquiescence of indigenous peoples to its rule. From this perspective, provincial art can easily be dismissed as an often inadequate imitation of Roman style and images. In turn, this tendency has also led to greatest emphasis being placed on recording and displaying those works that attained the highest technical and stylistic affinities with examples from Rome or Italy. The chapter suggests an alternative approach to the study of Roman provincial art, one that embraces a series of discreet perspectives and considers different underlying themes in the imperial dialogue (including resistance, imitation, and adoption). In this context, it focuses on ways in which the adoption of so-called Romanized style also facilitated the continuation of indigenous traditions. These and related issues are explored with a case study from the Libyan pre-desert in the fourth century AD.Less
This chapter concerns the intersection of art and power in the Roman world, as well as how we study Roman art. A common emphasis on the formal qualities of so-called Romanized art has created the perception of art as symbolic of the success of Rome and of the acquiescence of indigenous peoples to its rule. From this perspective, provincial art can easily be dismissed as an often inadequate imitation of Roman style and images. In turn, this tendency has also led to greatest emphasis being placed on recording and displaying those works that attained the highest technical and stylistic affinities with examples from Rome or Italy. The chapter suggests an alternative approach to the study of Roman provincial art, one that embraces a series of discreet perspectives and considers different underlying themes in the imperial dialogue (including resistance, imitation, and adoption). In this context, it focuses on ways in which the adoption of so-called Romanized style also facilitated the continuation of indigenous traditions. These and related issues are explored with a case study from the Libyan pre-desert in the fourth century AD.
Martin Beckmann
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- July 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780807834619
- eISBN:
- 9781469603025
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/9780807877777_beckmann
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Archaeology: Classical
One of the most important monuments of Imperial Rome and at the same time one of the most poorly understood, the Column of Marcus Aurelius has long stood in the shadow of the Column of Trajan. This ...
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One of the most important monuments of Imperial Rome and at the same time one of the most poorly understood, the Column of Marcus Aurelius has long stood in the shadow of the Column of Trajan. This book makes a thorough study of the form, content, and meaning of this infrequently studied monument. The author employs a new approach to the column, one that focuses on the process of its creation and construction, to uncover the cultural significance of the column to the Romans of the late second century ad. Using clues from ancient sources and from the monument itself, this book traces the creative process step by step from the first decision to build the monument through the processes of planning and construction to the final carving of the column's relief decoration. The conclusions challenge many of the widely held assumptions about the value of the column's 700-foot-long frieze as a historical source. By reconstructing the creative process of the column's sculpture, the author opens up numerous new paths of analysis not only to the Column of Marcus Aurelius but also to Roman imperial art and architecture in general.Less
One of the most important monuments of Imperial Rome and at the same time one of the most poorly understood, the Column of Marcus Aurelius has long stood in the shadow of the Column of Trajan. This book makes a thorough study of the form, content, and meaning of this infrequently studied monument. The author employs a new approach to the column, one that focuses on the process of its creation and construction, to uncover the cultural significance of the column to the Romans of the late second century ad. Using clues from ancient sources and from the monument itself, this book traces the creative process step by step from the first decision to build the monument through the processes of planning and construction to the final carving of the column's relief decoration. The conclusions challenge many of the widely held assumptions about the value of the column's 700-foot-long frieze as a historical source. By reconstructing the creative process of the column's sculpture, the author opens up numerous new paths of analysis not only to the Column of Marcus Aurelius but also to Roman imperial art and architecture in general.
Vito Adriaensens
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781474410892
- eISBN:
- 9781474438469
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474410892.003.0008
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
As sculpture is the classical art par excellence, statues abound in films set in Greek or Roman antiquity. Moreover, many of the mythological tropes involving sculptures that have persisted on the ...
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As sculpture is the classical art par excellence, statues abound in films set in Greek or Roman antiquity. Moreover, many of the mythological tropes involving sculptures that have persisted on the silver screen have their origins in classical antiquity: the Ovidian account of a Cypriot sculptor named Pygmalion who falls in love with his ivory creation and sees it bestowed with life by Venus, Hephaistos’s deadly automatons, the petrifying gaze of the Medusa, and divine sculptural manifestation, or agalmatophany, for instance. This chapter investigates the myths of the living statue as they originated in Greek and Roman literary art histories and found their way to the screen. It will do so by tracing the art-historical form and function of classical statuary to the cinematic representation of living statues in a broad conception of antiquity. The cinematic genre in which mythic sculptures thrive is that of the sword-and-sandal or peplum film, where a Greco-Roman or ersatz classical context provides the perfect backdrop for spectacular special effects, muscular heroes, and fantastic mythological creatures.Less
As sculpture is the classical art par excellence, statues abound in films set in Greek or Roman antiquity. Moreover, many of the mythological tropes involving sculptures that have persisted on the silver screen have their origins in classical antiquity: the Ovidian account of a Cypriot sculptor named Pygmalion who falls in love with his ivory creation and sees it bestowed with life by Venus, Hephaistos’s deadly automatons, the petrifying gaze of the Medusa, and divine sculptural manifestation, or agalmatophany, for instance. This chapter investigates the myths of the living statue as they originated in Greek and Roman literary art histories and found their way to the screen. It will do so by tracing the art-historical form and function of classical statuary to the cinematic representation of living statues in a broad conception of antiquity. The cinematic genre in which mythic sculptures thrive is that of the sword-and-sandal or peplum film, where a Greco-Roman or ersatz classical context provides the perfect backdrop for spectacular special effects, muscular heroes, and fantastic mythological creatures.
Nathan T. Elkins
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- August 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780190648039
- eISBN:
- 9780190648060
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190648039.003.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, History of Art: pre-history, BCE to 500CE, ancient and classical, Byzantine, European History: BCE to 500CE
Although Nerva’s reign is largely the province of historians, owing to the lack of state-sanctioned art from his short reign, his coinage is very diverse and has been an untapped resource for ...
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Although Nerva’s reign is largely the province of historians, owing to the lack of state-sanctioned art from his short reign, his coinage is very diverse and has been an untapped resource for studying contemporary “self-representation” in this period. It is argued that the emperor did not necessarily formulate coin iconography or messaging, as often assumed, but that it was directed at him, as were contemporary panegyric and poetry. He was, however, not the only audience. Coins were used by people throughout Roman society and so deploying quantitative and finds-based methods informs what images played the biggest role in contemporary praise and rhetoric and, to some degree, at what populations they were targeted.Less
Although Nerva’s reign is largely the province of historians, owing to the lack of state-sanctioned art from his short reign, his coinage is very diverse and has been an untapped resource for studying contemporary “self-representation” in this period. It is argued that the emperor did not necessarily formulate coin iconography or messaging, as often assumed, but that it was directed at him, as were contemporary panegyric and poetry. He was, however, not the only audience. Coins were used by people throughout Roman society and so deploying quantitative and finds-based methods informs what images played the biggest role in contemporary praise and rhetoric and, to some degree, at what populations they were targeted.
Francesco de Angelis
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780199793839
- eISBN:
- 9780199345205
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199793839.003.0003
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
The Roman engagement with Greek art can be characterized as a momentous and sustained effort of cultural commemoration, whereby the Romans appropriated forms derived from the Greek historical styles ...
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The Roman engagement with Greek art can be characterized as a momentous and sustained effort of cultural commemoration, whereby the Romans appropriated forms derived from the Greek historical styles to generate a complex and nuanced visual language where each element was associated with a given gamut of connotations and expressive values. The formulae that were thus created worked very much as topoi, and their effectiveness did not depend on the recollection of their specific origins. However, the production of exact copies of past works—a distinctive character of Roman art—shows that on a general level the Greek roots of the Roman system of visual topoi were never forgotten.Less
The Roman engagement with Greek art can be characterized as a momentous and sustained effort of cultural commemoration, whereby the Romans appropriated forms derived from the Greek historical styles to generate a complex and nuanced visual language where each element was associated with a given gamut of connotations and expressive values. The formulae that were thus created worked very much as topoi, and their effectiveness did not depend on the recollection of their specific origins. However, the production of exact copies of past works—a distinctive character of Roman art—shows that on a general level the Greek roots of the Roman system of visual topoi were never forgotten.
Philippa Adrych, Robert Bracey, Dominic Dalglish, Stefanie Lenk, and Rachel Wood
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780198792536
- eISBN:
- 9780191834530
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198792536.003.0002
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Archaeology: Classical
This chapter focuses on two marble tauroctony statue groups that are now in the British Museum’s collection. Both are thought to be originally from Rome and date roughly to between the end of the ...
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This chapter focuses on two marble tauroctony statue groups that are now in the British Museum’s collection. Both are thought to be originally from Rome and date roughly to between the end of the first and the second century AD. In this opening chapter, we look at several of the many interpretations that have been offered for the tauroctony and discuss the image’s development in the Roman world. At the heart of all such interpretations lies the problem of how to reconstruct an ancient reality based on scant remains. These carefully constructed compositions, painstakingly restored in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, simultaneously present us with the characteristic representation of Mithras in the Roman Empire, yet also show the difficulties in reconstructing ancient religion from a fragmented material record.Less
This chapter focuses on two marble tauroctony statue groups that are now in the British Museum’s collection. Both are thought to be originally from Rome and date roughly to between the end of the first and the second century AD. In this opening chapter, we look at several of the many interpretations that have been offered for the tauroctony and discuss the image’s development in the Roman world. At the heart of all such interpretations lies the problem of how to reconstruct an ancient reality based on scant remains. These carefully constructed compositions, painstakingly restored in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, simultaneously present us with the characteristic representation of Mithras in the Roman Empire, yet also show the difficulties in reconstructing ancient religion from a fragmented material record.
Nathan T. Elkins
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- August 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780190648039
- eISBN:
- 9780190648060
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190648039.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, History of Art: pre-history, BCE to 500CE, ancient and classical, Byzantine, European History: BCE to 500CE
Nerva ruled from September AD 96 to January 98. His short reign provided little public building and monumental art, and study of Nerva has been the province of the historian, who often relies on ...
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Nerva ruled from September AD 96 to January 98. His short reign provided little public building and monumental art, and study of Nerva has been the province of the historian, who often relies on textual sources written after his death. History has judged Nerva as an emperor who lacked the respect of the Praetorians and armed forces, and who was vulnerable to coercion. The most complete record of state-sanctioned art from Nerva’s reign is his imperial coinage, frequently studied with historical hindsight and thus characterized as “hopeful,” “apologetic,” or otherwise relating the anxiety of the period. But art operated independently of later and biased historical texts, always presenting the living emperor in a positive light. This book reexamines Nerva’s imperial coinage in positivistic terms and relates imagery to contemporary poetry and panegyric, which praised the emperor. While the audiences at which images were directed included the emperor, attention to hoards and finds also indicates what visual messages were most important in Nerva’s reign and at what other groups in the Roman Empire they were directed. The relationship between the imagery and the rhetoric used by Frontinus, Martial, Tacitus, and Pliny to characterize Nerva and his reign allows reinvestigation of debate about the agency behind the creation of images on imperial coinage. Those in charge of the mint were close to the emperor’s inner circle and thus walked alongside prominent senatorial politicians and equestrians who wrote praise directed at the emperor; those men were in a position to visualize that praise.Less
Nerva ruled from September AD 96 to January 98. His short reign provided little public building and monumental art, and study of Nerva has been the province of the historian, who often relies on textual sources written after his death. History has judged Nerva as an emperor who lacked the respect of the Praetorians and armed forces, and who was vulnerable to coercion. The most complete record of state-sanctioned art from Nerva’s reign is his imperial coinage, frequently studied with historical hindsight and thus characterized as “hopeful,” “apologetic,” or otherwise relating the anxiety of the period. But art operated independently of later and biased historical texts, always presenting the living emperor in a positive light. This book reexamines Nerva’s imperial coinage in positivistic terms and relates imagery to contemporary poetry and panegyric, which praised the emperor. While the audiences at which images were directed included the emperor, attention to hoards and finds also indicates what visual messages were most important in Nerva’s reign and at what other groups in the Roman Empire they were directed. The relationship between the imagery and the rhetoric used by Frontinus, Martial, Tacitus, and Pliny to characterize Nerva and his reign allows reinvestigation of debate about the agency behind the creation of images on imperial coinage. Those in charge of the mint were close to the emperor’s inner circle and thus walked alongside prominent senatorial politicians and equestrians who wrote praise directed at the emperor; those men were in a position to visualize that praise.
Patrick R. Crowley
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780226648293
- eISBN:
- 9780226648323
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226648323.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, History of Art: pre-history, BCE to 500CE, ancient and classical, Byzantine
How could something as insubstantial as a ghost be made visible through the material grit of stone and paint? Using the figure of the ghost, this book offers a new understanding of the status of the ...
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How could something as insubstantial as a ghost be made visible through the material grit of stone and paint? Using the figure of the ghost, this book offers a new understanding of the status of the image in Roman art and visual culture. Tracing the shifting practices and debates in antiquity about the nature of vision and representation, it shows how images of ghosts make visible structures of beholding and strategies of depiction. Yet the figure of the ghost simultaneously contributes to a broader conceptual history that accounts for how modalities of belief emerged and developed in antiquity. Neither illustrations of ancient beliefs in ghosts nor depictions of the afterlife more generally, these images ultimately show us something about the visual event of seeing itself.Less
How could something as insubstantial as a ghost be made visible through the material grit of stone and paint? Using the figure of the ghost, this book offers a new understanding of the status of the image in Roman art and visual culture. Tracing the shifting practices and debates in antiquity about the nature of vision and representation, it shows how images of ghosts make visible structures of beholding and strategies of depiction. Yet the figure of the ghost simultaneously contributes to a broader conceptual history that accounts for how modalities of belief emerged and developed in antiquity. Neither illustrations of ancient beliefs in ghosts nor depictions of the afterlife more generally, these images ultimately show us something about the visual event of seeing itself.
Caitlín Eilís Barrett
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- June 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780190641351
- eISBN:
- 9780190641382
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190641351.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, History of Art: pre-history, BCE to 500CE, ancient and classical, Byzantine
This book is the first contextually oriented monograph on Egyptian imagery from Roman households. The author uses case studies from Flavian Pompeii to investigate the close association between ...
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This book is the first contextually oriented monograph on Egyptian imagery from Roman households. The author uses case studies from Flavian Pompeii to investigate the close association between representations of Egypt and a particular type of Roman household space: domestic gardens. Through paintings and mosaics depicting the Nile, canals that turned the garden itself into a model “Nile,” and statuary depicting Egyptian gods, animals, and individuals, many gardens in Pompeii confronted ancient visitors with images of (a Roman vision of) Egypt. Simultaneously far away and familiar, these imagined landscapes transformed domestic space into a microcosm of empire. In contrast to older interpretations that connect Roman “Aegyptiaca” to the worship of Egyptian gods or the problematic concept of “Egyptomania,” a contextual analysis of these garden assemblages suggests new possibilities for meaning. In Pompeian houses, Egyptian and Egyptian-looking objects and images interacted with their settings to construct complex entanglements of “foreign” and “familiar,” “self” and “other.” Representations of Egyptian landscapes in domestic gardens enabled individuals to present themselves as cosmopolitan, sophisticated citizens of empire. Yet at the same time, household material culture also exerted an agency of its own: domesticizing, familiarizing, and “Romanizing” once-foreign images and objects. That which was once alien and potentially dangerous was now part of the domus itself, increasingly incorporated into cultural constructions of what it meant to be “Roman.” Through participatory multimedia assemblages evoking landscapes both local and international, the houses examined in this book made the breadth of empire compatible with the familiarity of home.Less
This book is the first contextually oriented monograph on Egyptian imagery from Roman households. The author uses case studies from Flavian Pompeii to investigate the close association between representations of Egypt and a particular type of Roman household space: domestic gardens. Through paintings and mosaics depicting the Nile, canals that turned the garden itself into a model “Nile,” and statuary depicting Egyptian gods, animals, and individuals, many gardens in Pompeii confronted ancient visitors with images of (a Roman vision of) Egypt. Simultaneously far away and familiar, these imagined landscapes transformed domestic space into a microcosm of empire. In contrast to older interpretations that connect Roman “Aegyptiaca” to the worship of Egyptian gods or the problematic concept of “Egyptomania,” a contextual analysis of these garden assemblages suggests new possibilities for meaning. In Pompeian houses, Egyptian and Egyptian-looking objects and images interacted with their settings to construct complex entanglements of “foreign” and “familiar,” “self” and “other.” Representations of Egyptian landscapes in domestic gardens enabled individuals to present themselves as cosmopolitan, sophisticated citizens of empire. Yet at the same time, household material culture also exerted an agency of its own: domesticizing, familiarizing, and “Romanizing” once-foreign images and objects. That which was once alien and potentially dangerous was now part of the domus itself, increasingly incorporated into cultural constructions of what it meant to be “Roman.” Through participatory multimedia assemblages evoking landscapes both local and international, the houses examined in this book made the breadth of empire compatible with the familiarity of home.