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Journal articles on the topic 'Roman visual culture'
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1
Prazak, Lindsay. "Tragic Imagery of War in Roman Visual Culture." Constellations 2, no. 2 (June 7, 2011): 1–20. http://dx.doi.org/10.29173/cons10490.
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In this paper, the scope of Roman attitudes towards warfare is examined through an analysis of Roman artwork and inscriptions in victory monuments. Due to the integral nature of warfare to Roman society, the portrayal of victorious campaigns was essential to the maintenance of the Roman perception of their own indomitable nature. This paper argues that this inherent reinforcing of Roman attitudes was especially important in the wake of the various civil wars and related disputes of the last century of the Republic, and undertakes this analysis with a special emphasis on the portrayal of the conquered to examine the subtleties of perspective towards Roman warfare.
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Swain, S. C. R. "Hellenic culture and the Roman heroes of Plutarch." Journal of Hellenic Studies 110 (November 1990): 126–45. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/631736.
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Plutarch of Chaeroneia stands almost alone among Greeks of the Roman Empire in displaying in his works an extensive knowledge of, and interest in, Rome and Romans. The knowledge of Roman history and the many notes on Roman institutions and usages seen in the Lives together with the work specifically devoted to Roman customs, the quaest. Rom., and the celebration of Rome's good fortune, the de fort. Rom., testify to his great sympathy with the Roman way of life. For us Plutarch is a unique bridge between Greece and Rome. But what sort of bridge does he himself envisage between Rome and his own world? In particular, how far does Plutarch believe that Romans share his own Hellenic culture? In answering this question I shall argue that in his presentation of Romans Plutarch often shows himself to be conscious that Hellenic culture had been imported to Rome and could never be fully taken for granted among Romans as it could among Greeks, and that as a consequence it is worthwhile for him as a student of character to consider how well and with what benefit Romans absorb it.
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Tomás García, Jorge. "Cultura material y cultura visual de las villae en el ager de Olisipo = Material culture and visual culture of the villae in the ager of Olisipo." Revista de Humanidades, no. 33 (January 9, 2018): 11. http://dx.doi.org/10.5944/rdh.33.2018.18519.
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Resumen: La cultura material en el contexto agrario caracteriza de manera definitiva la cosmovisión de la provincia romana de Lusitania. Este trabajo tiene como objetivo analizar la realidad material de los distintos asentamientos rurales reconocidos como villae en el ager de Olisipo –actual Lisboa-. La riqueza geográfica de la zona (a través del contraste ager-litoral), la variedad económica de los intercambios comerciales (especialmente las factorías de pescado), las influencias artísticas de distintas partes del Imperio (norte de África y península Itálica), y la idiosincrasia propia de Lusitania, conforman un caso de estudio paradigmático para definir los mecanismos de actuación de la cultura material en la zona de Olisipo y su ager.Abstract: Material culture in the agrarian context characterizes the worldview of the Roman province of Lusitania. This article aims to analyze the material reality of the different rural settlements recognized as villae in the ager of Olisipo –Lisbon today-. The geographic richness of the area (contrast ager-littoral), the economic variety of commercial exchanges (especially fish factories), the artistic influences of different parts of the Empire (North Africa and Italian peninsula), and idiosyncrasy of Lusitania, constitute a paradigmatic case study to define the mechanisms of action of the material culture in the area of Olisipio and its ager.
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Doubine, Boris. "Culture classique, culture d'élite, culture de masse. Une mécanique de différenciation." Romantisme 31, no. 114 (2001): 89–100. http://dx.doi.org/10.3406/roman.2001.1050.
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Ventura, Gal. "Roman Charity: Queer Lactations in Early Modern Visual Culture." Cultural and Social History 15, no. 2 (March 15, 2018): 273–74. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14780038.2018.1451084.
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Hallett, Christopher H. "Afterword: The Function of Greek Artworks within Roman Visual Culture." Archeologia e Arte Antica 9788879168328 (December 2018): 275–87. http://dx.doi.org/10.7359/832-2018-hall.
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Habetzeder, Julia. "Dancing with decorum. The eclectic usage of kalathiskos dancers and pyrrhic dancers in Roman visual culture." Opuscula. Annual of the Swedish Institutes at Athens and Rome 5 (November 2012): 7–47. http://dx.doi.org/10.30549/opathrom-05-02.
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This article examines two groups of motifs in Roman visual culture: females modelled on kalathiskos dancers, and males modelled on pyrrhic dancers. Eclecticism is emphasized as a strategy which was used to introduce novelties that were appropriate within a Roman cultural context. The figures representing kalathiskos dancers and pyrrhic dancers were both changed in an eclectic manner and this resulted in motifs representing the goddess Victoria, and the curetes respectively. Kalathiskos dancers and eclectic Victoriae occur on many different media at least from the Augustan era and into the 2nd century AD. It is argued here that the establishment of these two motifs in Roman visual culture is closely related to the aesthetics which came to the fore during the reign of Augustus. Thereafter, both kalathiskos dancers and eclectic Victoriae lingered on in the Roman cultural context until many of the material categories on which they were depicted ceased to be produced. Unlike the kalathiskos dancers, the male figures modelled on pyrrhic dancers are so rare within Roman visual culture that we can only assume they were, to some extent, perceived as an inappropriate motif. This can most likely be explained by the negative attitude, amongst the Roman elite, towards male dancing.
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Swan, David. "THE CARNYX ON CELTIC AND ROMAN REPUBLICAN COINAGE." Antiquaries Journal 98 (September 2018): 81–94. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0003581518000161.
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This paper explores the cross-cultural portrayals of an unusual and striking musical instrument, the carnyx, on the coinages of the Romans and the inhabitants of Iron Age Britain and Gaul. Fashioned as a snarling boar, the carnyx was a war horn used by the Gauls and Britons that not only captivated the minds of their artists, but also those of the Romans. This paper studies the cross-cultural phenomenon of its appearance in the coin iconography of the late second to late first centuriesbc. This simultaneous analysis of Roman, Gallic and British coinage reveals that while each culture had a shared belief in the carnyx’s military role, each culture also had its own interpretation of the object’s significance. To the Romans, it was a symbol of the barbarian, to be cherished as a war trophy after a Roman victory, but to those northern Europeans, it was a sign of pride and spiritual significance. An image’s meaning is, therefore, seen to transform as it crosses into a new cultural context.
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STEPHENSON, JOHN. "DINING AS SPECTACLE IN LATE ROMAN HOUSES." Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies 59, no. 1 (June 1, 2016): 54–71. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.2041-5370.2016.12019.x.
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Abstract The elements of visual culture preserved in late Roman houses confirm an intense interest in dramatic visual display. This study employs an interpretive lens of spectacle to examine a new form of banquet space amd furnishings in the period, as well as a new style of ‘dinner-theatre’ they served. By considering ancient art as inseparable from active contexts and ephemeral events, a more sophisticated understanding of a society's self-definition through art emerges. Rather than being epiphenomenal to the poliltical culture of late antiquity, spectacle is argued to be central to the creation and contestation of power structures: performance is politics.
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Fine, Steven. "Menorahs in Color: Polychromy in Jewish Visual Culture of Roman Antiquity." Images 6, no. 1 (2012): 3–25. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/18718000-12340001.
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Abstract In recent years, polychromy has developed as a significant area of research in the study of classical art. This essay explores the significance of this work for interpreting Jewish visual culture during Roman antiquity, through the focal lens of the Arch of Titus Digital Restoration Project. In July 2012, this project discovered that the Arch of Titus menorah was originally colored with yellow ochre paint. The article begins by presenting the general field of polychromy research, which has developed in recent years and resulted in significant museum exhibitions in Europe and the US. It then turns to resistance to polychromy studies among art historians, often called “chromophobia,” and to uniquely Jewish early twentieth-century variants that claimed that Jews were especially prone to colorblindness. After surveying earlier research on polychromy in Jewish contexts, we turn to polychromy in ancient Palestinian synagogue literature and art. Finally, the article explores the significance of polychromy for the study of the Arch of Titus menorah panel, and more broadly considers the importance of polychromy studies for contextualizing Jewish attitudes toward Roman religious art (avodah zarah).
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Michaud, Stéphane. "Nietzsche, la culture française et l'Europe." Romantisme 23, no. 81 (1993): 67–83. http://dx.doi.org/10.3406/roman.1993.5886.
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Grig, Lucy. "Rome Scholarships: Christianizing Roman material culture: a case-study of Roman gold-glass." Papers of the British School at Rome 71 (November 2003): 308. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0068246200002518.
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Crawford, Katherine. "Jutta Gisela Sperling. Roman Charity: Queer Lactations in Early Modern Visual Culture." American Historical Review 123, no. 4 (October 1, 2018): 1378–79. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ahr/rhy121.
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Smith, Christopher J. "A HUNDRED YEARS OF ROMAN HISTORY: HISTORIOGRAPHY AND INTELLECTUAL CULTURE." Papers of the British School at Rome 80 (September 24, 2012): 295–323. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s006824621200013x.
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In 2010, the Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies achieved its centenary. In 2012, the British School at Rome, which was closely linked to the origins of the Roman Society, celebrates the centenary of its Royal Charter. This marked the formal establishment of the distinctively broad and interdisciplinary remit of the School by the inclusion of humanities, art and architecture in a single institution. The combination of these two anniversaries has given rise to this attempt to think through some of the paths that Roman studies have taken, and to understand them within the context of broader developments in particularly British and Italian historiography. The Roman Society and the British School at Rome have many points of connection, both in terms of individuals and in terms of research interest. Recent work on the development of a British historical tradition has shown that it remains important to ground the reading of historical scholarship within the intellectual trajectory of its practitioners. This is, therefore, an argument about how the research represented in theJournal of Roman Studies, and conducted at the British School at Rome, and ultimately more widely, should be seen in a historiographical context.
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Burrus, Sean P. "A Jewish Child’s Portrait? The Kline Sarcophagus of Monteverde and Jewish Funerary Portraiture in Rome." Images 10, no. 1 (December 14, 2017): 3–22. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/18718000-12340077.
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Abstract This article examines the evidence for the use of portrait sculpture on sarcophagi belonging to members of the Jewish community of Rome. The use of the “learned figure” motif, commonly employed in Roman sarcophagus portraiture and by Jewish patrons, is highlighted, and possible creative appropriations of the trope in Jewish contexts are raised. It is further argued that, among Jewish sarcophagus patrons, the decision to include funerary portraiture went hand in hand with the decision to adopt popular and conventional Roman styles and motifs, and to engage Roman cultural and visual resources. In other words, Jewish patrons who chose sarcophagi with portraits also seem to have been the readiest to make use of the visual resources of Roman funerary culture to orchestrate self-narratives on their sarcophagi. Finally, it is cautioned that while the limited examples (five) suggest a mastery of Roman culture and a correspondingly high degree of acculturation among certain Jewish patrons, we should be wary of reading such sarcophagi as evidence of certain Jews abandoning a Jewish identity in favor of a Roman one—or the Jewish community in favor of the Roman polis and its civic structures—as narratives of funerary art never capture the totality of the deceased’s identity.
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Benedetti, Ginevra. "Quando gli attributi travalicano il signum. Riflessioni sull’identità visuale degli dèi a Roma = When attributes go beyond the signum. Remarks on the visual identity of the gods in Rome." ARYS. Antigüedad: Religiones y Sociedades, no. 17 (November 20, 2019): 105. http://dx.doi.org/10.20318/arys.2019.4601.
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Riassunto: In questo lavoro ci si propone di analizzare, attraverso le pagine degli autori latini, la costruzione semiotica sottostante la rappresentazione visuale degli dèi nella cultura romana; ognuno di loro possedeva infatti qualche attributo o combinazione di attributi in grado di identificarli con maggiore o minore certezza, ciò che gli autori antichi definivano insignia, dei “segni speciali” che guidavano l’interpretazione / identificazione di un signum. In particolare, saranno presi in esame alcuni oggetti concreti impiegati dalla cultura romana per costruire immagini divine nella loro funzione di attributi dotati di una specifica identità semiotica. A Roma vi erano altresì casi specifici in cui il potere dell’insigne risultava traboccante; la marca di riconoscibilità, in questi casi, era identificata con la totalità dell’immagine, così come l’immagine totale era ridotta e identificata con l’estensione della marca di riconoscimento: l’insigne, in questo caso, costituiva l’immagine. Questo ci porterà dunque a discutere i metodi di costruzione, adattamento, prestito e scarto delle immagini divine tra i politeismi antichi, delineando altresì prospettive comparative e analitiche.Abstract: In this work we aim to analyze, through the pages of the Latin authors, the semiotic construction underneath the visual representation of the gods in the Roman culture; each of them possessed some attribute or combination of attributes capable of identifying them with more or less certainty, what the ancient authors called insignia, the “special signs” that guided the interpretation / identification of a signum. In particular, some concrete objects will be examined, used by the Roman culture to construct divine images in their function of attributes endowed with a specific identity. In Rome there were also specific cases in which the power of the insigne was overflowing. The mark of recognizability, in these cases, was identified with the totality of the image, just as the image was reduced to the extension of the mark of recognition: the insigne, in that case, was the image. This will lead us to question the methods of construction, adaptation, borrowing and exclusion of divine images among ancient polytheisms, outlining comparative and analytical perspectives.Parole chiave: Appropriazione, identità, immagini divine, insignia, signa panthea, statua.Key words: Appropriation, divine images, identity, insignia, signa panthea, statue.
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Maier, Harry O. "Vision, Visualisation, and Politics in the Apostle Paul." Method & Theory in the Study of Religion 27, no. 4-5 (October 29, 2015): 312–32. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/15700682-12341356.
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The essay applies the theoretical study of visual culture to an analysis of the role of the visual in the communication of religious ideas by the New Testament author, Paul. The discussion explores the contributions of anthropologists and iconologists to the study and understanding of visual culture. After an exploration of the role of vision in understanding generally, the essay then turns to the goals of creating visual experiences in ancient rhetoric. The letters of Paul and his followers drew on the experiences of Roman imperial iconography in multiple media to create their own visual worlds and effect persuasion.
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Carlson, Peter. "Roman Charity: Queer Lactations in Early Modern Visual Culture by Jutta Gisela Sperling." Comitatus: A Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies 48, no. 1 (2017): 271–73. http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/cjm.2017.0047.
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Keller, Eve. "Roman Charity: Queer Lactations in Early Modern Visual Culture by Jutta Gisela Sperling." Early Modern Women 12, no. 2 (2018): 294–97. http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/emw.2018.0044.
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Bradley, Mark. "OBESITY, CORPULENCE AND EMACIATION IN ROMAN ART." Papers of the British School at Rome 79 (October 31, 2011): 1–41. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0068246211000018.
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This article explores the significance of sculptural and painted representations of ‘overweight’ and ‘underweight’ body types in the visual culture of Roman Italy from the fourth centurybcthrough to the late Empire, and considers the relationship of this imagery to Greek and Hellenistic precedents. In spite of the topical character of fat in 21st-century sociology, anthropology and medical science, obesity and emaciation in the ancient world remain almost completely unexplored. This article sets out to examine the relationship of fat and thin bodies to power, wealth, character and behaviour, and seeks to identify patterns and continuities in the iconography of fleshiness and slenderness across a stretch of several hundred years. Such bodies could be evaluated in a number of different ways, and this article exposes the diverse — and sometimes contradictory — responses to body fat in the art and culture of the Roman world. It first examines the significance of obesity and emaciation in language, literature and medicine, and then discusses visual representations under three headings: ‘Fertility’; ‘The marginal and the ridiculous’, examining the relationship between body fat, humour and figures at the edge of civilized society; and ‘Portraits’, exploring fat and thin in the portraiture of real-life individuals in the realms of philosophy, Hellenistic rulership, Etruscan funerary art and Roman public sculpture.
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Kolsky, Stephen. "Culture and Politics in Renaissance Rome: Marco Antonio Altieri's Roman Weddings." Renaissance Quarterly 40, no. 1 (1987): 49–90. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2861834.
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What induced Marco Antonio Altieri, a Roman noble, to write a treatise on wedding ceremonies, at the beginning of the sixteenth century? It is the purpose of this article to suggest some possible answers to this question, and in so doing, to focus on the problems facing the Roman nobility in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. Those problems have received little attention from historians. The present contribution can only hope to shed some light on the ideological concerns of one “committed” Roman noble. It does not aspire to an overall study of the Roman nobility. When necessary, however, it will refer to more general trends in the city of Rome during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Altieri's Li nuptiali is worthy of study if for no other reason than that it represents an important, perhaps unique, departure from the kind of writing associated with Renaissance Rome.
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Maciudzińska-Kamczycka, Magdalena. "Phoenix dactylifera/Judaea dactylifera . Palma daktylowa jako “symbol żydowski” w świecie grecko-rzymskim." Studia Europaea Gnesnensia, no. 9 (January 1, 2014): 105–26. http://dx.doi.org/10.14746/seg.2014.9.7.
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The aim of this article is to present the development of the date palm (phoenix dactylifera) as a symbol of the Jewish nation, their land Judaea and their separate religious beliefs and distinct culture in the Greco-Roman world. Literary and visual sources of this motif have their origin in very different contexts – Greek and Latin authors, Biblical texts, Roman and Jewish coinage, and synagogue art in Palestine and the Diaspora.
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Jordan, Kate. "‘Artists Hidden from Human Gaze’: Visual Culture and Mysticism in the Nineteenth-Century Convent." British Catholic History 35, no. 2 (October 2020): 190–220. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/bch.2020.18.
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This article offers a reading of nineteenth-century Roman Catholic theology through the sacred art produced by and for women religious. The practices and devotions that the article explores, however, are not those that drew from the institutional Church but rather from the legacies of mysticism, many of which were shaped in women’s religious communities. Scholars have proposed that mysticism was stripped of its intellectual legitimacy and relegated to the margins of theology by post-Enlightenment rationalism, thereby consigning female religious experience to the politically impotent private sphere. The article suggests, however, that, although the literature of women’s mysticism entered a period of decline from the end of the Counter-Reformation, an authoritative female tradition, expressed in visual and material culture, continued into the nineteenth century and beyond. The art that emerged from convents reflected the increasing visibility of women in the Roman Catholic Church and the burgeoning of folkloric devotional practices and iconography. This article considers two paintings as evidence that, by the nineteenth century, the aporias1 of Christian theology were consciously articulated by women religious though the art that they made: works which, in turn, shaped the creed and culture of the institutional Church. In so doing, the article contributes to the growing body of scholarship on the material culture of religion.
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Rothe, Ursula. "Hugh Last Fellowship: Wearing Rome: the toga in Roman culture." Papers of the British School at Rome 86 (October 2018): 342–43. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0068246218000193.
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Di Cosmo, Antonio Pio. "Ideology Connected to Death and Deification of the August. The ‘Double’ Body of the Emperor: an Alleged Attempt to Overcome." Nova Tellus 39, no. 1 (January 27, 2021): 131–70. http://dx.doi.org/10.19130/iifl.nt.2021.39.1.27547.
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This research focuses on the ideology behind the death rites of a Roman emperor. Here I analyze the inventive rhetorical features concerning the subject as visual culture, loci, descriptive formulas and cultural codes. It refers in particular to literature that concerns the death of the Roman emperor, which is analyzed from the point of view of rhetoric and iconography. So I find a fiction or a dubious “reality”, through introducing a witness who confirms the veracity of deification.
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Mc William, Neil. "Opinions professionnelles : critique d'art et économie de la culture sous la Monarchie de Juillet." Romantisme 21, no. 71 (1991): 19–30. http://dx.doi.org/10.3406/roman.1991.5730.
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Jones, Nathaniel B. "Exemplarity and Encyclopedism at the Tomb of Eurysaces." Classical Antiquity 37, no. 1 (April 1, 2018): 63–107. http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/ca.2018.37.1.63.
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Roman writing of the late Republic and early Empire, especially historiography, is filled with exempla, stories of the past meant to serve as models for contemporary and future behavior. This period also witnessed the rise of an encyclopedic mode of composition among Latin authors, which purported to collect and organize the totality of knowledge in a given field. The following essay proposes that exemplarity and encyclopedism were not just literary devices, but deep organizational principles throughout Roman culture. It seeks to show how they were operative in the visual arts in the first century BCE, focusing especially on a frieze depicting the baking process on the tomb of Marcus Vergilius Eurysaces in Rome. By approaching a monument like the frieze of Eurysaces through such principles we may better articulate both visual and thematic relationships across a variety of genres within the broader Roman image world.
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Buhagiar, Mario. "The Jewish Catacombs of Roman Melite." Antiquaries Journal 91 (August 5, 2011): 73–100. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0003581511000126.
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AbstractThe Roman city of Melite, on the central Mediterranean archipelago of Malta, had, in common with other provincial outposts of the Empire, a diaspora Jewish colony for which there is testimony in six hypogea that prominently display the seven-branched Menorah. There is apparent evidence for a religious, and perhaps administrative, set-up in a Greek inscription that marks the burial place of a gerousiarch and lover of the ‘commandments’ who could have been the head of a Council of Elders in the synagogue of the city, and of his wife, Eulogia ‘the Elder’. The title presbytera used in the text has a special significance and suggests that husband and wife held prestigious posts in the running of the colony. A second inscription incorporates the seven-branched Menorah and commemorates another woman, named Dionisia, who was known by the ritualistic name ‘Irene’. Two other texts appear to be simple farewell messages but are of interest because they are accompanied by a stylized painted Menorah and a boldly incised sailing vessel that has the appearance of a Roman ship. The paper takes a close look at these and other archaeological material related to Jewish presence and influence in Malta. The hypogea are discussed in the context of the Maltese culture of rock-cut burials, starting in the prehistoric period and finding special significance as the prototype influence on the Romano-Punic tomb.
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Albu, Emily. "Viewing Rome from the Roman Empires." Medieval Encounters 17, no. 4-5 (2011): 495–511. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/157006711x598820.
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AbstractTwelfth-century German and Byzantine emperors vied with each other—and with the popes in Rome—for imperial status, each of the three seeing himself as the legitimate heir of ancient Roman imperium. From the court at Constantinople, historians Anna Komnene and John Kinnamos leveled a venomous critique against the west, surveying Rome through the lens of religious disputes, Crusade, and the hated Latin presence in the East. The Byzantine narratives have left a gritty view of their contemporary Rome, a violent and cruel city of illicit popes and anti-popes, anarchy, and barbarism. The Peutinger map, by contrast, seems but an innocent relic of the past, a map of the inhabited world as known to the pagan Romans. Typically considered an ancient Roman artifact and product of Roman culture, the surviving map actually dates from the very end of the long twelfth century. Produced in Swabia, it continued the anti-papal assault as a fresh salvo in a long-lived Battle of the Maps between Church and secular imperium. This display map, like its lost prototype, advertised the supreme authority of Roman imperial power with claims much more venerable than those of the papacy. Its visual narrative implicitly contradicted the power of papal Rome by foregrounding ancient Rome as the centerpiece of an intricately connected oikoumene, a world that should be ruled by Rome’s German heirs. For Germans as for Byzantines, Rome still mattered. Even while assailing a resurgent imperial papacy, neither secular emperor nor their courts could ignore the power exercised by pagan Rome and papal Rome over twelfth-century imaginations.
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Clarke, John. "Looking and laughing in ancient Rome." Lampas 52, no. 2 (June 1, 2019): 195–213. http://dx.doi.org/10.5117/lam2019.2.007.clar.
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Summary Humor, both verbal and visual, is culture-specific. This essay examines humorous visual representations in their original archaeological and social contexts to understand Roman attitude-formation, or acculturation. Social theories of humor that distinguish between humor meant for individuals within a group (intragroup humor) and humor targeting individuals outside one’s group (intergroup humor) help explain the dynamics of the humor in Roman visual culture. Pompeii offers two examples of intragroup humor: representations in the Tavern of Salvius make fun of the non-elite people who frequented the tavern; the parodies of Aeneas and Romulus from an elite house make fun of the cultural pretensions of other elites with regard to Augustus’ propaganda. The Tavern of the Seven Sages at Ostia uses intergroup humor, with non-elite men mocking the Seven Sages. In this case Mikhail Bakhtin’s hermeneutic of the carnivalesque enriches the analysis by revealing multiple strategies employed to elicit laughter, including the world-turned upside down, analogies between bodily and spatial representation, and oppositions between philosophical and colloquial speech. In both the Tavern of Salvius and that of the Seven Sages written texts, ranging from crude Latin speech-bubbles to elegant iambic senarii, indicate the levels of literacy of the audiences.
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Bagnall, Roger S., and Sebastian Heath. "Roman Studies and Digital Resources." Journal of Roman Studies 108 (August 23, 2018): 171–89. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0075435818000874.
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There is hardly any aspect of scholarly work and teaching in Roman Studies today not marked by digital technology. We assume that readers regularly access digital images of Roman material culture, use digitised corpora of primary sources in the original language or translation or consult online books and articles. The availability of digital resources on the internet is also a welcome enabler of ongoing public interest and even participation in the field. This overall state of affairs is generally a positive development, but both general trends and specific digital resources deserve a critical appraisal.
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Lefteratou, Anna. "THE BED CANOPY IN XENOPHON OF EPHESUS AND THE ICONOGRAPHY OF MARS AND VENUS UNDER THE EMPIRE." Ramus 47, no. 1 (June 2018): 78–107. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/rmu.2018.6.
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This paper discusses how Roman visual culture might be useful for deciphering the ecphrastic passages of the ancient Greek novel. Whereasecphrasishas been one of the blossoming topics in the field, the examination of novelisticecphrasisalongside particular works of art is still a desideratum. As a test case I will use Xenophon of Ephesus’ecphrasisof the bed canopy depicting Ares’ and Aphrodite's embrace, in theEphesiaca,a novel that might have been written as early as AD 65. In what follows I will argue that the scene described on the canopy would have stimulated a variety of intertexts, both literary and visual, in the minds of the imperial audience: that is, Xenophon's reader would have been encouraged to recall not just Demodocus’ song of the love of Ares and Aphrodite but also the idealised Roman version of the myth, which was so frequently depicted on frescoes and mosaics in Roman villas in the first century. I then explore Xenophon's ‘interpretatio Romana’through the adaptations of the Ares and Aphrodite myth found in Plutarch and Lucian.
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Gardner, I. M. F., and S. N. C. Lieu. "From Narmouthis (Medinet Madi) to Kellis (Ismant El-Kharab): Manichaean Documents from Roman Egypt." Journal of Roman Studies 86 (November 1996): 146–69. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/300427.
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In 1968, Peter Brown read at the Society's Annual General Meeting a paper entitled ‘The Diffusion of Manichaeism in the Roman Empire’. Delivered at a time when little research was being carried out by British scholars either on Manichaeism or on the cultural and religious relationship between the Roman and the Sassanian Empires, it was for many a complete revelation. With consummate skill and vast erudition Brown placed the history of the diffusion of the sect against a background of vigorous and dynamic interchange between the Roman and the Persian Empires. He also mounted a successful challenge on a number of popularly held views on the history of the religion in the Roman Empire. Manichaeism was not to be seen as part of the mirage orientale which fascinated the intellectuals of the High Empire. It was not an Iranian religion which appealed through its foreigness or quaintness. Rather, it was a highly organized and aggressively missionary religion founded by a prophet from South Babylonia who styled himself an ‘Apostle of Jesus Christ’. Brown reminded the audience that ‘the history of Manichaeism is to a large extent a history of the Syriac-speaking belt, that stretched along the Fertile Crescent without interruption from Antioch to Ctesiphon’. Its manner of diffusion bore little or no resemblance to that of Mithraism. It did not rely on a particular profession, as Mithraism did on the army, for its spread throughout the Empire. Instead it developed in the common Syriac culture astride the Romano-Persian frontier which was becoming increasingly Christianized consequent to the regular deportation of whole communities from cities of the Roman East like Antioch to Mesopotamia and adjacent Iran. Manichaeism which originally flourished in this Semitic milieu was not in the strict sense an Iranian religion in the way that Zoroastrianism was at the root of the culture and religion of pre-Islamic Iran. The Judaeo-Christian roots of the religion enabled it to be proclaimed as a new and decisive Christian revelation.
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Hajdú, Attila. "Visions of Narcissus from the Late Imperial Period Remarks on the Statue of Narcissus from Callistratus’ Ekphraseis." Sapiens ubique civis 1, no. 1 (December 1, 2020): 161–85. http://dx.doi.org/10.14232/suc.2020.1.161-185.
Full textAbstract:
In his longest ekphrasis (5), Callistratus (fl. probably in 4th century AD) uses enargeia and phantasia to depict vividly Narcissus’ marble sculpture and to evoke the tragic fate of the young boy. Based on the surviving works of art, it is well-known that the representations of Narcissus were widespread in the Roman world from the 1st century AD. Therefore, there is no reason to assume that it would have been a difficult task for Callistratus to take inspiration from the statues of Narcissus exhibited in the horti of Roman villas, public parks and baths, or from the large number of wall-paintings and mosaics depicting the young mythological figure. In my paper, I will explore the crucial elements originating from both the Graeco-Roman visual culture and literature that may have influenced this description.
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Rankov, Boris. "Pantomime horsemen: “cavalry-sports“ helmets and popular culture in the frontier provinces." Journal of Roman Archaeology 33 (2020): 169–94. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s1047759420000975.
Full textAbstract:
Decorated helmets fitted with a metal mask in the form of a human face have been found throughout the lands of the Roman empire, and sometimes beyond it. Despite the significant number of examples (whole or in part) surviving from the 1st to the 3rd c. A.D., these helmets remain an enigma to students of the Roman army. They have usually (though not exclusively) been found either at or close to forts garrisoned by cavalry or in hoards or graves containing other military equipment, often cavalry-specific such as horse-chamfrons. Most have therefore been identified as cavalry helmets, and it is widely accepted that many are of the type referred to by the 2nd-c. general Arrian in his treatise Tactica whilst describing cavalry exercises (hippika gymnasia): these helmets, unlike those made for battle, do not protect just the head and cheeks, but are made to fit the faces of the cavalrymen completely, with openings for the eyes so as not to interrupt the vision whilst nevertheless providing protection for the eyes.1
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Milovanovic, Bebina, and Jelena Andjelkovic-Grasar. "Female power that protects: Examples of the apotropaic and decorative functions of the Medusa in Roman visual culture from the territory of the Central Balkans." Starinar, no. 67 (2017): 167–82. http://dx.doi.org/10.2298/sta1767167m.
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The motif of Medusa had significant importance in Roman visual culture, reflecting the comprehension of ancient people about this frightful being. Visual material from the territory of the Central Balkans suggests a widely known understanding and belief of the protective as well as apotropaic functions of Medusa. The motif of Medusa i.e. the Gorgoneion, was one of the well known and most represented motifs in architecture, funerary art and artiminori and a widely appreciated decoration of jewellery, signifying the importance of Medusa?s protection for people, especially for women.
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Pedersen, Thomas Lederballe. "Det nye billede." Dansk Teologisk Tidsskrift 81, no. 4 (August 12, 2019): 262–81. http://dx.doi.org/10.7146/dtt.v81i4.115360.
Full textAbstract:
Discussing the scenario of future resurrection in 1 Cor. 15, Paul touches on the visual aspects of the bodily transformation which he claims will take place as a part of eschatological fulfilment. The con-cept of image plays a crucial role in this transformation as he believes the resurrected body will be shaped according to a “heavenly” exemplar, which he refers to as an image. Using examples drawn from Roman visual culture, both visual and textual, the article describes what type of image Paul’s Corinthian readers would have been inclined to think of in connection with a discussion of bodily transformation such as the one imagined by Paul.
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Curti, Emmanuele, Emma Dench, and John R. Patterson. "The Archaeology of Central and Southern Roman Italy: Recent Trends and Approaches." Journal of Roman Studies 86 (November 1996): 170–89. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/300428.
Full textAbstract:
For the historian of the Roman period, the archaeology of Central and Southern Italy raises (and sometimes provides answers to) a fascinating variety of questions. The Pontine plain and the valleys of the Liri and Sacco were the areas first affected by Roman expansion beyond the Latial plain, and it was here that the Romans tested and perfected the techniques of organization and control of territory that were to be used with such success elsewhere in Italy and eventually throughout the Mediterranean: in particular, colonization, municipalization, and the transformation of the rural landscape which accompanied them. This area too saw the development of the villa system of agriculture, which came to be predominant in Central Italy during the first century B.C., and was imitated throughout the Empire; but there were also striking differences between agricultural practices in the plains and in the mountains above. This geographical diversity was paralleled by a complex cultural mix, as aspects of both Greek and Roman culture were adopted by the local populations, who themselves moved around an increasingly unified Italy with greater ease, leading to further cultural transformations.
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Larson, Katherine A. "Cheap, fast, good: the Roman glassblowing revolution reconsidered." Journal of Roman Archaeology 32 (2019): 7–22. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s1047759419000035.
Full textAbstract:
Among the most dramatic changes in ancient material culture was the widespread adoption of glass vessels for tableware and storage during the 1st c. B.C. and 1st c. A.D. As shown by the quantity of glass finds from occupation sites of the Imperial era, glassware was much more prominent in daily life than it had been previously. This shift occurred concurrently with the widespread adoption of glassblowing. This change in consumer behavior points to a complex process of experimentation, development, and gradual adaptation on the part of both producers and consumers. The transition from centuries-old technologies of core-forming, casting and sagging to blowing required a complete reconfiguration of every stage of glass production, from the increased supply of raw material to the development of new tools and workshop space, and in the training of craftsmen.
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Landauer, Carl. "Erwin Panofsky and the Renascence of the Renaissance." Renaissance Quarterly 47, no. 2 (1994): 255–81. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2862914.
Full textAbstract:
It has long been understood that historians, literary critics, and art historians who write about past cultures use those cultures for present purposes, whether by turning Periclean Athens into an ideal for present-day America or the fall of the Roman empire into an ominous signal for modern empires. German humanists who sought refuge from Nazi Germany had, however, special reasons to use their cultural studies as a strategy of escape. Erich Auerbach in exile in Istanbul and Ernst Robert Curtius in “inner exile” in Bonn provided narratives of European literary history that minimized the contribution of their native culture, and in so reworking the narrative of Western literature, they were able to reshape their own identities. Their reconstructions of past cultures can thus be read as attempts at self-reconstruction. Ultimately, however, the attempt by such scholars to distance themselves from German culture often faltered on the very Germanness of their cultural reconstructions.
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Hajdú, Attila. "Techné kai Logos: Kallistratos Narkissos-víziója." Antikvitás & Reneszánsz, no. 3 (January 1, 2019): 23–50. http://dx.doi.org/10.14232/antikren.2019.3.23-50.
Full textAbstract:
In his longest ekphrasis (5), Callistratus (fl. probably in 4th century AD) uses enargeia and phantasia to depict vividly Narcissus’ marble sculpture and to evoke the tragic fate of the young boy. On the basis of the surviving works of art, it is wellknown that the representations of Narcissus were widespread in the Roman world from the 1st century AD. Therefore, there is no reason to suppose that it would have been a difficult task for Callistratus to get inspiration from the statues of Narcissus exhibited in the horti of Roman villas, public parks and baths, or from the large number of wall-paintings and mosaics depicting the young mythological figure. Besides publishing my Hungarian translation of the Narcissus’ ekphrasis, I will explore the crucial elements originating from both the Graeco-Roman visual culture and literature that may have influenced this description, and the art criticism occurring in the text as well.
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Bruun, Christer. "Aqueducts, Roman history, and water culture - DYLAN KELBY ROGERS, WATER CULTURE IN ROMAN SOCIETY (= Ancient History journal, no. 1.1; Brill, Leiden 2018). Pp. xii + 118. ISBN 978-90-04-36894-1 (pbk)." Journal of Roman Archaeology 32 (2019): 656–60. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s1047759419000497.
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Autiero, Serena. "Indo-Roman lamps from Ter: the long shadow of Rome or the light of transculturation?" Ancient lamps from Spain to India. Trade, influences, local traditions, no. 28.1 (December 30, 2019): 659–70. http://dx.doi.org/10.31338/uw.2083-537x.pam28.1.29.
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Ter, ancient Tagara, in the Osmanabad district (Maharashtra), is among the most important sites when discussing Indo-Roman relations. Local production of small artefacts, such as pottery lamps and figurines, reveals an enthrallment for the exotic resulting in new transcultural visual solutions. The shape, iconography, and execution of terracotta lamps of the so-called Indo-Roman type from Ter are a clear witness to this phenomenon. The absence of precise comparisons with Western productions, and the impossibility to connect them to a direct trade of lamps confirm the transcultural value of these lamps. They are indeed the product of intermingling and contact, not just a copy of well-known types; they are better understood as an original product of Indian manufacturers based on a current stylistic trend gathering inputs from different media and materials. The result is a syncretic original product, created to satisfy the refined taste of urban mercantile elites. These lamps definitely show how alien visual culture found a welcoming environment in the countries involved in ancient globalisation.
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Tiuteleva, Sofia. "Hippocampus: the heritage of ancient bestiary in the images of theatricalized action and art objects of the XVI century." Культура и искусство, no. 5 (May 2020): 120–29. http://dx.doi.org/10.7256/2454-0625.2020.5.32829.
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This article presents the results of research of text sources associated with the image of Hippocampus or seahorse in the European culture of antiquity of the early modern age. The author examines the use of this image of Roman culture and adaptation of this character by modern arts in accordance with the Roman patterns. Within the framework of this research, the author uses not only the visual sources, but also other cases of depiction of the image of Hippocampus. Emphasis is made on impersonation of the image of Hippocampus in art objects and images of theatricalizes performances of the XVI century. The work employs semiotic and complex methods of research, as well as traditional methods of art history, historical and formal analysis. The analysis of similar cases allows observing the whole picture of the sources of formation of various form of European art of modern age. Special interest for the author presents impersonation of the image of Hippocampus in modern theatricalized performances as one of the attributes of sea deities, as well as the instances of its application.
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Dorin, Alan, and Eva Anagnostou-Laoutides. "The Silver Triton." Nuncius 33, no. 1 (January 23, 2018): 1–24. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/18253911-03301001.
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Abstract This article assesses the imperial Roman technological options and cultural impetus for constructing and displaying an automaton Triton. Suetonius reports that such a figure announced the commencement of a staged sea battle organised by Emperor Claudius to entertain the Roman citizens in 52 CE. This automaton, whose feasibility we assess, fits neatly as an application of the pneumatic techniques summarised by Heron of Alexandria, who was probably alive at the time. By drawing attention to this little discussed passage of Suetonius, our article corroborates the idea that these techniques were useful – here contributing to the “media-image” and audio-visual culture of Claudius’ imperial agenda – and that their wondrous effects provided an intellectual bridge between their practical utility and their ability to contribute to the philosophy of science and technology.
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Brooks, Mary M., Sonia O’Connor, Christopher Caple, C. Pamela Graves, and Anita Quye. "FRAGMENTS OF FAITH: UNPICKING ARCHBISHOP JOHN MORTON’S VESTMENTS." Antiquaries Journal 100 (June 19, 2020): 274–303. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s000358152000027x.
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This paper uses evidence from a previously unresearched ecclesiastical textile associated with Archbishop John Morton (c 1420−1500) to generate new insights into the material culture of the Roman Catholic faith before, during and after the penal period in England (c 1558−1829). This composite textile was initially thought to be made up of fragments of a late 1400s cope bearing Morton’s rebus, reconfigured as an altar frontal, which had survived in the house of an important Roman Catholic family. The embroidered motifs include a unique Lily Crucifix. The textile’s complex biography is ‘unpicked’ using physical and textual evidence to understand its changing forms, roles and significance. Analysis of the material and construction, combined with evidence gained through X-radiography, showed the frontal to be composed of parts of a cope and at least one other vestment, with a now missing image of the Annunciation. Mapping the stages of fragmentation, removal and re-modelling demonstrates the transformation of significant mainstream vestments into other forms. The paper illuminates aspects of Morton’s faith and provides new insights into the practices of recusant Roman Catholics.
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Shaner, Katherine A. "Seeing Rape and Robbery: ἁρπαγμαός and the Philippians Christ Hymn (Phil. 2:5-11)." Biblical Interpretation 25, no. 3 (June 21, 2017): 342–63. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/15685152-00253p04.
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In the first century ce, images of Roman imperial figures subduing foreign, sexualized women were installed throughout the civic spaces of the Empire as a celebration of victory over other nations. The well-known reliefs on the Sebasteion in Aphrodisias are just one example. Images like these dominated the visual fields of ancient people, working to persuade viewers of certain ideals about power, beauty, and authority. This article argues that setting the Philippians Christ hymn (Phil. 2:5-11) in the context of this visual culture and rhetoric helps solve a significant lexical problem: the meaning of ἁρπαγμός in Phil. 2:6. Methodologically, I argue that reading the Christ hymn in conversation with the visual rhetoric of the Aphrodisian reliefs, and other images like them throughout imperial cities, significantly shifts the interpretative framework for the hymn. The use of sexualized women’s bodies to depict conquered peoples suggests that ἁρπαγμός means “rape and robbery” rather than “something to be exploited or grasped” as most major lexica and biblical translations suggest. Theologically, Phil. 2:6 thus fits with first-century discourses around the image and power of divine emperors rather than later inter-Christian arguments about pre-existence. The result is a hymn that simultaneously critiques Roman practices of “rape and robbery” and also draws on imperial power structures.
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Keppie, Lawrence. "The changing face of the Roman legions (49 BC–AD 69)." Papers of the British School at Rome 65 (November 1997): 89–102. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s006824620001059x.
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IL MUTEVOLE ASPETTO DELLE LEGIONI ROMANE (49 a.C. - 69 d.C.)I 125 anni tra le guerre civili della tarda Repubblica e la fine del periodo Giulio-Claudio testimoniarono un cambiamento drammatico nel personale delle legioni romane: i posti occupati dagli Italiani vennero gradualmente occupati da uomini provenienti dalle province dell'Impero, che quindi provenivano dalle più diverse culture. La prospettiva di lunghi anni di servizio su distanti frontiere aveva alienato le tradizionali fonti di forza lavoro. Questo articolo suggerisce che il cambiamento era in atto prima di quanto fosse generalmente supposto. Pochi Italiani ritornavano a casa dopo il servizio. In genere i legionari non avevano alcun legame emotivo con la città di Roma, al punto che ben pochi avevano mai la possibilità di visitarla.
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Platt, Verity. "The Matter of Classical Art History." Daedalus 145, no. 2 (April 2016): 69–78. http://dx.doi.org/10.1162/daed_a_00377.
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Though foundational to the study of art history, Greco-Roman visual culture is often sidelined by the modern, and overshadowed by its own cultural and intellectual reception. Recent scholarship, however, has meticulously unpacked the discipline's formative narratives, while building on archaeological and literary studies in order to locate its objects of analysis more precisely within the dynamic cultural frameworks that produced them, and that were in turn shaped by them. Focusing on a passage from Pliny the Elder's Natural History (arguably the urtext of classical art history), this paper explores the perennial question of how the material stuff of antiquity can be most effectively yoked to the thinking and sensing bodies that inhabited it, arguing that closer attention to ancient engagements with materialism can alert us to models of image-making and viewing that are both conceptually and physically grounded in Greco-Roman practices of production, sense perception, and interpretation.
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Prag, Jonathan R. W. "Auxilia and Gymnasia: A Sicilian Model of Roman Imperialism." Journal of Roman Studies 97 (November 2007): 68–100. http://dx.doi.org/10.3815/000000007784016061.
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This paper examines the evidence for military activity in the Republican provincia of Sicily from the Punic Wars to the Civil Wars, and the implications of this for our understanding of Republican Sicily and Republican imperialism. After the Second Punic War there was very little use of Roman or Italian allied soldiers on the island, but extensive use, by Rome, of local Sicilian soldiers. The rich evidence for gymnasia suggests one way in which this use of local manpower was based upon existing civic structures and encouraged local civic culture and identity. These conclusions prompt a reassessment of the importance of auxilia externa under the Roman Republic and of models for Republican imperial control of provinciae.