Roman Strigillated Sarcophagi

Roman Strigillated Sarcophagi PDF Author: Janet Huskinson
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0191019534
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 366

Get Book Here

Book Description
This is the first full study of Roman strigillated sarcophagi, which are the largest group of decorated marble sarcophagi to survive in the city of Rome. Characterized by panels of carved fluting - hence the description 'strigillated', after the curved strigil used by Roman bathers to scrape off oil - and limited figure scenes, they were produced from the mid-second to the early fifth century AD, and thus cover a critical period in Rome, from empire to early Christianity. Roman Strigillated Sarcophagi focuses on their rich potential as an historical source for exploring the social and cultural life of the city in the later empire. The first part of the volume examines aspects of their manufacture, use, and viewing, emphasizing distinctive features. The second part looks at the figured representations carved on the sarcophagi, and at their social significance and creativity, concentrating on how their various arrangements allowed viewers to develop their own interpretations. The subjects represented by the figures and the flexibility with which they might be read, provide invaluable insights into how Romans thought about life and death during these changing times. The final part of the volume surveys how later societies responded to Roman strigillated sarcophagi. From as early as the fifth century AD their distinctive decoration and allusions to the Roman past made them especially attractive for reuse in particular contemporary contexts, notably for elite burials and the decoration of prominent buildings. The motif of curved fluting was also adopted and adapted: it decorated neo-classical memorials to Captain Cook, Napoleon's sister-in-law Christine Boyer, and Penelope Boothby, and its use continues into this century, well over one and a half millennia since it first decorated Roman sarcophagi.

Roman Strigillated Sarcophagi

Roman Strigillated Sarcophagi PDF Author: Janet Huskinson
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0191019534
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 366

Get Book Here

Book Description
This is the first full study of Roman strigillated sarcophagi, which are the largest group of decorated marble sarcophagi to survive in the city of Rome. Characterized by panels of carved fluting - hence the description 'strigillated', after the curved strigil used by Roman bathers to scrape off oil - and limited figure scenes, they were produced from the mid-second to the early fifth century AD, and thus cover a critical period in Rome, from empire to early Christianity. Roman Strigillated Sarcophagi focuses on their rich potential as an historical source for exploring the social and cultural life of the city in the later empire. The first part of the volume examines aspects of their manufacture, use, and viewing, emphasizing distinctive features. The second part looks at the figured representations carved on the sarcophagi, and at their social significance and creativity, concentrating on how their various arrangements allowed viewers to develop their own interpretations. The subjects represented by the figures and the flexibility with which they might be read, provide invaluable insights into how Romans thought about life and death during these changing times. The final part of the volume surveys how later societies responded to Roman strigillated sarcophagi. From as early as the fifth century AD their distinctive decoration and allusions to the Roman past made them especially attractive for reuse in particular contemporary contexts, notably for elite burials and the decoration of prominent buildings. The motif of curved fluting was also adopted and adapted: it decorated neo-classical memorials to Captain Cook, Napoleon's sister-in-law Christine Boyer, and Penelope Boothby, and its use continues into this century, well over one and a half millennia since it first decorated Roman sarcophagi.

The Frame in Classical Art

The Frame in Classical Art PDF Author: Verity Platt
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1316943275
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 737

Get Book Here

Book Description
The frames of classical art are often seen as marginal to the images that they surround. Traditional art history has tended to view framing devices as supplementary 'ornaments'. Likewise, classical archaeologists have often treated them as tools for taxonomic analysis. This book not only argues for the integral role of framing within Graeco-Roman art, but also explores the relationship between the frames of classical antiquity and those of more modern art and aesthetics. Contributors combine close formal analysis with more theoretical approaches: chapters examine framing devices across multiple media (including vase and fresco painting, relief and free-standing sculpture, mosaics, manuscripts and inscriptions), structuring analysis around the themes of 'framing pictorial space', 'framing bodies', 'framing the sacred' and 'framing texts'. The result is a new cultural history of framing - one that probes the sophisticated and playful ways in which frames could support, delimit, shape and even interrogate the images contained within.

Life, Death and Representation

Life, Death and Representation PDF Author: Jaś Elsner
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
ISBN: 3110202131
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 455

Get Book Here

Book Description
The volume presents essays on different aspects of Roman sarcophagi. These varied approaches produce freshinsights into a subject which has received increased interest in English-language scholarship, with a new awareness of the important contribution that sarcophagi can make to the study of the social use and production of Roman art. Metropolitan sarcophagi are the main focus of the volume, which will cover a wide time range from the first century AD to post classical periods (including early Christian sarcophagi and post-classical reception). Other papers will look at aspects of viewing and representation, iconography, and marble analysis.

Roman Children's Sarcophagi

Roman Children's Sarcophagi PDF Author: Janet Huskinson
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 9780198140863
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 170

Get Book Here

Book Description
This is the first major study of the themes used in the decoration of sarcophagi made for children in Rome and Ostia from the late first to early fourth century AD. Using the subject categories adopted by other recent books on Roman Sarcophagi, Huskinson catalogs examples of each type, and discusses how these fit into the general pattern. Huskinson also discerns the differing themes that resulted from pagan and Christian attitudes towards children and beliefs about life and death.

Roman Tombs and the Art of Commemoration

Roman Tombs and the Art of Commemoration PDF Author: Barbara Borg
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108472834
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 371

Get Book Here

Book Description
Explores four key questions around Roman funerary customs that change our view of the society and its values.

Art and Rhetoric in Roman Culture

Art and Rhetoric in Roman Culture PDF Author: Jaś Elsner
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107000718
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 527

Get Book Here

Book Description
Demonstrates the central significance of rhetoric in ancient responses to and receptions of Roman art.

The Death of Myth on Roman Sarcophagi

The Death of Myth on Roman Sarcophagi PDF Author: Mont Allen
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 100904124X
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 293

Get Book Here

Book Description
A strange thing happened to Roman sarcophagi in the third century: their Greek mythic imagery vanished. Since the beginning of their production a century earlier, these beautifully carved coffins had featured bold mythological scenes. How do we make sense of this imagery's own death on later sarcophagi, when mythological narratives were truncated, gods and heroes were excised, and genres featuring no mythic content whatsoever came to the fore? What is the significance of such a profound tectonic shift in the Roman funerary imagination for our understanding of Roman history and culture, for the development of its arts, for the passage from the High to the Late Empire and the coming of Christianity, but above all, for the individual Roman women and men who chose this imagery, and who took it with them to the grave? In this book, Mont Allen offers the clues that aid in resolving this mystery.

Greek Myths in Roman Art and Culture

Greek Myths in Roman Art and Culture PDF Author: Zahra Newby
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107072247
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 409

Get Book Here

Book Description
A new reading of the portrayal of Greek myths in Roman art, revealing important shifts in Roman values and identities.

Supports in Roman Marble Sculpture

Supports in Roman Marble Sculpture PDF Author: Anna Anguissola
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108307922
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 282

Get Book Here

Book Description
Figural and non-figural supports are a ubiquitous feature of Roman marble sculpture; they appear in sculptures ranging in size from miniature to colossal and of all levels of quality. At odds with modern ideas about beauty, completeness, and visual congruence, these elements, especially non-figural struts, have been dismissed by scholars as mere safeguards for production and transport. However, close examination of these features reveals the tastes and expectations of those who commissioned, bought, and displayed marble sculptures throughout the Mediterranean in the Hellenistic and Roman periods. Drawing on a large body of examples, Greek and Latin literary sources, and modern theories of visual culture, this study constitutes the first comprehensive investigation of non-figural supports in Roman sculpture. The book overturns previous conceptions of Roman visual values and traditions and challenges our understanding of the Roman reception of Greek art.

The Oxford Handbook of Roman Sculpture

The Oxford Handbook of Roman Sculpture PDF Author: Elise A. Friedland
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199921822
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 737

Get Book Here

Book Description
Situates the study of Roman sculpture within the fields of art history, classical archaeology, and Roman studies, presenting technical, scientific, literary, and theoretical approaches.