Roman Strigillated Sarcophagi

Roman Strigillated Sarcophagi
Author: Janet Huskinson
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 366
Release: 2015-11-05
Genre: History
ISBN: 0191019534

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
Author: Verity Platt
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 737
Release: 2017-04-20
Genre: Art
ISBN: 1316943275

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
Author: Jaś Elsner
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
Total Pages: 455
Release: 2011
Genre: Art
ISBN: 3110202131

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
Author: Janet Huskinson
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 170
Release: 1996
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 9780198140863

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.

The Death of Myth on Roman Sarcophagi

The Death of Myth on Roman Sarcophagi
Author: Mont Allen
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 293
Release: 2022-12-31
Genre: Art
ISBN: 1316510913

This book explores the disappearance of Greek mythic imagery from the Roman sarcophagi in the 3rd Century.

Roman Tombs and the Art of Commemoration

Roman Tombs and the Art of Commemoration
Author: Barbara Borg
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 371
Release: 2019-04-18
Genre: Art
ISBN: 1108472834

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

Depicting the Dead

Depicting the Dead
Author: Stine Birk
Publisher:
Total Pages: 344
Release: 2013
Genre: History
ISBN:

Explores how to read Roman sarcophagi, starting from those adorned with portraits and placing them within a social context; investigates gender values and childhood as reflected in the visual language of sarcophagus reliefs and shows how standardised iconography could be used to construct personal and social memory.

Greek Myths in Roman Art and Culture

Greek Myths in Roman Art and Culture
Author: Zahra Newby
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 409
Release: 2016-09-15
Genre: Art
ISBN: 1107072247

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

Art and Rhetoric in Roman Culture

Art and Rhetoric in Roman Culture
Author: Jaś Elsner
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 527
Release: 2014-10-02
Genre: Art
ISBN: 1107000718

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

Supports in Roman Marble Sculpture

Supports in Roman Marble Sculpture
Author: Anna Anguissola
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 282
Release: 2018-02-15
Genre: Art
ISBN: 1108307922

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.