Traditional studies of Roman art have sought to identify an indigenous style distinct from Greek art and in the process have neglected the large body of Roman work that creatively recycled Greek artworks. In this fresh assessment the author offers instead a cultural history of the functions of the visual arts, the messages that these images carried, and the values that they affirmed in late Republican Rome and the Empire. The analysis begins at the point at which the characteristic features of Roman art started to emerge, when the Romans were exposed to Hellenistic culture through their conquest of Greek lands in the third century BCE. As a result, the values and social and political structure of Roman society changed, as did the functions and characters of the images it generated.
Traditional studies of Roman art have sought to identify an indigenous style distinct from Greek art and in the process have neglected the large body of Roman work that creatively recycled Greek artworks. In this fresh assessment the author offers instead a cultural history of the functions of the visual arts, the messages that these images carried, and the values that they affirmed in late Republican Rome and the Empire. The analysis begins at the point at which the characteristic features of Roman art started to emerge, when the Romans were exposed to Hellenistic culture through their conquest of Greek lands in the third century BCE. As a result, the values and social and political structure of Roman society changed, as did the functions and characters of the images it generated.
Content Note
1. A new art based on Greek forms. Hellenistic culture changes the lifestyle of Roman aristocrats ; New spaces for images: the villa as the locus of otium ; The sculptures of the Villa of the Papyri, Herculaneum ; Opening up worlds of the imagination ; Selecting the best: imitation as cultural destiny ; Popular art? -- 2. The representation of power and prestige: conflicting images. Public art outside Rome ; Competition among the mighty ; Pride in one's own face -- 3. Images of power: dominion and world order in the empire. Imperial portraiture under the empire ; The barbarian and the amphitheater ; Imperial art as a system ; Imperial art and public ceremony: "historical" reliefs ; Official art as "propaganda"? How did the images function? ; Internalizing the cliches of imperial art -- 4. The Roman house as theater of the joys of life. A culture of hospitality and entertainment ; Images and their associations ; Living with myth ; Fantasy worlds ; Costly furnishings -- 5. Tomb and self-image. Memoria and achievement ; Withdrawal from the public gaze ; Mourning, solace, and joie de vivre: the imagery of sarcophagi -- 6. Rome and the empire. A patchwork of cultures ; The ruler-cult and the image of the emperor ; Funerary self-representation in the provinces ; The Greek east remains true to its own traditions ; "Schools" of sculpture -- 7. Toward Late Antiquity. A new image for the emperor ; New images for a changed mentality.