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  1. Introduction
  2.  
  3. “Roman art” is an inherently loose term. At its most basic level, the category refers to the visual culture produced in Rome and the territories of the Roman Empire: chronologically speaking, this means materials from between around the mid-1st millennium BCE and the mid-1st millennium CE (from the founding of the Roman Republic to the fall of the Western Roman Empire: see Periodization and Chronology); from a geographical perspective, Roman art encompasses materials from the British isles and Scandinavia in the west and north, to Armenia and Egypt in the east and south (see Regional Variations). If Roman art therefore refers to objects hugely disparate across time and space, it also includes a host of medial forms—from buildings and architectural monuments, through sculpture, painting, and mosaics, to goods in both luxury metal and humble terracotta (see Media). How, then, to define the Romanness of Roman art? This question has a long and contentious history, bound up with parallel scholarship on “Greek art” (see Historiography, as well as the Oxford Bibliographies in Art History article on Greek Art and Architecture). Two issues are important to emphasize from the outset. First, it is impossible to draw any straightforward distinction between “Roman” and “Greek” works. Second, the sheer geographical diversity of Roman art makes it inherently eclectic and pluralistic. These two observations reflect a radical rethinking about the subject in recent years. Traditionally, Roman visual culture was seen as the poor relation to its ancient Greek counterpart (see Historiography; Media: Sculpture: “Idealplastik”). Since the 1980s, by contrast, work on Roman art has looked markedly different. Motivated in part by postmodern interests (particularly the issue of “originals” and “copies”), and partly by postcolonial ideas about “provincial” art, scholars are today looking at Roman art through a much more sophisticated theoretical lens.
  4.  
  5. In structuring this article, we have tried to select the most useful resources from a range of interpretative approaches. Although the field can at times seem fragmented and fractionized, students and scholars must depend on a variety of materials—both classificatory typologies and more comparative interpretive and theoretical analyses; by the same token, they will need to consult not only museum catalogues, but also more archaeologically oriented surveys of context and provenance. Despite its focus (wherever possible) on English materials, our survey emphasizes the international nature of available resources: advanced undergraduate and graduate students simply cannot get by without consulting materials in (above all) German, French, and Italian, as well as in English. Two other factors merit mentioning here: first, we have paid particular attention to materials with good-quality photographs and images (flagging the issue in our commentaries); second, we have tended to reference (wherever possible) the most recent interventions within the field, with a particular emphasis on book-length monographs and influential articles.
  6.  
  7. General Resources
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  9. Students of Roman art will want to be familiar with a number of different general resources. By way of introduction, this section brings together some of the most influential Textbooks (with particular emphasis on undergraduate teaching resources), while also listing some important general Reference Works (which will be more important to graduate students and scholars alike). Many of the Anthologies and Edited Volumes listed in this section are targeted at a combined undergraduate and more specialist readership. To this end, we have also selectively surveyed some of the most important Journals (in fact, a very small fraction of those available), as well as some important Online Object Databases.
  10.  
  11. Textbooks
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  13. Despite the best efforts of scholars (e.g. Bianchi-Bandinelli 1970; Andreae 1978; and most recently Coarelli, et al. 2011–2013), there is still no single, definitive book-length “history” of Roman art. This fact reveals the disparate nature of the materials, and contrasts poignantly with scholarship on Greek art: to write such a definitive history of Roman art would seem an inherently impossible task (cf. e.g. Kampen 2003, cited under Historiography). Most introductory textbooks favor a chronological rather than geographic structure, following the chosen frameworks of introductory undergraduate survey courses, especially in North America (cf. Periodization and Chronology). Despite its hefty price, many US undergraduate and graduate courses favor Kleiner 2007 because of its color images and cross-medial breadth. Ramage and Ramage 2009 is more linear in its history (and more affordable); as a textbook, however, it is arguably better at delivering “content” than at encouraging students to pose more thematic or methodological questions. Others textbooks are decidedly more social- and cultural-historical in focus, using artifacts to illustrate broader patterns of Roman cultural and social history: D’Ambra 1998 and Zanker 2010 are notable both for their thematic organization and high-quality images, while Beard and Henderson 2001 is the most successful at encouraging independent critical evaluation (interweaving issues of reception). For a more advanced handbook to graduate courses—and an introduction to the latest scholarship on particular themes, media, and methodological challenges—Borg 2015 (cited under Anthologies and Edited Volumes) is unsurpassed. Many of the introductory works listed in other sections also make for popular textbooks: Henig 1983 and Stewart 2004 (both cited under Media) have the virtue of organizing materials according to particular media, while Kleiner 1992 (cited under Media: Sculpture) offers the most detailed English textbook on Roman sculpture specifically. We have also included Brilliant 1974 here: this book was in many ways ahead of its time in combining a thematic discussion of “major themes in Roman art” with a chronological discussion of “period styles”; it is still useful as supplementary (and thought-provoking) undergraduate reading.
  14.  
  15. Andreae, Bernard. The Art of Rome. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1978.
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  17. Large (665-pp.) and lavishly illustrated translation of Andreae’s German book, Römische Kunst (Freiburg, Germany: Herder, 1983); many of the 900 pictures provide large, fold-out images. A veritable compendium of materials, but some interpretations are now dated, and by no means all the illustrations are fully discussed in the text.
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  19. Beard, Mary, and John Henderson. Classical Art: From Greece to Rome. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.
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  21. An intellectually effervescent volume that combines thematically arranged historical readings of different media with a strong emphasis on issues of reception and cross-cultural comparison. Excellent color illustrations throughout. From a pedagogical angle, the book has been judged better at encouraging students to ask questions of the material than at conveying answers or teaching formalist analysis.
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  23. Bianchi-Bandinelli, Ranuccio. Rome: The Centre of Power. Roman Art to AD 200. London: Thames and Hudson, 1970.
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  25. Translated from French (Rome: Le centre du pouvoir; Paris: Editions Gallimard, 1969), and the first of two volumes on Roman art within a series on “the arts of mankind” (for the second volume, see Bianchi-Bandinelli 1971, cited under Periodization and Chronology: The Later Empire). A monumental synthesis that proceeds from Etruscan art to the Antonine emperors, emphasizing Roman art as a “specific historical phenomenon of a certain society and culture” (p. ix), albeit strongly centered around Rome itself.
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  27. Brilliant, Richard. Roman Art from the Republic to Constantine. London: Phaidon, 1974.
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  29. An attempt to combine a series of thematic analyses of Roman art, structured around different media; a final chapter offers a chronological overview (“period styles in the figured arts,” pp. 221–268). The organization makes for a slightly less coherent whole than other textbooks, but individual chapters and sub-chapters supplement, e.g., Ramage and Ramage 2009. Black-and-white illustrations.
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  31. Coarelli, Filippo, Bernard Andreae, and Gilles Sauron. Römische Kunst. 3 vols. Darmstadt and Mainz, Germany: Philipp von Zabern, 2011–2013.
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  33. In German. Three large volumes, dealing respectively with the periods “von den Anfängen bis zur mittleren Republik” (Coarelli), “von der mittleren Republik bis Augustus” (Sauron), and “von Augustus bis Constantin” (Andreae). Crisp and up-to-date text, with glossy color pictures. Now surpasses e.g. Andreae 1978.
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  35. D’Ambra, Eve. Art and Identity in the Roman World. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1998.
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  37. D’Ambra’s thematic rather than chronological approach makes for an engaging textbook (albeit one that sometimes assumes previous knowledge); the five thematic chapters stress Roman art’s social and cultural contexts (both “private” and “public”), with a particular emphasis on questions of identity, patronage, and social hierarchy. Color images and portable size. Less systematic as an undergraduate textbook than e.g. Ramage and Ramage 2009.
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  39. Kleiner, Fred. A History of Roman Art. Belmont, CA: Thompson Wadsworth, 2007.
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  41. Chronologically arranged, with additional thematic chapters/geographic foci (e.g. “Pompeii and Herculaneum in the first century CE,” “Burying the dead during the high Empire,” “Lepcis Magna and the Eastern Provinces”). Excellent color photographs throughout, and engaging textboxes. Despite the hefty price, ideal for undergraduate surveys, and a good supplement to e.g. Ramage and Ramage 2009.
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  43. Ramage, Nancy, and Andrew Ramage. Roman Art: Romulus to Constantine. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2009.
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  45. A favorite, chronologically organized guide for basic undergraduate teaching (the edition cited here is the fifth edition; the first was published in 1991). After a preliminary introduction and discussion of “Etruscan forerunners,” chapters are organized according to Imperial dynasty, each surveying a range of media. This newest edition has integrated color pictures and “spotlight” textboxes, as well as numerous drawings and maps. Some interpretations now look decidedly dated.
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  47. Zanker, Paul. Roman Art. Los Angeles: Getty, 2010.
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  49. This short but digestible book, arranged into seven thematic chapters, is translated from Zanker’s earlier German volume (Römische Kunst; Munich: C. H. Beck, 2008). Zanker frequently attempts to explain Roman art as a “system” (pp. vii–viii), with an emphasis on production and social history.
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  51. Reference Works
  52.  
  53. The works cited under this category fall into four broad categories. First, encyclopedias of ancient art and ancient artists (Bianchi-Bandinelli and Becatti 1958–1973, Vollkommer 2001–2004). Second, standard larger reference works, dealing with e.g. the different stages of historical and cultural development of the Roman world across a variety of sectors (Haase and Temporini 1972–), or else ancient history and culture at large (Cancik, et al. 2006). Third, volumes dealing with particular subjects, themes, and media, such as mythological imagery or epigraphy (Ackermann, et al. 1981–1997; Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum). And fourth, works that provide overviews of individual archaeological sites (Pugliese Caratelli 1990–2003, Steinby 2001–2013, Carandini 2012). In addition to the sources listed here, other reference works in the fields of classics, ancient history, and art history can provide valuable contextual information for approaching Roman art. Most of the works cited in this section derive from collaborative and international projects—many of them originating from the late 19th century (the heyday of encyclopedic works on all aspects of the ancient world). As a result, the volumes surveyed in this section are written in a host of different European languages—often incorporating different languages within one and the same encyclopedic project (e.g. Ackermann, et al. 1981–1997, with entries in English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish).
  54.  
  55. Ackermann, Hans Christoph, Jean-Robert Gisler, and Lilly Kahil, eds. Lexicon iconographicum mythologiae classicae. 9 vols. Zurich, Switzerland, and Munich: Artemis Verlag, 1981–1997.
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  57. Entries in English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish. Known as LIMC, this resource is organized alphabetically according to mythological name. Entries contain a detailed further bibliography and concise guides to the individual objects catalogued (although some are already dated); each volume is divided into two parts (the second containing black-and-white illustrations). Online version of the French datasets are available here and here.
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  59. Bianchi-Bandinelli, Ranuccio, and Claudio Becatti, eds. Enciclopedia dell’arte antica classica e orientale. 7 vols (with additional supplements). Rome: Treccani, 1958–1973.
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  61. In Italian. Known as EAA, this is a comprehensive guide to ancient artistic production, including information on artistic elements, artworks, sites, artists, and ancient art critical writing. Extensively illustrated in black and white and color, and each entry is accompanied by a short bibliography. (Additional volumes: Pugliese Caratelli, Giovanni, ed. 1994–2003).
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  63. Cancik, Hubert, Helmuth Schneider, Manfred Landfester, and Christine F. Salazar, eds. Brill’s New Pauly: Encyclopaedia of the Ancient World. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2006.
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  65. English translation of a revised landmark German encyclopedia (Der Neue Pauly: Enzyklopädie der Antike. Stuttgart: J. B. Metzler, 2003): Brill’s New Pauly covers a wide range of figures, places, works, themes, and historical events, with detailed bibliographies. An online version is available for purchase. Scholars still consult the project’s more detailed German predecessor, the so-called RE (Pauly, August, et al., eds. Paulys Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft; Stuttgart: J. B. Metzler, 1894–1980).
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  67. Carandini, Andrea. Atlante di Roma. 2 vols. Milan: Electa, 2012.
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  69. In Italian. An “atlas” guide to metropolitan Roman urbanism, providing plentiful color line drawings of buildings, sites, artworks, and building techniques; covers Rome and its immediate environs. A useful starting-point both for students and scholars, complementing the detailed scholarly discussions in Steinby 2001–2013.
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  71. Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum. 17 vols. Berlin: de Gruyter, 1862–.
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  73. In Latin. Known as CIL, this work aims to catalogue all known Latin inscriptions (which are organized chronologically, by region or genre). Includes many inscriptions relevant to the study of individual Roman monuments and sites. An online database is available here, and digitized volumes here.
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  75. Haase, Wolfgang, and Hildegard Temporini, eds. Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt. Berlin and New York: de Gruyter, 1972–.
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  77. Chapters in multiple European languages. Known as ANRW, this series has grown into a comprehensive collection of substantial scholarly articles discussing all aspects of the Roman world from the Republic to Late Antiquity (also including its reception); organized into six sections (political history, law, religion, language and literature, philosophy and the sciences, arts), each with several volumes.
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  79. Pugliese Caratelli, Giovanni, ed. Pompei: Pitture e mosaici. 11 vols. Rome: Istituto della Enciclopedia italiana, 1990–2003.
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  81. In Italian. Known as PPM, this series of books is an essential research tool for all research on Pompeii. It offers a comprehensive, richly illustrated guide to the wall, ceiling, and floor decoration of Pompeian buildings, while also including architectural information and detailed bibliographies. Discussions of pictures and mosaics (with extensive and high-quality images) are organized according to town regions, insulae, and house entrances.
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  83. Steinby, Eva-Maria, ed. Lexicon Topographicum Urbis Romae. 12 vols. Rome: Ed. Quasar, 2001–2013.
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  85. Known as LTUR, this is the essential guide to ancient Rome, organized by individual building or spaces; includes (where relevant) discussions of monuments and artworks, offering comprehensive critical interpretations and extensive bibliography; many objects are illustrated in black-and-white or line drawings.
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  87. Vollkommer, Rainer, ed. Künstlerlexikon der Antike. 2 vols. Munich: Saur, 2001–2004.
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  89. In German. Alphabetically organized encyclopedia of all known artists of Greek and Roman Antiquity, providing information on their oeuvre and literary and epigraphic references; each entry provides additional bibliography. Complements and extends information in the EAA (Bianchi-Bandinelli and Becatti 1958–1973). (See also further references under Makers.)
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  91. Anthologies and Edited Volumes
  92.  
  93. (To be distinguished from anthologies of ancient textual materials, which are discussed in the separate entry on Literary Sources.) Roman art has been the subject of numerous edited volumes and anthologies, of which we survey only a small selection here. Some of these volumes are intended primarily as undergraduate textbooks: Henig 1983, for example, gathers a host of specialist scholars to survey the various physical media of Roman art. Others are particularly useful to graduates and specialist scholars: most important is Borg 2015, which now offers the best (and most methodologically diverse) thematic introduction to Roman art; Marconi 2015 is also useful for its chapters that pertain to both Greek and Roman materials. Additional volumes deal more explicitly with questions of methodology and approach. Gazda 1991 and D’Ambra 1993 have both had a significant impact in shaping Anglophone “contextual” approaches to Roman art, for example, while Elsner 1996 was instrumental in bringing together Roman literary critics and art historians to consider visual and verbal interactions in Roman art and literature (a project most recently developed by Elsner and Meyer 2014). Since the late 20th century, another major theme of revisionist scholarship has been the consideration of “originals” and “copies” in Roman art and culture (cf. Media: Sculpture: “Idealplastik”): Gazda 2002 is just one of a number of important English edited collections which at once reflect and helped shape that agenda. In terms of German scholarship—influenced in particular by the work of Paul Zanker and Tonio Hölscher—Hölscher and Hölscher 2007 is particularly useful for showcasing a differently inflected concern with so-called Bilderwelten (the representational “worlds of images”) and Lebenswelt (the world as “lived in”).
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  95. Borg, Barbara, ed. A Companion to Roman Art. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2015.
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  97. A thorough thematic guide to Roman art and different frameworks for studying it; chapters also discuss its afterlife and disciplinary history, each complete with substantial bibliography and suggestions for further readings. Sections deal with “methods and approaches,” “Roman art in the making,” “genres,” “contexts,” “themes,” and “reception.” A useful starting-point for both students and scholars alike, and international in perspective.
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  99. D’Ambra, Eve, ed. Roman Art in Context: An Anthology. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1993.
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  101. Brings together, in one accessible volume, twelve of the most important articles on the social, political, and cultural aspects of Roman art in the late 20th century, with particular emphasis on patronage. Most of the articles have been revised (and sometimes abbreviated) from earlier publications; endnotes point undergraduates to some of the key bibliographies. Illustrated throughout, albeit with somewhat lackluster black-and-white images.
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  103. Elsner, Jaś, ed. Art and Text in Roman Culture. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
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  105. Landmark volume of essays exploring the interface between visual and verbal media in the Roman world. Individual chapters deal with a plethora of different ancient authors and monuments (the majority of contributors are specialists in Greek and Latin literature); collectively, chapters explore the importance of approaching Roman art and literature each through the lens of the other—something still all too rare within the field.
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  107. Elsner, Jaś, and Michel Meyer, eds. Art and Rhetoric in Roman Culture. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2014.
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  109. Approaches Roman visual culture from the perspective of ancient rhetorical theory, building a number of new interdisciplinary connections (and in many ways an extension of Elsner 1996). The eleven essays approach a variety of (chronologically disparate) Roman media, from public architecture to both domestic and funerary imagery.
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  111. Gazda, Elaine K. Roman Art in the Private Sphere: New Perspectives on the Architecture and Decor of the Domus, Villa, and Insula. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1991.
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  113. Six complementary essays, treating a range of media, which all focus on the domestic functions of visual imagery between the 1st century BCE and 4th century CE. Extensive references and mediocre black-and-white images. Useful for graduate seminars and advanced undergraduates.
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  115. Gazda, Elaine K. The Ancient Art of Emulation: Studies in Artistic Originality and Tradition from the Present to Classical Antiquity. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2002.
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  117. Combined art- and cultural-historical discussion of “originality” in the Roman world. Includes essays on the subsequent western reception of Roman art (see Legacy and Reception). Almost exclusive emphasis on (above all marble) sculpture; an editorial introduction (pp. 1–24) surveys scholarly developments in the late 20th century.
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  119. Henig, Martin, ed. A Handbook of Roman Art: A Comprehensive Survey of all the Arts of the Roman World. London: Phaidon, 1983.
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  121. (More readily available as a “second impression,” published in 1993.) Twelve accessible essays, with black-and-white illustrations (and some color plates): each chapter surveys a particular medium, analyzing the various technical challenges of its production and different uses within the Roman world.
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  123. Hölscher, Fernande, and Tonio Hölscher, eds. Römische Bilderwelten: Von der Wirklichkeit zum Bild und zurück. Heidelberg, Germany: Verlag Archäologie und Geschichte, 2007.
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  125. In German and Italian. Wide-ranging collection of specialist essays, exploring how images construct and mediate “reality” (and how “reality” was mediated and constructed through imagery). The emphasis is on sculpture, but contributions deal with a range of chronologically and geographically disparate media. For a detailed English review, cf. Bonner Jahrbücher 209 (2011): 388–392.
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  127. Marconi, Clemente, ed. The Oxford Handbook of Greek and Roman Art and Architecture. New York: Oxford University Press, 2015.
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  129. Useful for combining methodological questions pertinent to the study of art and architecture in the Greek and Roman worlds alike. The thirty chapters are split into sections on “pictures from the inside”, “Greek and Roman art and architecture in the making”, “ancient contexts”, “post-antique contexts” and “approaches” (discussing broader questions of methodology). Detailed introductions to bibliography throughout.
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  131. Journals
  132.  
  133. Journal articles are fundamental to graduate work and specialist scholarship on Roman art. Some of the periodicals listed here concentrate on Roman visual and material culture specifically (Journal of Roman Archaeology, Dialoghi di Archeologia); others include reports on the activities of the international academies that issue them, usually—though not exclusively—written in the corresponding language of the national institution (Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts: Römische Abteilung; Mélanges d’École française de Rome: Antiquité); others still consider Roman art within the wider context of ancient art or indeed within the disciplinary frame of art history tout court (Bulletin Antieke Beschaving, Art History). Classical Review contains short reviews of all the most important books within the field of classics (and therefore by extension Roman art history specifically). Other journals in the wider subject area of classics offer coverage of Roman art. The American Journal of Archaeology provides the most common abbreviations for periodicals here.
  134.  
  135. American Journal of Archaeology. 1885–.
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  137. Known as AJA, the journal of the Archaeological Institute of America publishes peer-reviewed papers on the art and archaeology of the whole Mediterranean, including good coverage of Roman art topics; also contains detailed reviews on new publications (many of which are available free online).
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  139. Art History. 1979–.
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  141. This journal of the UK Association of Art Association publishes peer-reviewed papers on the history of art in all periods and places; from its foundation in 1979 onward, the journal has long included articles (and some special issues) on Greek and Roman art, especially those taking their inspiration from more theoretical “art-historical” concerns or readings. Compare also Art Bulletin—the journal of the US College Art Association.
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  143. Bulletin Antieke Beschaving. 1926–.
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  145. Known as BABesch, this journal publishes peer-reviewed papers on the art and archaeology of the whole Mediterranean, with a good coverage of Roman painting. Currently no online access.
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  147. Classical Review. 1887–.
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  149. Contains short and expert reviews of the most important books within the field (normally within four years of publication, and by internationally respected experts within the field); despite the emphasis on English works, the journal reviews books in multiple languages. Valuable research resource for students and scholars alike. Numerous other material and online resources might be compared here (e.g. Bryn Mawr Classical Review), but Classical Review is widely respected for the consistent quality of its reviews.
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  151. Dialoghi di Archeologia. 1967–1992.
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  153. Founded by Ranuccio Bianchi-Bandinelli and his students, this now-discontinued journal published many seminal papers on Roman art from 1967 to 1992 (for example: Bianchi-Bandinelli 1967, cited under Historiography). One of the most controversial journals within the field, it helped bring a refreshing social-political perspective to the study of Roman art, and was famous above all for its Marxist historical slant.
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  155. Journal of Roman Archaeology. 1988–.
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  157. Known as JRA, this journal covers all aspects and geographical areas of Roman art and archaeology. Particularly useful for study and research are the synthetic reviews of publications within individual fields of Roman art scholarship. Accompanied by an extensive series of supplemental volumes. Articles are available for online purchase.
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  159. Mélanges d’École française de Rome: Antiquité. 1881–.
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  161. Known as MEFRA, and from 1881 to 1970 published within the Mélanges d’archéologie et d’histoire. This journal of the École française at Rome is dedicated to Antiquity and publishes peer-reviewed papers (some in English, but primarily in French) on the history, culture, and art of the Roman Mediterranean. Unlike most others within the field, this is an open-access journal.
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  163. Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts: Römische Abteilung. 1886–.
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  165. Known as RM or MDAI(R)—the journal of the German Archaeological Institute (Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, or DAI) at Rome; publishes peer-reviewed papers (some in English but most often in German) on all areas of Roman art and archaeology, including reports on fieldwork and other activities of the DAI. Currently no online access.
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  167. Online Object Databases
  168.  
  169. Online resources for the study of Roman art are steadily improving with regard to number, quality, and ease of access. Many institutions, museums, and archaeological sites now offer website access to part or all of their collections, including catalogue data, picture files, and the opportunity to procure illustrations (many people find ARTStor useful here, despite its limited number of ancient materials). Some of these resources have grown out of institutional archives, and many make available digital content which previously could only be accessed on site. Other databases derive from open collaborations, sometimes relying on continuous input from the academic community (inviting users to shape the resource by offering access to their Application Programming Interface). As such, some databases and websites give an excellent insight into emerging academic trends (consider, for example, the current focus on using geography as a means for linking different types of data, as best demonstrated by Pelagios). We have concentrated in this section on the most commonly used meta-gateways. These draw on a range of individual sources for their content, providing different degrees of linked data. Particularly important examples include Arachne (providing access to the German Archaeological Institute database) and CLAROS (which is based in part on the online databases of the Lexicon iconographicum mythologiae classicae (Ackermann, et al. 1981–1997) (LIMC): see Reference Works). No less useful—and for both undergraduates and specialist scholars alike—is the Perseus Digital Library: “Perseus” is important both for its object databases and for its compendium of ancient Greek and Latin texts (cf. Literary Sources), not to mention its additional reference materials. Whilst most of the sites listed here are nonprofit organizations (and do not therefore charge for access), others require personal or institutional subscription (e.g. ARTStor).
  170.  
  171. Arachne.
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  173. Database of the pictorial archives of the German Archaeological Institute (DAI), including catalogue records of objects and the facility to purchase illustrations for publication. A (free) personal user account provides access to images (usually sufficiently good quality for teaching and independent research). While a search interface is available in English, all metadata is in German only: users are best advised to search in German.
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  175. ARTstor.
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  177. A large digital image library, with image resources suitable for teaching. Access is available for purchase. For Roman art specifically, Arachne offers better coverage (and is free). Coverage is sketchy for ancient materials, but the site comes into its own in the context of later European reception (see Legacy and Reception). For acquiring images for teaching and publication, Artresource usually proves a better bet, although all images there have to be purchased.
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  179. CLAROS.
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  181. Overlapping in parts with Arachne and LIMC online (cited under Reference Works), CLAROS has grown out of the Classical Art Research Online Services. It provides images and metadata for all sorts of ancient monuments; the lack of an intuitive interface makes this much less user-friendly than other resources.
  182. Find this resource:
  183. Pelagios.
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  185. A gateway to open-linked geodata, structured around references to places in ancient texts and inscriptions; geographical places thereby serve as a means for organizing and accessing different types of information; interlinked with Arachne.
  186. Find this resource:
  187. Perseus Digital Library.
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  189. Extensive (albeit selective) online resource for assessing Greek and Latin texts, as well as (in many cases) English translations of them (cf. Literary Sources). The user interface offers some basic vocabulary and syntactical assistance for students reading texts in Latin and Greek. Some good coverage of ancient art, including illustrations, but with relatively limited resources for Roman monuments specifically.
  190. Find this resource:
  191. Historiography
  192.  
  193. The study of “Roman art” as a self-standing scholarly field is a relatively recent phenomenon. While Roman materials had long been known, emulated, and discussed (see Legacy and Reception), Winckelmann 2007—originally published in 1764—was among the first to evaluate the place of Roman materials in the larger “history of ancient art.” For Winckelmann, Roman art was a pale imitation of the Greek: aesthetically, it bore witness to the decline of ancient art since its Classical Greek heyday. Winckelmann’s shadow has loomed large over subsequent scholarship, setting the scholarly agenda of the 19th century. The end of the 19th century in particular witnessed various attempts to systematize the study of Roman “copies” in relation to Greek “originals”: particularly important here was the work of Adolf Furtwängler (Furtwängler 2010, cited under Media: Sculpture: “Idealplastik”; first published in German in 1893), which reconstructed lost Greek “masterworks” by comparing and contrasting extant Roman materials. While Furtwängler used Roman statues to reconstruct Greek “masterworks,” other more or less contemporary interventions helped to establish Roman art as a self-standing scholarly field. Three particularly important figures here were Johann Jakob Bernoulli, Alois Riegl, and Franz Wickhoff. Bernoulli 1882–1891 proved fundamental in systematically classifying Roman Imperial portraiture. Alois Riegl, by contrast, was primarily concerned with the transition from “Roman” to “Byzantine” art: for Riegl, Roman art did not simply testify to the “decline” of Greek art, but stood at the beginning of a new aesthetic tradition (Riegl 1985, cited under Periodization and Chronology: The Origins of Christian Art; first published in German in 1901). Riegl’s interest in a distinctive “Roman” tradition of art likewise relates back to an earlier 1895 book by Franz Wickhoff (English translation: Wickhoff 1900): one of Wickhoff’s most important contributions lay in his analysis of Roman historical reliefs, discussing the innovative mechanics of Roman visual narratives in relation to earlier Greek paradigms. Twentieth-century scholarship on Roman art was very much shaped by such debates. Particularly important was the issue of what is “Roman” about Roman art: Brendel 1979 was decisive in formulating that question, while Elsner 2004 offers a masterful bibliographic survey. Since the 1960s, another scholarly focus has been on the political nature of Roman art and its construction of Roman social structures—an approach best demonstrated by Bianchi-Bandinelli 1967. More recently, and above all in the aftermath of the 1980s, work has also focused on Roman art’s creative use of Greek templates: Kampen 2003 offers a stimulating overview of this historiography (with particular emphasis on new work discussing the gendered stakes of Roman art and its historiography), while Brilliant 2008 is strong on changing definitions about the “Romanness” of Roman art.
  194.  
  195. Bernoulli, Johann Jakob. Römische Ikonographie. 4 vols. Berlin and Stuttgart: Spemann, 1882–1891.
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  197. In German. Bernoulli’s work marks the beginning of the systematic study of Roman Imperial portraiture. These volumes demonstrate how hairstyles (especially the frontal row of locks) present an important pointer to the identification of individual emperor portraits, comparing the iconography of extant sculptures with the evidence of coins (see Media: Numismatics).
  198. Find this resource:
  199. Bianchi-Bandinelli, Ranuccio. “Arte plebeia.” Dialoghi di Archeologia 1 (1967): 7–19.
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  201. In Italian. Grounded in Marxist theory, Bianchi-Bandinelli’s article outlines the notion of Roman art as an essentially “plebeian art”—rooted not only in a specific social class, but also in native Italic and Etruscan visual cultural traditions. (For this highly influential approach, see also Bianchi-Bandinelli 1970, cited under General Resources: Textbooks).
  202. Find this resource:
  203. Brendel, Otto J. Prolegomena to the Study of Roman Art. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1979.
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  205. Framed as a review of German scholarship on Roman art, this essay introduces the notion of pluralism into Roman art scholarship, arguing that Roman patrons selected artistic styles according to the messages to be conveyed. Appeared first in Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome 21 (1953): 7–73.
  206. Find this resource:
  207. Brilliant, Richard. “Forwards and Backwards in the Historiography of Roman Art.” Journal of Roman Archaeology 21 (2008): 7–24.
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  209. Taking his lead from Brendel 1979, Brilliant here surveys different definitions of the “Romanness” of Roman art; the article also considers more recent ways of conceptualizing “Roman” art, in particular Roman artistic strategies of communication. A good (albeit slightly idiosyncratic) survey of the state of Roman art history in 2008.
  210. Find this resource:
  211. Elsner, Jaś. “Foreword.” In The Language of Images in Roman Art. By Tonio Hölscher. Translated by Anthony Snodgrass and Annemarie Künzl-Snodgrass, xv–xxxi. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2004.
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  213. This essay introduces Hölscher’s concept of “Bildsprache” (“language of images”—translating the book Hölscher originally published as Römische Bildsprache als semantisches System. Heidelberg, Germany: Winter, 1987; see Hölscher 2004, cited under Viewers). Elsner’s magisterial introduction to the volume explores the wider art-historical context within which Roman art scholarship developed from the late 19th century to the 1980s, with particular attention to Germanophone academic traditions.
  214. Find this resource:
  215. Kampen, Natalie B. “On Writing Histories of Roman Art.” Art Bulletin 85 (2003): 371–386.
  216. DOI: 10.2307/3177349Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  217. Taking its lead from Brendel 1979, Kampen’s excellent survey of past and present areas of scholarship in Roman art pays particular attention to the sociological backdrop (above all issues of gender). Follows on from the author’s earlier article, “On Not Writing a History of Roman Art” (Art Bulletin 77 (1995): 375–378).
  218. Find this resource:
  219. Wickhoff, Franz. Roman Art: Some of Its Principles and Their Application to Early Christian Painting. Translated by Eugenie Strong. London: W. Heinemann, 1900.
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  221. Originally published in German as an introduction to the publication of the Vienna Genesis manuscript (Wilhelm von Hartel and Franz Wickhoff. “Die Wiener Genesis.” Jahrbuch der kunsthistorischen Sammlungen des Allerhöchsten Kaiserhauses 15–16 (1895)). Surveys the development of Roman art from Augustus to Constantine; in doing so, Wickhoff throws into relief the genuinely “Roman” areas of artistic innovation—which he most notably identifies in terms of illusionism and continuous narrative.
  222. Find this resource:
  223. Winckelmann, Johann Joachim. History of the Art of Antiquity. Translated by Harry F. Mallgrave. Los Angeles: Getty, 2007.
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  225. Winckelmann’s study first appeared in German in 1764 (Geschichte der Kunst des Alterthums. Dresden, Germany: Walter), and in essence founded the disciplines of both Classical archaeology and art history at large. Winckelmann champions a cyclical model of art, shaped by beginning, development, and decline; aesthetically speaking, “Roman” art is seen very much as Greek art’s poorer (and highly derivative) relation.
  226. Find this resource:
  227. Periodization and Chronology
  228.  
  229. One of the most prevalent ways of approaching Roman art has been to proceed chronologically, charting the evolutionary histories of “period” styles, iconographies, and tastes. In line with most undergraduate student survey courses (above all in North America), chronology is also the favored organizational principle for the majority of introductory undergraduate textbooks on Roman art (e.g. Kleiner 2007, Ramage and Ramage 2009, all cited under General Resources: Textbooks; compare also Kleiner 1992, cited under Media: Sculpture). The difficulty with such approaches, of course, is that a temporal focus can obfuscate geographical variations (see Regional Variation); likewise, the criss-crossing between different media can overlook some of the remarkable continuations both in artistic form and in cultural practice (see Media). In this section, we provide a more detailed survey of “Roman art,” proceeding across time according to seven chronological categories: Etruscan Origins?; the Art of the Republic; the Augustan “Revolution”; the Imperial Succession; Hadrian and the Antonines; the Later Empire; and the Origins of Christian Art.
  230.  
  231. Etruscan Origins?
  232.  
  233. Although later Roman writers would devise their own myths of origins and civic foundations, centered around the region of Latium (in central western Italy), extant Iron Age material culture reveals a clear affiliation between the earliest “Roman” material culture and the arts and cultures of Etruria in the north. The precise nature of this debt has been much debated; indeed, some have looked to Etruscan origins to explain the distinctiveness of “Roman” artistic traditions in contrast to the “Greek” (see Historiography, and compare Gazda 1973). For basic surveys of Etruscan art right up to and including the later Roman Republic, the two best single-volume textbooks are Brendel 1995 and Spivey 1997 (the latter more subjective than the former—but provocatively so); Boëthius 1978 is focused on architecture, but particularly strong on continuities between “Etruscan” and “Roman” practices. For more advanced students (and those wanting the best-quality color photographs), Torelli 2000 is a monumental catalogue that originally accompanied an important exhibition on “The Etruscans,” while Bonfante 1986 and Turfa 2013 provide edited anthologies on Etruscan culture more generally; Turfa 2013 in particular looks set to become the standard advanced handbook for future research. There are also a host of specialist books on the earliest archaeology of Rome specifically: particularly important (and highly controversial) has been the work of Andrea Carandini (e.g. Carandini 2011), attempting to read the material record in terms of, for example, the “real-life” mythological figures Romulus and Remus.
  234.  
  235. Boëthius, Axel. Etruscan and Early Roman Architecture. Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin, 1978.
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  237. (Originally published as Part 1 of Etruscan and Roman Architecture. Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin, 1970, pp. 3–180. This edition has updated references and better-quality images.) Concise and well-illustrated (in black and white) handbook of Italian architecture from the 2nd millennium BCE to the “Hellenized Rome” of the late Republic. The chronological organization of chapters is coupled with thematic discussion of different types of buildings.
  238. Find this resource:
  239. Bonfante, Larissa, ed. Etruscan Life and Afterlife: A Handbook of Etruscan Studies. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1986.
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  241. Influential edited volume providing an international synthesis of work on Etruscan culture and archaeology; two chapters deal with “art” (pp. 92–173) and “architecture” (pp. 174–201), complete with thematic guides to bibliography (much of it now out of date).
  242. Find this resource:
  243. Brendel, Otto J. Etruscan Art. With additions by Francesca R. Serra Ridgway. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1995.
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  245. Revised, second edition of a book first published with the same name in 1978 (London: Penguin), including a useful updated bibliography; chronologically organized, from “Villanovan style and Orientalizing periods” to “Etruscan Hellenistic,” but with chapters dedicated to regional variations and specific media. A solid (if at times somewhat dense) undergraduate textbook.
  246. Find this resource:
  247. Carandini, Andrea. Rome: Day One. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2011.
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  249. Translation of Carandini’s Italian book, Roma: Il primo giorno (Rome: Laterza, 2007), and intended for a “general reader” audience. The book develops Carandini’s (highly controversial and much-disputed) thesis about a historical “Romulus” and the subsequent foundations of Rome from the mid-8th century BCE. Many of Carandini’s other books, published in Italian, advance related arguments from different angles.
  250. Find this resource:
  251. Gazda, Elaine K. “Etruscan Influence on the Funerary Reliefs of Late Republican Rome: A Study of Vernacular Portraiture.” In Aufstieg und Niedergang der Römischen Welt. Vol. 1.4. Edited by Wolfgang Haase and Hildegard Temporini, 855–870. Berlin and New York: de Gruyter, 1973.
  252. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  253. Crisp survey (with in-depth bibliographic references) of how Etruscan techniques and ideas about portraiture exerted an influence over Roman Republican practices, particularly focused on the 1st century BCE.
  254. Find this resource:
  255. Spivey, Nigel. Etruscan Art. London: Thames and Hudson, 1997.
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  257. A very readable “world of art” guide to Etruscan art, with the final two chapters dedicated to Republican Rome as an “Etruscan city” (pp. 149–182), and a broader account of the “Etruscan legacy” (pp. 183–207). A useful and portable thematic introduction that supplements the glossy in-depth analyses of e.g. Torelli 2000, but one that is considerably less detailed and systematic in its organization than e.g. Brendel 1995.
  258. Find this resource:
  259. Torelli, Mario, ed. The Etruscans. Venice: Bompiani, 2000.
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  261. Catalogue of a landmark museum exhibition held at the Palazzo Grassi; thematic essays (under the three headings “The Historical Context and the Economic, Social and Political Forms,” “Cultures and Forms of Art,” and “The Rediscovery of the Etruscans”) are coupled with in-depth information about displayed objects (“Catalogue of Works”). Excellent color illustrations throughout.
  262. Find this resource:
  263. Turfa, Jean Macintosh, ed. The Etruscan World. Abingdon, UK: Routledge, 2013.
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  265. Monumental compendium of sixty-three specially commissioned essays on virtually all aspects of Etruscan culture, life, and history (with surveys of secondary literature). Part 7—on “Etruscan specialties in art”—contains thirteen thematic essays on different Etruscan media and genres. The volume also contains a useful introductory chapter (with up-to-date bibliography) on the “Romanization of Etruria” (pp. 151–179). Very thoroughly indexed, and the most detailed reference guide for graduate courses.
  266. Find this resource:
  267. The Art of the Republic
  268.  
  269. In chronological terms, the Roman Republic stretched from the 6th century BCE to the late 1st century BCE (see the Augustan “Revolution”): this is a period during which Rome experienced many internal political and cultural shifts; it also saw its power and control expand significantly across the Italian Peninsula, Greece, and North Africa. In terms of scholarship on the visual culture of the Roman Republic, three bibliographic themes stand out in particular. First is the attempt to find in the Republican period a distinctly “Roman” archaeology for the main genres of later Roman art, especially state relief (Holliday 2002 typifies this approach; fundamental are also the earlier works Riegl 1985, cited under the Origins of Christian Art, and Wickhoff 1900, cited under Historiography; cf. Media: Sculpture: State Relief). Second—and very much related—is an interest in the portraits and commemorative monuments of Republican statesmen (e.g. Hölscher 1984), with several scholars charting the emergence and role of Roman portraiture within this period (Tanner 2000; cf. Giuliani 1986, cited under Media: Sculpture: Portraiture). A third strand of scholarship has concerned itself with Hellenistic Greek influences (Pollitt 1978, Fuchs 1999): Gruen 1993 has played an especially significant role here, analyzing the impact of Rome’s imperial expansion on its artistic production. In getting to grips with the art of the Roman Republic, students must deal with hugely diverse materials, and across a remarkably long timeframe; understanding the visual culture of this period also means understanding different cultural influences, not least Etruscan art and archaeology (see Etruscan Origins?). A substantial part of the scholarly endeavor has therefore been to corroborate different types of evidence—among them inscriptions, literary sources, coins, and archaeological plans. Evans 2013 is useful as a general student-friendly introductory overview of the material culture of the Roman Republic, while Sehlmeyer 1999 is the definitive reference guide to the epigraphy of Republican honorific sculpture. For undergraduates, Welch 2006 offers one of the best (and best-referenced) introductory overviews to Roman Republican art and architecture.
  270.  
  271. Evans, Jane Derose, ed. A Companion to the Archaeology of the Roman Republic. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013.
  272. DOI: 10.1002/9781118557129Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  273. Although not concerned with Republican “art” per se (in fact the term is poignantly absent among the numerous chapter headings. . .), the thirty-seven chapters of this handbook—divided under six thematic sections—offer a thoroughly referenced guide to Republican “material culture” more generally. The chapters vary in quality (with some repetitions between them), but are particularly important for their up-to-date bibliographic surveys.
  274. Find this resource:
  275. Fuchs, Michaela. In hoc etiam genere Graeciae nihil cedamus. Studien zur Romanisierung der späthellenistischen Kunst im 1. Jh. v. Chr. Mainz, Germany: Philipp von Zabern, 1999.
  276. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  277. In German. Despite some contested datings/art-historical placings of individual statues, Fuchs’ study provides a useful overview of so-called “Archaizing” and “Classicizing” statuary in late Republican Rome, specifically the oeuvre of. Includes an important discussion of ancient practices of forgery.
  278. Find this resource:
  279. Gruen, Erich S. Culture and National Identity in Republican Rome. London: Duckworth, 1993.
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  281. An influential assessment of how Republican Rome at once adopted and adapted Hellenistic cultural models (with the visual arts discussed as only one aspect of this larger theme). Fundamental study of the cultural dynamics through which Republican Rome appropriated Greek ideas, while nonetheless forging its own distinctive sense of “national” identity.
  282. Find this resource:
  283. Holliday, Peter J. The Origins of Roman Historical Commemoration in the Visual Arts. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2002.
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  285. Reconstructing Roman historical painting from a range of sources, this study explains the phenomenon as a Romanized version of Greek and Etruscan models; Republican materials prove decisive here. Not every aspect of Holliday’s explanation has convinced scholars: there is an important review by Tonio Hölscher in Journal of Roman Archaeology 18 (2005): 272–278.
  286. Find this resource:
  287. Hölscher, Tonio. Staatsdenkmal und Publikum: Vom Untergang der Republik bis zur Festigung des Kaisertums in Rom. Konstanz, Germany: Konstanz Universitätsverlag, 1984.
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  289. In German. Covering the Augustan and Trajanic periods alongside the Republic, Hölscher’s book concentrates on the inherently competitive nature of late Republican monuments. Hölscher demonstrates, by close formal analysis, how monuments were carefully tailored to suit the requirements of their patrons: his particular concern is with their communicative “semantics” (cf. Hölscher 2004, cited under Viewers).
  290. Find this resource:
  291. Pollitt, Jerome J. “The Impact of Greek Art in Rome.” Transactions of the American Philological Association 108 (1978): 155–174.
  292. DOI: 10.2307/284245Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  293. Critical and highly influential survey into the ways in which Greek art was conceptualized and discussed among Roman Republican intellectuals; particularly interested in literary responses as evidence for Roman Republican discourses about Greek art and its ideological value.
  294. Find this resource:
  295. Sehlmeyer, Markus. Stadtrömische Ehrenstatuen der republikanischen Zeit. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner, 1999.
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  297. In German. An analysis of Republican commemorative statuary as evidenced by textual and epigraphic sources; Sehlmeyer differentiates five different periods (between 338 BCE to 2 BCE), and postulates cultural shifts in underlying commemorative practices. The focus on textual (above all epigraphic) materials nicely complements Lahusen 1983 (cited under Media: Sculpture: Portraiture).
  298. Find this resource:
  299. Tanner, Jeremy J. “Portraits, Power, and Patronage in the Late Roman Republic.” Journal of Roman Studies 90 (2000): 18–50.
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  301. Theoretically informed reappraisal of the mechanics of Roman Republican portraiture, examining it as a “medium of socio-cultural action” (p. 18). In doing so, Tanner offers an exceptionally well-referenced overview of some of the main concerns of scholarship in the 20th century (see also Media: Sculpture: Portraiture).
  302. Find this resource:
  303. Welch, Katherine E. “Art and Architecture in the Roman Republic.” In A Companion to the Roman Republic. Edited by Nathan Rosenstein and Robert Morstein-Marx, 496–542. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2006.
  304. DOI: 10.1002/9780470996980Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  305. The breadth of materials covered in this basic survey—from temples and theatres to portraits, domestic art, and coins—makes for a useful starting-point for undergraduates, research students, and scholars alike. The article also gives some helpful pointers for further reading.
  306. Find this resource:
  307. The Augustan “Revolution”
  308.  
  309. Roman art from the age of Augustus (stretching chronologically from the Battle of Actium in 31 BCE to the emperor’s death in 14 CE) has attracted more scholarly attention than that of any other period in Rome’s history. The bi-millennial anniversary of Augustus’ death in 2014 has also led a whole series of new publications—too numerous all to be incorporated here. Graduate students wanting an in-depth, object-centered introduction are still best served by Hofter 1988; Favro 1996, by contrast, offers a more architecturally focused account, concentrating on issues of topographical space, monumentality, and urban transformation, while Pollini 2012 is useful for its in-depth treatment of particular monuments and themes. By far the most influential work on Augustan art has been that of Paul Zanker (especially Zanker 1988). Zanker’s concern with the Augustan “world of images,” or Bilderwelt, at once coincided with and developed other contemporary reappraisals, most notably Simon 1986 and Hofter 1988. As with so much scholarship on Roman art, the most important materials here are all in German. On Augustan portraiture specifically, Boschung 1993 provides the most detailed typological account, while Spannagel 1999 offers a painstaking analysis of the Forum of Augustus in Rome from a combined historical and archaeological perspective. Where Zanker uses works of contemporary literature as a historical lens for approaching Augustan imagery, others have gone still further in integrating the study of art and architecture within their broader cultural-historical overviews of “Augustan culture” (e.g. Galinsky 1996). More recently—and continuing a wider pattern of allowing Augustan images and texts each to shed light on the other—some scholars have emphasized an Augustan visual concern with monstrosity and ambivalence, in both the public and the private realm (see Platt 2008 and Squire 2013; the ultimate debt here is to Elsner 1995, cited under Viewers, especially pp. 157–245). Where Zanker sketched a somewhat monochrome image of the “power of images in the age of Augustus,” more recent work has tended to challenge the assumption of “singular” modes of viewing; the political paradoxes of being primus inter pares (“first among equals”), or so the argument runs, went hand in hand with a new concern with polyvalence and ambiguity.
  310.  
  311. Boschung, Dietrich. Die Bildnisse des Augustus. Berlin: Gebr. Mann, 1993.
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  313. In German. This volume of the Das römische Herrscherbild series (see Media: Sculpture: Portraiture) provides a reference work to Augustan portraiture, complete with extensive catalogue (pp. 107–204) and 239 black-and-white plates. Students wanting an English synopsis, with some critical finetuning, might profitably consult the review by R. R. R. Smith (“Typology and Diversity in the Portraits of Augustus.” Journal of Roman Archaeology 9 (1996): 30–47, with important critique of Boschung’s typography).
  314. Find this resource:
  315. Favro, Diane. The Urban Image of Augustan Rome. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
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  317. A synthesis of Augustan Rome as an urban space, approached both physically and conceptually; contains numerous maps and diagrams, as well as photographs, integrated into the text. The final chapter offers a vivid “walk through Augustan Rome, A.D. 14” (pp. 252–280), particularly popular among undergraduates.
  318. Find this resource:
  319. Galinsky, Karl. Augustan Culture: An Interpretive Introduction. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1996.
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  321. One of the most stimulating undergraduate textbook introductions to the “Age of Augustus” as a whole, which combines political, literary, and cultural perspectives with a lengthy chapter dedicated to “art and architecture” (pp. 141–224). Disappointing picture reproductions (despite the six color plates). Some of Galinsky’s ideas are revised in his more recent work, above all his Augustus: Introduction to the Life of an Emperor (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2012).
  322. Find this resource:
  323. Hofter, Mathias René, ed. Kaiser Augustus und die verlorene Republik. Mainz, Germany: Philipp von Zabern, 1988.
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  325. In German (catalogue of an important Berlin exhibition in 1988). Richly referenced guide to nearly 500 objects, coupled with thematic essays by (mainly) German and Italian scholars (under six categories, largely organized by artistic medium). The best guide for graduate students and scholars, with detailed overviews of earlier literature and good-quality (though often small) integrated black-and-white photographs.
  326. Find this resource:
  327. Platt, Verity. “Where the Wild Things Are: Locating the Marvellous in Augustan Wall-Painting.” In Paradox and the Marvellous in Augustan Literature and Culture. Edited by Philip Hardie, 41–74. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.
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  329. A revisionist intervention drawing attention to the “monstrous” and “ambivalent” aspects of Augustan art, in both the public and (especially) private realms; reviews artistic products in light of contemporary literary culture (with special reference to Vitruvius and Horace). A stimulating undergraduate discussion piece, and foreshadows aspects of e.g. Squire 2013.
  330. Find this resource:
  331. Pollini, John. From Republic to Empire: Rhetoric, Religion, and Power in the Visual Culture of Ancient Rome. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2012.
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  333. A convenient collection of the author’s previously published papers on various aspects of Augustan art. Thorough reviews of bibliography (and good-quality illustrations), but more suited to advanced graduates and scholars.
  334. Find this resource:
  335. Simon, Erika. Augustus: Kunst und Leben in Rom um die Zeitenwende. Munich: Hirmer, 1986.
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  337. In German. The glossy color plates make this book a useful supplement to Zanker 1988 (with detailed “Bilddokumentation” at pp. 234–256). Chapters are structured thematically, above all around different media, including e.g. luxury arts and wall-painting.
  338. Find this resource:
  339. Spannagel, Martin. Exemplaria Principis: Untersuchungen zu Entstehung und Ausstattung des Augustusforums. Heidelberg, Germany: Verlag Archäologie und Geschichte, 1999.
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  341. In German. Detailed scholarly analysis of the Forum of Augustus, concentrating in particular on its display of sculptures from a historical and archaeological viewpoint; in-depth citations and references, although the twenty-four black-and-white plates are somewhat sparse. Indispensable scholarly resource.
  342. Find this resource:
  343. Squire, Michael. “Embodied Ambiguities on the Prima Porta Augustus.” Art History 36 (2013): 242–279.
  344. DOI: 10.1111/1467-8365.12007Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  345. Although focused on an individual sculpture (the “Prima Porta Augustus”), the detailed references (pp. 272–279) also survey the most important recent literature on Augustan art, offering some methodological challenges to e.g. Zanker 1988. The article is particularly concerned with Augustan portraiture and the political appropriation of Greek models; Squire’s interest in ambivalence and ambiguity develops e.g. Platt 2008.
  346. Find this resource:
  347. Zanker, Paul. The Power of Images in the Age of Augustus. Translated by Alan H. Shapiro. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1988.
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  349. Translated from German (Augustus und die Macht der Bilder; Munich: Beck, 1987), this book redefined art’s centrality to Augustus’ rise to power: it is written for scholars and students alike, with some 260 black-and-white illustrations and detailed bibliography (pp. 341–370). Useful for its methodological reflections is Andrew Wallace-Hadrill’s review (Journal of Roman Studies 79 (1989): 157–164—also developed in his Rome’s Cultural Revolution; Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2008).
  350. Find this resource:
  351. The Imperial Succession
  352.  
  353. While in many ways continuing the strategies developed under Augustus, the emperors who successed him in the 1st century CE also had to develop new modes of visual self-presentation. In order to determine the character of the Augustan legacy, both historical and art-historical alike, scholars have concentrated on patterns of continuity and change in the Imperial succession. The edited volume Ewald and Noreña 2010 offers one selection of critical essays concerning the impact of dynastic change on the material record; Cornell, et al. 1987, by contrast, casts a wider net, exploring how the Imperial succession affected visual culture more generally. In order to understand the nature of these successions, and the ways in which they were visually mediated, the volumes of Das römische Herrscherbild are indispensable (cited under Media: Sculpture: Portraiture). Bol 2010, on the other hand, offers an excellent overview of the scope—and above all the formal and stylistic development—of all sculptural production during the 1st and early 2nd centuries CE. The study of Imperial portraiture has been fundamental to most accounts of Imperial succession in the 1st century CE, whether concerned with the portraits of Julio-Claudian emperors (Rose 1997), or else dealing with watershed moments of dynastic change more generally (Varner 2001). Particularly important here has also been the art of the Flavian dynasty—that is, the emperors who succeeded the Julio-Claudians, and whose visual self-display in some ways marked a decisive move away from Augustan templates (following the emperor Vespasian in CE 69). In the late 19th century, the Flavian period was of particular interest for those concerned with the intrinsic “Romanness” of Roman art (see Wickhoff 1900, cited under Historiography). In more recent years too, Flavian art is once again witnessing a renaissance of scholarly interest, reflected in both the catalogue to a 2009 exhibition in Rome (Coarelli 2009) and the proceedings of a 2008 conference on Flavian “medial strategies” (Kramer and Reitz 2010). Although written from a primarily historical rather than art-historical perspective, Seelentag 2004 offers an important analysis of the reign of one specific 1st-century emperor (Trajan): bringing together discussions of both monuments and texts, Seelentag builds an exemplary bridge between the different subfields of German “Altertumswissenschaft.”
  354.  
  355. Bol, Peter C., ed. Die Geschichte der antiken Bildhauerkunst IV: Die Plastik der römischen Kaiserzeit bis zum Tode Kaiser Hadrians. Mainz, Germany: Philipp von Zabern, 2010.
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  357. In German. As with the other volumes in the same series, this book contains sound chapters on individual artistic periods (as defined by different Imperial successions); it is also supported by numerous high-quality illustrations. The extensive bibliographies make this a particularly important graduate and scholarly resource.
  358. Find this resource:
  359. Coarelli, Filippo, ed. Il divo Vespasiano: Il bimillenario dei Flavi. Milan: Electa, 2009.
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  361. In Italian (accompanying a major 2009 exhibition in Rome). Offers a wide range of papers on Flavian building policy and Imperial self-presentation more generally, including many findings from recent and ongoing archaeological projects. Richly illustrated in color.
  362. Find this resource:
  363. Cornell, Tim, Michael Crawford, and John North, eds. Art and Production in the World of the Caesars. Rome: Olivetti, 1987.
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  365. Looks at dynastic dynamics from an entirely different angle—namely, from the perspective of production, including the economic factors of artist/patron relations. A useful addition to the many studies focusing on Imperial presentation alone.
  366. Find this resource:
  367. Ewald, Björn, and Carlos Noreña, eds. The Emperor and Rome: Space, Representation, and Ritual. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
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  369. Contains papers on different aspects of Imperial representation, including the epigraphic evidence, portraiture, contextual display, funerary practices, and discussions of practices under Nero, the Antonines, and Maxentius.
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  371. Kramer, Norbert, and Christiane Reitz, eds. Tradition und Erinnerung: Mediale Strategien in der Zeit der Flavier. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2010.
  372. DOI: 10.1515/9783110247152Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  373. In German. From an art-historical perspective, Annetta Alexandridis’ contribution on female portraiture (pp. 191–238) and Susanne Muth’s on the Equus Domitiani (pp. 485–496) are among the most stimulating chapters in this edited collection, which is concerned with different aspects of Flavian culture. Although there are now a host of important edited volumes on the Flavians, this one stands out for its rich and integrated coverage of material culture.
  374. Find this resource:
  375. Rose, Charles B. Dynastic Commemoration and Imperial Portraiture in the Julio-Claudian Period. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1997.
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  377. Although much less comprehensive than other books, and less well illustrated, this study nonetheless provides a solid overview of the sculptural display of the Julio-Claudian emperors and their families.
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  379. Seelentag, Gunnar. Taten und Tugenden Traians: Herrschaftsdarstellung im Principat. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner, 2004.
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  381. In German. Despite being written from the principal perspective of ancient political history, this book yields many valuable findings for Roman art historians, with its lucid discussion of the mechanisms of Imperial representation, eulogy, and panegyric in the age of Trajan.
  382. Find this resource:
  383. Varner, Eric E. From Caligula to Constantine: Tyranny and Transformation in Roman Portraiture. Atlanta: Michael C. Carlos Museum, 2001.
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  385. This book foreshadows certain elements of Varner 2004 (cited under Media: Sculpture: Portraiture), and is addressed to a wider audience; Varner offers a good introduction to the political dynamics shaping Imperial portraiture, above all in the late 1st and 2nd centuries. The book is primarily concerned with the ways in which the life—and afterlife—of an emperor’s portrait helps us to understand political ideology.
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  387. Hadrian and the Antonines
  388.  
  389. The art of the 2nd century CE has been understood in terms of interpretive challenges that are in some ways distinct from those found in the 1st century CE. Scholarship has paid particular attention to those differences, both under Hadrian (emperor CE 117–138), and under his Antonine successors in the later 2nd century (the emperors Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius, Lucius Verus, and Commodus). Archaeologically speaking, the Hadrianic and Antonine periods also differ from one another in terms of the overall coherence of the material record. It is a difference that has been of particular interest to scholars: where there are various comprehensive accounts of art in the Hadrianic period, a comparable treatment of Antonine art remains to be written. For the age of Hadrian, Toynbee 1934 remains the most influential account, including a comprehensive assessment of what the author revealingly labels the “Hadrianic school” of Greek art. Concentrating above all on coins and private sacrificial and funerary reliefs, Toynbee’s focus was on “Hadrianic” art in the broadest sense (rather than the “artists” of Imperial monuments alone); her book thus assesses Hadrianic styles through the lens of more private objects, demonstrating the close interrelations between “public” and “private” materials. More recent studies of Hadrianic art have focused more directly on the public sphere, as well as on the material culture of Hadrian’s Imperial residences. Particularly important here has been the study of Hadrian’s portraiture (Evers 1994), Hadrian’s villa at Tivoli (MacDonald and Pinto 1995), his involvement with Antinous (Vout 2007), and his relationship with his predecessor, Trajan (Seelentag 2004, cited under the Imperial Succession). Boatwright 2000 offers a specialist overview of public architecture across the Empire during the time of Hadrian, while Opper 2010 accompanied a major exhibition on Hadrian at the British Museum. If “Hadrianic” Roman art is a fairly widespread delineation, scholarship has a less uniform idea about “Antonine” Roman art. Work here has been largely shaped by Gerhard Rodenwaldt’s description of stylistic change in the later 2nd century CE (Rodenwaldt 1939). Not unlike Toynbee, Rodenwaldt focused on the evidence of private funerary art; his ultimate argument, though, concerned the stylistic developments of Antonine state art. Recent years have seen a flurry of studies designed to complement this approach, with much greater focus on Antonine state art specifically (see Beckmann 2011 and Faust 2012, both cited under Media: Sculpture: State Relief; more generally on Antonine architecture, see also Thomas 2007, cited under Media: Architecture).
  390.  
  391. Boatwright, Mary T. Hadrian and the Cities of the Roman Empire. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2000.
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  393. A sequel to the author’s earlier 1987 study of Hadrian and the city of Rome. Boatwright’s primary interest lies in Hadrian’s influence on urbanism and architectural layout, surveyed across the Empire (as evidenced both by literary accounts and archaeological remains). An excellent overview of Hadrianic building programs—and a useful introduction to Roman urbanism more generally (cf. Regional Variations: Rome and Italy).
  394. Find this resource:
  395. Evers, Cécile. Les portraits d’Hadrien: Typologie et ateliers. Brussels: Le Libraire Alain Ferraton, 1994.
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  397. In French. This book provides a comprehensive catalogue of most known portraits of Hadrian, along with important observations about production; also includes some stimulating methodological reflections about how to approach the study of Imperial portraiture more generally (cf. Media: Sculpture: Portraiture).
  398. Find this resource:
  399. MacDonald, William L., and John Pinto. Hadrian’s Villa and Its Legacy. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1995.
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  401. A powerful combination of archaeological survey and an overview of the posthumous reception of Hadrian’s villa at Tivoli; provides a scintillating introduction to how this important site has shaped modern views of Hadrian’s reign, and of the Roman Empire more generally.
  402. Find this resource:
  403. Opper, Thorsten. Hadrian: Empire and Conflict. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2010.
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  405. Catalogue accompanying a 2010 exhibition at the British Museum: provides a good introduction to the emperor, his policies, and not least his image. Well illustrated—and particularly celebrated for discussion of the newly excavated colossal portrait head of Hadrian from Sagalassos.
  406. Find this resource:
  407. Rodenwaldt, Gerhard. “The Transition to Late-Classical Art.” In The Cambridge Ancient History. Vol. 12. Edited by John Bagnell Bury, 544–570. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1939.
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  409. English translation of the author’s landmark 1935 German article (“Über den Stilwandel in der antoninischen Kunst,” Abhandlungen der Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, philosophisch-historische Klasse 3, Berlin). Rodenwaldt analyzes the evidence of Antononine “marriage sarcophagi” to chart the stylistic changes of the late 2nd century, while associating these with the subsequent developments of Late Antique art (cf. the Later Empire).
  410. Find this resource:
  411. Toynbee, Jocelyn M. C. The Hadrianic School: A Chapter in the History of Greek Art. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1934.
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  413. This groundbreaking study opened a new way of assessing the “Greekness” of Roman art, above all in the 2nd century CE: Toynbee was primarily interested in the ways in which Greek visual styles and subjects were used to bolster Hadrian’s imperial self-imaging. Although much of this study now looks rather dated, the book marked an important chapter in the historiography of Roman art.
  414. Find this resource:
  415. Vout, Caroline. Power and Eroticism in Imperial Rome. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
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  417. Vout’s book explores the erotic (mis)demeanors of different Roman emperors, examining how these at once reflected and developed Imperial power structures. Vout may be particularly interested in visual imagery, but her book relates these materials to a wider range of (above all textual) media. Hadrian’s liaison with Antinous—along with its visual mediations—is one of the overriding subjects.
  418. Find this resource:
  419. The Later Empire
  420.  
  421. The “later Roman Empire” is a rather vague delineation: we use the category to refer to the period from the Severan dynasty (founded by Septimius Severus in CE 197) onward; a separate entry then deals with the Origins of Christian Art. Before getting to grips with the art-historical scholarship, it is important first to know something about the Imperial history. In the 3rd century, the Roman world witnessed a series of significant administrative changes in the running of Empire: first, a period of internal “crisis” which saw the rule of a series of so-called “soldier emperors”; second, the implementation of several co-rulers in the Tetrarchy at the end of the 3rd century; and third, in the early 4th century, the rise of the Constantinian dynasty (and with it the eventual emergence of Christianity as official “state” religion). The Valentinian and Theodosian dynasties then mark the transition into the period that scholarship on Roman art more squarely delineates as “Late Antiquity.” Within art-historical scholarship, this period from the late second to the 5th century CE has conventionally been perceived as a period of “decline,” not least because of the dwindling use of Greek artistic templates during this time (see Historiography). This situation was challenged in the early 20th century, above all in Riegl’s landmark contribution on what he labeled “the late Roman art industry” (Riegl 1985, cited under the Origins of Christian Art). Despite extensive revisionist work in recent years (not least Elsner 1995, cited under Viewers), there are some notable gaps in our art-historical understandings of the period. Bianchi-Bandinelli 1971 remains the best overall introduction, now complemented by Elsner 1998 (structured not chronologically but thematically, and dealing with the broader chronological frame of CE 100–450). For Severan art, a range of detailed studies is available, although Newby 2007 and De Sena 2013 both provide good starting-points for graduates and advanced undergraduate students. While there are few comparably comprehensive studies for the art of the 3rd century before the rise of the Tetrarchy (though see especially La Rocca, Parisi Presicce, and Lo Monaco 2015), Wood 1986 analyzes the portraiture of the period, and Borg 2013 returns to the period in her concern with private funerary art. We also cite here two important analyses of “late Imperial” art-historical practice: on the one hand, Elsner 2000—a superlative art-historical/cultural historical discussion of the use of spolia; on the other, Stirling 2005, which provides an important account of later Imperial “collecting” practices (above all in Late Antique Gaul).
  422.  
  423. Bianchi-Bandinelli, Ranuccio. Rome: The Late Empire. Roman Art AD 200–400. London: Thames & Hudson, 1971.
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  425. With its geographical breadth and numerous illustrations, this volume stands out particularly for its account of the “de-Hellenization” of Roman art; in line with e.g. Riegl 1985, this phenomenon is repackaged in terms of a sort of “progression” rather than simply a decline. Particularly strong on the arts of Roman Africa, especially Lepcis Magna.
  426. Find this resource:
  427. Borg, Barbara. Crisis and Ambition: Tombs and Burial Customs in Third-Century CE Rome. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013.
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  429. This critical account of funerary art and architecture surveys some of the ways in which private portraiture was used within (and indeed beyond) the funerary sphere. Borg’s contextualist focus and combined study of Christian and non-Christian art plugs a notable gap in bibliography, while also complementing recent studies on Roman sarcophagi (see Media: Sculpture: Funerary Reliefs and Sarcophagi).
  430. Find this resource:
  431. De Sena, Eric. The Roman Empire during the Severan Dynasty: Case Studies in History, Art, Architecture, Economy and Literature. American Journal of Ancient History 6–8 (2007–2009). Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias, 2013.
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  433. In English and Italian. Proceedings from a conference in 2011. Although not quite matching the scope of the edited volume in which Newby 2007 appeared, this overview of the Severan period includes an excellent discussion by Stephan Faust on the Arch of Septimius Severus in Lepcis Magna (adapted, in English, from Faust 2012, cited under Media: Sculpture: State Relief).
  434. Find this resource:
  435. Elsner, Jaś. Imperial Rome and Christian Triumph: The Art of the Roman Empire AD 100–450. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.
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  437. Provides a stimulating overview of the emergence of Christian art out of traditional Roman artistic models (and written for the Oxford World of Art series, intended especially for students and general readers); also includes a very wide-ranging bibliographic essay. The book develops aspects of Elsner 1995 (cited under Viewers): Elsner is above all concerned with how modes of “viewing” develop across the chronological span of the Roman Empire.
  438. Find this resource:
  439. Elsner, Jaś. “From the Culture of spolia to the Cult of Relics: The Arch of Constantine and the Genesis of Late Antique Forms.” Papers of the British School at Rome 68 (2000): 149–184.
  440. DOI: 10.1017/S0068246200003901Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  441. This paper has two overriding objectives: first it explores how Riegl 1985 (cited under the Origins of Christian Art) discussed the Arch of Constantine in relation to what he labeled “artistic volition” (Kunstwollen); and second, it offers a new analysis of the Roman artistic appropriation of spolia. In particular, Elsner shows how Roman spoliation paved a way for Christian ideas about the relic.
  442. Find this resource:
  443. La Rocca, Eugenio, Claudio Parisi Presicce, and Annalisa Lo Monaco, eds. L’eteddell’angoscia: da Commodo a Diocleziano (180 - 305 d.C.). Rome: Mondomostre, 2015.
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  445. In Italian. Landmark museum catalogue of a 2015 exhibition at Rome’s Musei Capitolini (the fourth within a cycle on “I giorni di Roma”). Essays discuss the art and politics of the late second to early fourth century CE. Excellent color pictures throughout.
  446. Find this resource:
  447. Newby, Zarah. “Art at the Crossroads? Themes and Styles in Severan Art.” In Severan Culture. Edited by Simon Swain, S. J. Harrison, and Jaś Elsner, 201–249. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
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  449. Published in an edited volume alongside other chapters on Severan literature, art, and intellectual and religious culture, Newby’s discussion provides a useful introduction to the range of monuments, topics, and stylistic developments of “Severan” art.
  450. Find this resource:
  451. Stirling, Lea Margaret. The Learned Collector: Mythological Statuettes and Classical Taste in Late Antique Gaul. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2005.
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  453. This book explores the active collection and display of sculpture throughout the Roman world (and especially in Gaul) during the later Empire, above all during the 4th and 5th centuries; Stirling also showcases the connections between chosen sculptural subjects and the rhetorical, cultural, and above all literary interests of their aristocratic collectors. Explicitly interested in broader methodological questions throughout, as well as issues of “periodization.”
  454. Find this resource:
  455. Wood, Susan. Roman Portrait Sculpture 217–260 A.D.: The Transformation of an Artistic Tradition. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 1986.
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  457. A portraiture study in the traditional (and for some “best”) sense: Wood discusses the emergence of a new, abstract form of visual language in Roman portraiture during the first half of the 3rd century. Provides a good introduction to the interpretation of stylistic change in Imperial portraiture at large.
  458. Find this resource:
  459. The Origins of Christian Art
  460.  
  461. How should we explain the transition between “Roman” and “Early Christian” art? For many in the 19th century—and indeed for some still today—“medieval” western and “Byzantine” eastern modes of artistic expression were judged as a “decline and fall” of earlier “Classical” (above all “Greek-derived”) aesthetic standards. A key challenge to this paradigm came in the respective studies of Alois Riegl and Franz Wickhoff (Riegl 1985, first published in German in 1901; cf. Wickhoff 1900, cited under Historiography). Rather than condemn the Christian appropriations of “Late Antique” Roman art, Riegl examined the continuities and disparities between “Roman” and “Christian” forms; he used this to illuminate what he called art’s progressivist Kunstwollen (“artistic volition”) across time. A host of more recent books deal with specific early Christian monuments and their relation to earlier Roman forms and styles, although there is a still a major disciplinary divide between “Classical” or “Roman” art historians and those who study early “Christian” art. In relation to the city of Byzantium (“Constantinople”) specifically, we cite Freely and Çakmak 2009 as the best introduction to the city’s buildings and artworks. In the third quarter of the 20th century, André Grabar proved particularly influential in charting the iconographic debts of early Christian art more generally (Grabar 1967 is still useful as an undergraduate survey). Since the 1990s, the most important work has been that of Jaś Elsner: especially important here has been Elsner 1995 (cited under Viewers), but Elsner 1998 likewise provides the best English-language undergraduate guide to “Imperial Rome and Christian triumph” at large, combining a scintillating thematic text with an abundance of color pictures. Numerous other texts are also recommended for advanced undergraduates. Although Weitzmann 1979 is still useful for its object-centered analyses, Matthews 1999 has a stronger thematic rationale (centered around the earliest images of Christ). In terms of the earliest Christian writings about art, Finney 1994 provides an introduction that is suitable for undergraduates and specialists alike. Where Finney dealt with a variety of visual and literary sources up to and including the 4th century CE, Nasrallah 2010 concentrates solely on the 2nd century CE, structuring much of its account around particular literary and material case studies. A number of other works deal with Christian appropriations of Roman iconography in specific media (e.g. Leader-Newby 2004, cited under Media: Luxury Arts: Gold and Silverplate). But sarcophagi perhaps provide our most best evidence for early Christian art (see Media: Sculpture: Funerary Reliefs and Sarcophagi): in this connection, we cite Koch 2000, which offers invaluable (and heavily referenced) scholarly handbook to “early Christian sarcophagi,” concentrating on geographical variations in sarcophagus typology and production.
  462.  
  463. Elsner, Jaś. Imperial Rome and Christian Triumph: The Art of the Roman Empire AD 100–450. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.
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  465. A masterful, thematically organized overview of how “Late Antique” visual culture turned “Christian,” with a particular emphasis on issues of viewer reception (developing Elsner 1995, cited under Viewers); contains 163 integrated images, mostly in color. Three sections chart “images and power,” “images and society,” and “images in transformation”; broad geographical range, complete with useful maps, timeline, and bibliographic essay.
  466. Find this resource:
  467. Finney, Paul Corby. The Invisible God: The Earliest Christians on Art. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994.
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  469. The most scintillating and lucid analysis of early Christian attitudes toward images (up to and including the early 4th century CE), as evidenced by texts. Exemplary concern with the history of interpretation and the reception of ancient literary materials, above all during the 16th-century European Reformation (pp. 3–14). Better as an overview of textual materials than at visual analysis (albeit with numerous black-and-white images).
  470. Find this resource:
  471. Freely, John, and Ahmet S. Çakmak. Byzantine Monuments of Istanbul. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
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  473. Clear and lucid single-volume guide to the monuments of Constantinople (Byzantium—or modern-day Istanbul) from CE 330 to 1453; arranged chronologically, and structured around individual architectural monuments—with attention to religious, cultural, and political contexts. As a graduate resource, somewhat frustrating for its minimal endnotes (restricted to pp. 311–313).
  474. Find this resource:
  475. Grabar, André. The Beginnings of Christian Art, 200–395. London: Thames and Hudson, 1967.
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  477. Translated from Le premier art chrétien, 200–395 (Paris: Gallimard, 1966). An excellent (if romantic) synthesis of Christian imagery between the 3rd and the 4th century, with an emphasis on geographical variations. Despite the lack of notes, there is a selective bibliography on pp. 307–313. (Compare also Grabar’s Christian Iconography: A Study of its Origins; London: Routledge, 1969, with discussion of Christianity’s “assimilation of contemporary imagery” (pp. 31–54)).
  478. Find this resource:
  479. Koch, Guntram. Frühchristliche Sarkophage. Munich: Beck, 2000.
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  481. In German. A weighty “handbook” on early Christian sarcophagi intended for scholars—with very extensive references (but frustrating lack of final bibliography). Organized geographically, but with introductory chapters on e.g. reuse of pagan sarcophagi and “Allgemeines zu den frühchristlichen Sarkophagen” (pp. 29–218). Two hundred forty-two black-and-white images on endplates, plus eighty-seven drawings in the main text.
  482. Find this resource:
  483. Matthews, Thomas F. The Clash of Gods: A Reinterpretation of Early Christian Art. 2d ed. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1999.
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  485. (First edition printed in 1993.) General overview of visual culture from the 3rd to the 6th century, structured around images of Christ; ideal for undergraduate classes (but with short endnotes on pp. 183–203), and with decent-size black-and-white pictures.
  486. Find this resource:
  487. Nasrallah, Laura Salah. Christian Responses to Roman Art and Architecture: The Second-Century Church amid the Spaces of Empire. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
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  489. Analyzes a variety of extant early Christian texts against the backdrop of Roman visual culture, demonstrating how their theological concerns directly responded to the themes of contemporary Roman art. Thematic chapters, with some subsections specifically dedicated to particular monuments; detailed references throughout. Highly stimulating reading for graduate seminars.
  490. Find this resource:
  491. Riegl, Alois. Late Roman Art Industry. Translated by Rolf Winkes. Rome: Bretschneider, 1985.
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  493. (English translation of Die spätrömische Kunstindustrie nach den Funden in Österreich-Ungarn; Vienna: Kaiserlich-Königliche Hof- und Staatsdruckerei, 1901). Key re-evaluation of late Roman/early Christian art not in terms of aesthetic “decline,” but rather a progressivist cultural-artistic shift in Kunstwollen (“artistic volition”). The book had a substantial impact not only on Roman art history, but also art history tout court, not least in its dichotomy of “tactile” and “optical” art (cf. Historiography).
  494. Find this resource:
  495. Weitzmann, Kurt, ed. Age of Spirituality: Late Antique and Early Christian Art, Third to Seventh Century. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1979.
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  497. Celebrated catalogue of museum exhibition at New York’s Metropolitan Museum in 1977–1978, with essays (all in English) by international experts on themes of “the imperial realm,” “the classical realm,” “the Jewish realm,” and “the Christian realm”; discussion is centered around 596 objects/drawings (with detailed bibliographies). Most illustrations in black and white.
  498. Find this resource:
  499. Media
  500.  
  501. If chronology provides one way of approaching the study of Roman art (see Periodization and Chronology), another has been to organize discussion around specific media. While the majority of textbooks chart Roman art’s temporal development from the Republic to the late Empire, a smaller number structure their discussion around different types of objects and images. This “medial” approach brings with it both advantages and disadvantages: on the one hand, it enables scholars to see continuities in artistic practice, as well as to appreciate the particular concerns or challenges of a specific medium; on the other hand, it can be all too easy to collapse distinctions of both chronology and geographical variation (see Regional Variations). In this section, our aim is to survey bibliography dealing with some of the most important genres of Roman art, focusing on a range of specific media: Sculpture (in turn encompassing the most prevalent genres of Roman sculptural art), Wall-Painting, Mosaics, Architecture, Gems and Glyptic Art, and Luxury Arts (Glass, Numismatics, Terracotta and Pottery). It is worth noting here that the artistic media available to us are entirely dependent on their archaeological durability: the perishability of materials means that we have only very limited information about the Roman crafts of textile production, for example, or indeed about Roman furniture (see Richter 1966) and woodworking (see Ulrich 2007). The best introductory survey to these different Roman media across different times and places is Henig 1983, which makes for an excellent basic undergraduate guide (although much of the further reading section on pp. 271–280 is now somewhat out of date). Quite apart from its abundant photographs, one of the advantages of Henig 1983 compared with more recent books (e.g. Stewart 2004) is its breadth of reference, encompassing discussion not only of sculpture, painting, and mosaics, but also of humbler media like pottery (as well as of silverware, coins, epigraphy, and glass). More attuned to the specific technical challenges of working within each medium are Strong and Brown 1976 and Ling 2000 (the latter dealing with both Greek and Roman art together); somewhat older in critical perspective—and less copiously illustrated—is Toynbee 1965 (cf. also Makers). Despite its interest in reception and methodology, Beard and Henderson 2001 (cited under General Resources: Textbooks) is also deeply sensitive to variations in medium, and makes for excellent supplementary undergraduate reading.
  502.  
  503. Henig, Martin, ed. A Handbook of Roman Art: A Comprehensive Survey of all the Arts of the Roman World. London: Phaidon, 1983.
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  505. (More readily available as a “second impression,” published in 1993). Twelve chapters, dedicated above all to individual media (including “architecture,” “sculpture,” “wallpainting and stucco,” “mosaics,” “luxury arts,” “coins and medals,” “pottery,” “terracotta,” and “glass”); richly illustrated throughout (mostly in black and white). Still the best English introduction to different Roman artistic media. (The notes and bibliography on pp. 257–280 are also helpful for following up references—though now somewhat outdated.)
  506. Find this resource:
  507. Ling, Roger, ed. Making Classical Art: Process and Practice. Stroud, UK: Tempus, 2000.
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  509. An introductory survey of different media according to their different techniques of production, and across a large chronological and geographical span; the first six chapters treat (inter alia) “stone sculpture,” “bronze sculpture,” “wall and panel painting,” and “mosaic,” whereas the final ten chapters explore specific case studies. Good-quality black-and-white illustrations throughout.
  510. Find this resource:
  511. Richter, Gisela M. A. The Furniture of the Greeks, Etruscans and Romans. 2d ed. London: Phaidon, 1966.
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  513. (First published by Clarendon in 1926, but this edition has been substantially enlarged, complete with better-quality illustrations.) “Roman furniture” is discussed on pp. 97–116, according to both type and function (with some preliminary analysis of technique on pp. 122–129); integrated drawings and 668 pictures in the book’s final black-and-white plates. Much additional material has been published since 1966 (not least from Herculaneum), and a new book on the topic is much needed.
  514. Find this resource:
  515. Stewart, Peter. Roman Art. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.
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  517. A handy introductory undergraduate resource. Although not organized around media specifically, the six chapters provide thought-provoking surveys of Roman “portraits,” “public monuments,” “funerary art,” “painting,” “mosaics and sculpture,” and “later Roman art,” with footnoted references to further literature. Somewhat let down by the poor black-and-white illustrations (despite the eight color plates); less holistic in the range of media discussed than Henig 1983.
  518. Find this resource:
  519. Strong, Donald, and David Brown, eds. Roman Crafts. London: Duckworth, 1976.
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  521. Tackles the fundamental question, “how were Roman artifacts made?”—and in a highly accessible way, with short guides to further reading. The nineteen chapters survey a huge range of media—from textiles and leatherwork to mosaics, marble sculpture, and wall-painting.
  522. Find this resource:
  523. Toynbee, J. M. C. The Arts of the Romans. London: Thames and Hudson, 1965.
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  525. Concise discussion of different Roman artistic media (portraiture, other sculpture, reliefs, funerary reliefs, painting, and mosaics) that packs a lot of information into a brief overview. Some students may be put off by the dense text and relegation of pictures (in fact only ninety) to plates at the back of the book.
  526. Find this resource:
  527. Ulrich, Roger B. Roman Woodworking. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007.
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  529. Authoritative scholarly survey of all forms of Roman woodwork—from timber constructions to domestic furniture and flooring. Scholars will find the glossary of woodworking terms on pp. 229–336 particularly useful. Given the perishability (and hence loss) of nearly all Roman woodwork, this book offers an important reminder of this medium’s rich and varied artistic importance.
  530. Find this resource:
  531. Sculpture
  532.  
  533. Our category of “sculpture” encompasses a range of media—not only statues in marble and stone, but also those made of (among other things) terracotta, bronze, and precious metals. By the same token, “sculpture” refers to works with wholly different functions and purposes—on the one hand, free-standing statues in the round, on the other relief sculptures. In what follows, we survey just some of the most important genres, with subsidiary sections dedicated to Portraiture, “Idealplastik”, so-called State Relief, and Funerary Reliefs and Sarcophagi. The most popular single-volume student introduction to Roman sculpture remains Kleiner 1992: like most textbooks on Roman art (see General Resources: Textbooks), the book is chronologically organized. For German readers, Schollmeyer 2005 provides a more provocative (albeit less detailed) guide, showcasing a series of more thematic approaches. For an “A–Z” glossary of technical terms, Grossman 2003 is useful as an additional student reference work. Marvin 2008 (cited under Media: Sculpture: “Idealplastik”), by contrast, constitutes a particularly stimulating (and richly illustrated) introductory account to “Roman” sculptural traditions in relation to “Greek.” Other scholars have approached Roman sculpture from a more cultural historical viewpoint. Particularly important here is Stewart 2003, with thematic analyses of Roman literary discussions of statues. All such scholarship on Roman sculpture is still highly dependent on the specialist catalogues of both museums and private collections: we cite Bol 1989–1998 as just one superlative example, centered around the painstaking formalist analysis of individual exempla. The study of sculpture’s actual production is likewise still all too often relegated to a separate scholarly field (cf. Makers). In addition to the materials cited under Media (especially Strong and Brown 1976, pp. 195–208; and Ling 2000, pp. 18–46), Ridgway 1969 provides a useful survey of different tools and techniques for making marble sculpture in the Roman world, while Mattusch 1996 surveys methods of bronze-casting. The two most recent resources on the practicalities of Roman sculpting, however, are first an ongoing research project on the “Art of Making” at King’s College London (culminating in a website complete with numerous videos, essays, and guides to further bibliography); and second, Russell 2013—an economically focused reappraisal of the “Roman stone trade.” Finally, it is worth noting that sculpture is not just of importance to historians of Roman art. Since the nature of the materials—and in particular, the information that can be gleaned from inscribed statue bases—is also of intrinsic social and political historical interest, we also cite here Højte 2005, concerned solely with the political and social historical evidence of inscribed statue bases that once supported Imperial portraits.
  534.  
  535. Art of Making.
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  537. Hugely innovative Leverhulme-funded research project (led by Will Wootton) focusing on the processes of producing sculpture in the Roman world—from quarrying through to the tools used. Illustrated with around 2,000 images, and accompanied by contextual sources, videos, and essays on working practices. Accessible user interface, structured around “monuments,” “tools,” “processes,” “materials,” “places,” and “collections.” Also contains an extensive thematic bibliography.
  538. Find this resource:
  539. Bol, Peter C., ed. Forschungen zur Villa Albani: Katalog der antiken Bildwerke. 5 vols. Berlin: Gebr. Mann, 1989–1998.
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  541. In German. Comprehensive catalogue of one of the most important collections of Roman sculpture in the 18th century, surveying in detail not only the objects but also the history of their collection and artistic influences. Each volume is accompanied by high-quality black-and-white plates.
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  543. Grossman, Janet Burnett. Looking at Greek and Roman Sculpture in Stone: A Guide to Terms, Styles, and Techniques. Los Angeles: Getty, 2003.
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  545. Comprehensive “A–Z” glossary of terms and keywords for the study of Greco-Roman sculpture; complete with color images throughout (principally illustrating objects in the Getty Villa). Useful supplementary resource for undergraduates.
  546. Find this resource:
  547. Højte, Jakob Munk. Roman Imperial Statue Bases: From Augustus to Commodus. Aarhus, Denmark, and Oxford: Aarhus University Press, 2005.
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  549. Catalogue of statue bases over a 250-year span, and particularly concerned with inscriptions. Useful (and well-referenced) introductory overview of e.g. types of monuments (pp. 9–64), and important survey concerning patterns of geographical distribution of Imperial portrait statues (pp. 85–123). Only minimal illustrations (twenty-five figures).
  550. Find this resource:
  551. Kleiner, Diana E. E. Roman Sculpture. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1992.
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  553. The most comprehensive (albeit fairly traditional) English guide to Roman sculpture, with integrated (and plentiful) black-and-white pictures. Chapters are organized chronologically from the “Art of the Republic” through to the “Constantinian period.” This comes at the cost of a more thematic approach to specific media and phenomena. Although not footnoted, individual chapters have detailed thematic bibliographies (usually centered around individual monuments).
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  555. Mattusch, Carol C. Classical Bronzes: The Art and Craft of Greek and Roman Statuary. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1996.
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  557. Best one-volume guide to bronze sculptural production in the ancient world, with integrated high-quality black-and-white images (and some additional color plates). Mattusch’s emphasis is on close analysis of single exempla. Useful resource, though students sometimes find it difficult to get a hold of chronological developments.
  558. Find this resource:
  559. Ridgway, Brunilde S. “Stone-Carving: Sculpture.” In The Muses at Work: Arts, Crafts and Professions in Ancient Greece and Rome. Edited by C. Roebeck, 96–117. Cambridge, MA, and London: MIT Press, 1969.
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  561. Discussion of stone-carving in both Greece and Rome, with brief discussion of developments in “Roman technique” (pp. 114–116). Note too, within the same book, Dorothy Kent Hill’s discussion of “bronze-working” (pp. 60–95, though now surpassed by Mattusch 1996).
  562. Find this resource:
  563. Russell, Ben. The Economics of the Roman Stone Trade. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013.
  564. DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199656394.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  565. Thorough and innovative analysis of the production, distribution, and use of the Roman stone trade across the Roman world. Discusses various technical aspects, along with the market and supply of stone materials; especially strong on Roman techniques of quarrying of stone and the practicalities of sarcophagus and statue production (pp. 256–351).
  566. Find this resource:
  567. Schollmeyer, Patrick. Römische Plastik: Eine Einführung. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 2005.
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  569. In German. The most stimulating undergraduate introduction to Roman sculpture and different methodologies of studying it; contains detailed references to further reading on pp. 154–159, with additional glossary and timeline; lucidly written, with sixty excellent-quality (integrated) black-and-white illustrations. Chapter 5 deals with chronology, and chapter 6 with regional variation; most innovative of all, though, are the thematically organized second to fourth chapters, dealing respectively with “materials/production processes/art scene,” “categories,” and “contexts.”
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  571. Stewart, Peter. Statues in Roman Society. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003.
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  573. Scintillating thematic overview of Roman attitudes toward statues, combining examination of extant materials with broad-ranging analysis of literary materials. Particularly strong on Roman attitudes toward sculptural “semiotics” (chapter 6: “simulacra and signs”). A good thematic antidote to the chronological (and formalist) approaches of e.g. Kleiner 1992.
  574. Find this resource:
  575. Portraiture
  576.  
  577. Of all sculptural genres, none was more widely disseminated across the Roman Empire than that of portraiture. Whether full-body images, or else half-figure busts, free-standing busts, or herms, Roman portraits give unparalleled insights into how different Roman subjects envisaged themselves—or at least how they wanted to be envisaged by others. Many of the works cited under Media: Sculpture include extensive discussion of individual Imperial portrait types. But scholars have learned to rely on one particular German series of books: by establishing the standard classificatory typologies for the portraits of individual emperors, Das römische Herrscherbild has become an indispensable scholarly resource. Connected to such studies has been a broader concern with exactly how Imperial portraits were disseminated across the Empire—and indeed, how extant local examples relate to centrally commissioned “models”: Pfanner 1989 remains one of the best discussions here. If the volumes of Das römische Herrscherbild are essentially structured around typological catalogues, other scholars (especially since the late 1980s) have been interested in broader questions about the “hermeneutics” and “semiotics” of Roman portraiture: Giuliani 1986 has been particularly influential in this regard, discussing how Roman Republican portraits alluded to earlier styles and forms; Nodelmann 1993 is much shorter, but nonetheless useful for considering how to “read a Roman portrait.” Specifically on the issue of the body—and especially “nudity”—in Roman portraiture specifically, a key analysis comes in Hallett 2005 (cited under Media: Sculpture: “Idealplastik”); Squire 2015 likewise explores the relationship between the “heads” and “bodies” of Roman portraiture (cf. Trimble 2011, cited under “Idealplastik”). There are now a plethora of more general overviews and surveys. Fejfer 2008 provides a solid sociocultural introduction to Roman portraiture, combining an art-historical interest in iconography with an archaeological concern for display contexts. La Rocca and Parisi Presicce 2011—a catalogue accompanying a major exhibition in Rome—is also useful for its color pictures and contains good thematic essays. For those interested in individual examples, the most important resources are individual museum catalogues: among the most significant of these is Fittschen and Zanker 1983–2010. Where most art-historical studies deal principally with material evidence, some have approached Roman portraiture from a more historical perspective—and with an eye to textual and epigraphic evidence: the work of Götz Lahusen (especially Lahusen 1983) is particularly important here. In this connection, we also include reference to a recent boom in scholarship on the deliberate destruction of Roman portraits: among the most significant contributions have been those of Eric Varner (especially Varner 2004), combining a materialist perspective with an interest in various literary and epigraphic materials.
  578.  
  579. Das römische Herrscherbild. Berlin: Gebr. Mann & Wiesbaden: Reichert. 1940–.
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  581. In German. Indispensable research tool, concerned with typologies of Imperial portraits. In 2014, the series stands at thirteen volumes, with dedicated discussions of the portraiture of Augustus (cf. Boschung 1993, cited under Periodization and Chronology: The Augustan “Revolution”), Tiberius, Caligula, the Flavians, Trajan, Hadrian, the Antonines, the soldier emperors, and Imperial portraiture of Late Antiquity.
  582. Find this resource:
  583. Fejfer, Jane. Roman Portraits in Context. Berlin: de Gruyter, 2008.
  584. DOI: 10.1515/9783110209990Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  585. Currently the best one-volume English-language guide to Roman portraiture, with useful endnotes and detailed polyglot bibliography. Structured thematically in four parts (“public honors and private expectations”; “modes of representation”; “the Empress and her fellow elite women”; “the emperor”); strong on sociohistorical context and display, as well as (in second part) the use of generic body types. Excellent illustrations (mostly black and white) throughout.
  586. Find this resource:
  587. Fittschen, Klaus, and Paul Zanker. Katalog der römischen Porträts in den Capitolinischen Museen und den anderen kommunalen Sammlungen der Stadt Rom I-III. 3 vols. Mainz: Philipp von Zabern, 1983–2010.
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  589. In German. This catalogue of portraiture found in Rome, produced in conjunction with the Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, is an indispensable resource for advanced graduate students and scholars—as much for its plates as for its text (each of the three volumes is subdivided into separate “Text” and “Tafeln” volumes). Collectively, the three volumes (Volume 2 published by de Gruyter) catalogue some 500 portraits—an exemplary model of meticulous German scholarship.
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  591. Giuliani, Luca. Bildnis und Botschaft: Hermeneutische Untersuchungen zur Bildniskunst der römischen Republik. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1986.
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  593. In German. A landmark attempt to chart the “hermeneutics” of Roman portraiture (cf. pp. 51–55: “Das Bildnis als Zeichen”), above all in the 2nd and 1st centuries BCE; particular attention paid throughout to the reception of Greek Classicism in Roman Republican portraiture. Some drawings, with sixty-six black-and-white photographs printed in a plates section within the middle of the book.
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  595. La Rocca, Eugenio, and Claudio Parisi Presicce, eds. Ritratti: Le tante facce del potere. Rome: MondoMostre, 2011.
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  597. In Italian. Catalogue of a large exhibition held in Rome’s Musei Capitoloni. Twelve thematic essays (written by leading Italian and German scholars), with detailed presentations of individual case studies; stunning color plates, with detailed bibliographies on museum showpieces. Emphasis on material from Italy, especially Rome.
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  599. Lahusen, Götz. Untersuchungen zur Ehrenstatue in Rom: Literarische und epigraphische Zeugnisse. Rome: Bretschneider, 1983.
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  601. In German. A historical survey of literary and epigraphic materials (no images). Structured in five parts (treating the topography of honorific statues in Rome, their typologies, occasions, and dedicants, as well as the so-called ius imaginis); a conclusion treats “the function and meaning of the honorific statue.” Compare Lahusen’s Schriftquellen zum römischen Bildnis: I: Textstellen, von den Anfängen bis zum 3. Jahrhundert n. Chr, Bremen, Germany: B. C. Heye, 1984—a useful compendium of 646 literary sources.
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  603. Nodelmann, Sheldon. “How to Read a Roman Portrait.” In Roman Art in Context. Edited by Eve D’Ambra, 10–26. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1993.
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  605. Based on an article first published in 1975, this chapter provides a short but pedagogically useful undergraduate introduction to issues of approach and methodology. Nodelmann approaches portraiture as a “system of signs” and “language,” which gives way to a broadly chronological discussion (from Republican “verism” to developments of Late Antiquity). Unfortunately no footnotes and only minimal bibliography.
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  607. Pfanner, Michael. “Über das Herstellen von Porträts: Ein Beitrag zu Rationalisierungsmassnahmen und Produktionsmechanismen von Massenware im späten Hellenismus und in der römischen Kaiserzeit.” Jahrbuch des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts 104 (1989): 157–258.
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  609. In German. Key survey, based on close formal analysis, of the processes of copying and mass-producing portraits in the late Hellenistic and Imperial Roman world; particular attention paid to the technical processes of copying (in the article’s second section).
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  611. Squire, Michael J. “Roman Portraiture and the Semantics of Extraction.” In Gesicht und Identität/Face and Identity. Edited by Gottfried Boehm, Orlando Budelacci, Maria Giuseppina Di Monte, and Michael Renne, 79–106. Munich: Wilhelm Fink, 2015.
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  613. First appeared in Italian (“La ritrattistica romana e la semantica dell’asportazione”: in Immagini che siamo: Ritratto e soggettività nell’estetica contemporanea, edited by Maria Giuseppina, Michele di Monte, and Henri de Riedmatten, 57–78; Rome: Carocci editore, 2014). Analyzes the relationship between the “heads” and “bodies” of Roman portraits: developing the approaches of e.g. Giuliani 1986 and Nodelmann 1993, argues for the knowing generic “self-referentiality” of Roman portraiture. Includes detailed bibliographic overview.
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  615. Varner, Eric R. Mutilation and Transformation: Damnatio memoriae and Roman Imperial Portraiture. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2004.
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  617. Important discussion of the status and functions of Roman Imperial portraiture: Varner considers in particular the purposeful destruction (or subsequent reworking) of images of “disgraced” emperors (especially Caligula, Nero, Domitian, Commodus, and Elagabalus), concentrating on material from the 1st century BCE to the 4th century CE; organized according to individual emperors (and their immediate families), with illustrated closing “catalogue of mutilated and altered portraits.”
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  619. “Idealplastik”
  620.  
  621. Idealplastik is a German scholarly term referring to “ideal sculpture.” It is something of a catch-all category, essentially referring to statues in the round other than portraits: these include depictions of gods, heroes, and mythological characters. Scholarship on Idealplastik is very much bound up with the issue of Roman “copies” of (or after) earlier Greek “originals." Where once the category was implicated with ideas about Roman passive imitation (“Roman” art as a pale imitation of the “Greek”: see Historiography), it is today being radically rethought: Marvin 2008 provides one of the best overviews of the scholarly history here. In the 19th century, the study of Roman “ideal sculpture” belonged largely to the domain of so-called Kopienkritik and Meisterforschung (the crucial contribution was Furtwängler 2010, translating a German book first published in 1893): the chief purpose of such “critique of copies” and “connoisseurship of Greek masters” was to reconstruct the Greek works that Roman images were thought to replicate, above all by comparing different extant copies. Furtwängler’s influence still looms large in the history of Roman Idealplastik. But the last half-century has also witnessed something of a sea-change in scholarly perspectives. With the rising interest (especially since the late 1970s onward) in Roman statues not just as passive copies of Greek masterpieces, but also as “original” artworks in and of themselves, one approach has been to chart the active ways in which Roman “ideal sculpture” alluded to earlier styles and forms. Zanker 1974 was particularly important here, focusing on the Roman uses of 5th- and 4th-century “Classical” styles. Other contributions have discussed Roman “ideal sculpture” in light of broader ideologies of “emulation” in Roman art (Perry 2005); as the essays in Gazda 2002 argue, Roman collections of “ideal sculpture” could knowingly allude to earlier styles, eliciting carefully modulated responses in different contexts. Among the clearest and most detailed surveys of Roman “ideal sculpture” in light of this scholarly sea-change is Anguissola 2012 (now fundamental reading for graduate students). Also noteworthy are Hallett 2005 and Trimble 2011 which, although not dealing with “ideal” sculptural subjects, nevertheless examine the Roman appropriation of male and female “ideal” sculptural types within the field of Roman portraiture.
  622.  
  623. Anguissola, Anna. “Difficillima imitatio”: Immagine e lessico delle copie tra Grecia e Roma. Rome: Bretschneider, 2012.
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  625. In Italian. Now the best and most concise guide to issues of imitation and replication in Roman art (as well as its historiography), with excellent pictures; thematically arranged, and structured around close formal analysis of extant materials. Useful appendix of key ancient literary passages discussing “imitation” (from both a rhetorical and explicitly artistic angle).
  626. Find this resource:
  627. Furtwängler, Adolf. Masterpieces of Greek Sculpture: A Series of Essays on the History of Art. Translated by Eugenie Strong. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
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  629. A digital reprint of an 1895 translation of Furtwängler’s original German publication (Meisterwerke der griechischen Plastik. Kunstgeschichtliche Untersuchungen. 2 vols. Leipzig: von Giesecke—Devrient, 1893: the German text is freely available here). This volume effectively founded the projects of Kopienkritik and Meisterforschung: the concern is exclusively with Greek art; by comparing replicas—that is, Roman copies of the same assumed “Greek” original—the book aimed at reconstructing Greek models, discussing the styles of individual Greek “masters.”
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  631. Gazda, Elaine, ed. The Ancient Art of Emulation: Studies in Artistic Originality and Tradition from the Present to Classical Antiquity. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 2002.
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  633. This edited volume engages critically with the historiography of scholarship on “Roman copies”; contributors examine a series of specific case studies (mostly Imperial in date) in order to analyze overarching Roman concepts of “imitation” and “emulation.” Brings together some of the most celebrated (Anglophone) voices in the field.
  634. Find this resource:
  635. Hallett, Christopher H. The Roman Nude: Heroic Statuary 200 BC–AD 300. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.
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  637. Hallett analyzes the Roman cultural significance of combining idealized body types with individualized portrait heads in Roman sculpture. Although not strictly concerned with Idealplastik per se, this book amounts to one of the most important recent analyses of how Greek sculptural models were appropriated and quoted in Roman sculpture.
  638. Find this resource:
  639. Marvin, Miranda. The Language of the Muses: The Dialogue between Greek and Roman Sculpture. Los Angeles: Getty, 2008.
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  641. This book, richly illustrated in color throughout, combines a study of Roman sculpture with a sustained interest in its modern historiography (focused around the question of “originals” and “copies”). Particularly sensitive to the “active relations” between “Greek” and “Roman” sculpture (as indeed other media), Marvin also reviews the history of scholarship concerning Kopienkritik and Meisterforschung. Foundational work both on Roman “ideal sculpture” and ancient art historiography more generally.
  642. Find this resource:
  643. Perry, Ellen, ed. The Aesthetics of Emulation in the Visual Arts of Ancient Rome. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2005.
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  645. Approaches ideas of “imitation” and “emulation” in Roman art from a textual angle; complements and extends other work in this field (e.g. Gazda 2002) by concentrating on the conceptual frameworks underlying the visual record.
  646. Find this resource:
  647. Trimble, Jennifer. Women and Visual Replication in Roman Imperial Art and Culture. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2011.
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  649. Examines the significance of “standardized” body types in Roman female portraiture, exploring the distinctive (and locally inflected) Roman significance of stock Greek prototypes; the particular focus is on the so-called “Herculaneum Women” type. An important example of how stylistic analysis can shed light on Roman social and cultural history (and in this sense develops the approach of e.g. Hallett 2005).
  650. Find this resource:
  651. Zanker, Paul. Klassizistische Statuen: Studien zur Veränderung des Kunstgeschmacks in der römischen Kaiserzeit. Mainz, Germany: Philipp von Zabern, 1974.
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  653. In German. Focusing on Roman copies of 5th-century Classical male youths, this study marked a paradigm shift in the historiography of Roman art. Departing from standard frameworks of Kopienkritik (cf. Furtwängler 2010), Zanker maps out different types of stylistic emulation across a broad range of materials (cf. Zanker 1997, cited under Viewers): formal analysis thus gives rise to broader cultural historical interpretation.
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  655. State Relief
  656.  
  657. “State relief” is a modern scholarly umbrella term that encompasses a range of different relief sculpture on Roman public monuments; as such, the category includes relief sculpture adorning public buildings, temples, altars, and triumphal arches/columns (among other constructions). The genre is sometimes also known as “historical relief,” since many of these reliefs depict scenes thought to relate to specific historical events (including battles and triumphs). Our section title sticks with the “state relief” title to reflect a current scholarly consensus: as recent work has emphasized, the purpose of these reliefs was less to provide some “documentary” display of historical events than to spin interpretation in specific, ideologically loaded ways (see above all Faust 2012). There exist relatively few surveys of the genre. Koeppel 1982 offers a concise overview, while Torelli 1982 offers a more in-depth analysis (and over a broader chronological span). Brilliant 1963 incorporates extensive discussions of state relief as part of Brilliant’s broader analysis of the construction of power and hierarchy in Roman visual culture, with an agenda-setting interest in Roman art’s “sign value.” Most other discussions are chronologically framed, or else deal with specific monuments. On the origins of the genre in Republican art, Holliday 2002 has been particularly important for its interdisciplinary perspective and interest in “narrative” (cited under Periodization and Chronology: The Art of the Republic); Hölscher 1984, by contrast, was more concerned with the historical backdrop (cited under Periodization and Chronology: The Art of the Republic). While the reliefs of the Augustan Ara Pacis in Rome have loomed particularly large here (see e.g. Zanker 1988, cited under Periodization and Chronology: The Augustan “Revolution”), other works have focused on later Julio-Claudian and Flavian monuments (e.g. Pfanner 1983 on the Arch of Titus reliefs). Perhaps most important of all has been the work on Antonine and Severan state relief, and in particular on the columns of Trajan and Marcus Aurelius. Settis and La Regina 1988 is particularly useful for its photographs and images of Trajan’s column (as well as for Settis’ highly influential essay within this edited volume), while Scheid and Huet 2000 brings together a number of different perspectives in its discussion of the column of Marcus Aurelius. In terms of monographs rather than edited volumes, Beckmann 2011 gives one detailed English-language interpretation of the Marcus Aurelius column (as well as offering a useful review of former scholarship), while Faust 2012 uses this monument (and others) to construct a longer history about the medial developments of the genre in the 2nd century CE.
  658.  
  659. Beckmann, Martin. The Column of Marcus Aurelius: The Genesis and Meaning of a Roman Imperial Monument. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2011.
  660. DOI: 10.5149/9780807877777_beckmannSave Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  661. Although not quite as convincing or detailed as Faust 2012, this book nevertheless provides a detailed English discussion of the stylistic characteristics of the reliefs on the column of Marcus Aurelius; a welcome reassessment of Max Wegner’s treatment of the topic in Jahrbuch des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts 46 (1931): 61–174.
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  663. Brilliant, Richard. Gesture and Rank in Roman Art: The Use of Gestures to Denote Status in Roman Sculpture and Coinage. New Haven, CT: Connecticut Academy, 1963.
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  665. This run-through of individual gestures in Roman state art is primarily arranged along a chronological axis. Although essentially an iconographic survey, there are some interesting structuralist undertones in approach. The genre of “state relief” looms large throughout.
  666. Find this resource:
  667. Faust, Stephan. Schlachtenbilder der römischen Kaiserzeit: Erzählerische Darstellungskonzepte in der Reliefkunst von Traian bis Septimius Severus. Rahden, Germany: Verlag Marie Leidorf, 2012.
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  669. In German. Largely, but not exclusively, focused on Antonine and Severan reliefs (with particularly fine discussion of the columns of Trajan and Marcus Aurelius). Instead of simply relating images to particular historical events, Faust is especially sensitive to the ways in which different monumental media shaped both their form and cultural historical interpretation.
  670. Find this resource:
  671. Koeppel, Gerhard M. “The Grand Pictorial Tradition of Roman Historical Representation during the Early Empire.” In Aufstieg und Niedergang der Römischen Welt. Vol. 2.12.1. Edited by Wolfgang Haase and Hildegard Temporini, 507–535. Berlin and New York: de Gruyter, 1982.
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  673. A concise summary of the influences that shaped the emergence of Roman state relief, with detailed discussion of examples. Good undergraduate overview, though bibliography now somewhat out of date.
  674. Find this resource:
  675. Pfanner, Michael. Der Titusbogen. Mainz, Germany: Philipp von Zabern, 1983.
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  677. In German. Explores the Arch of Titus, analyzing aspects of its design and execution as well as the iconography of its reliefs; Pfanner contextualizes the monument within the development of reliefs on triumphal arches from the Julio-Claudian period onward. The extremely detailed documentation makes this more of a scholarly resource than a teaching tool.
  678. Find this resource:
  679. Scheid, John, and Valerie Huet, eds. Autour de la Colonne Aurélienne: Geste et image sur la colonne de Marc Aurèle à Rome. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2000.
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  681. Coedited volume with papers in French, English, and German. Tackles the column of Marcus Aurelius from an array of different perspectives: includes critical discussions of the historiography of the column’s style, its rendering of violence, and its depictions of barbarians.
  682. Find this resource:
  683. Settis, Salvatore, and Adriano La Regina, eds. La Colonna Traiana. Turin, Italy: Einaudi, 1988.
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  685. In Italian. Within this edited volume, Settis presents his groundbreaking argument about Trajan’s column in Rome: he explores how the visibility of the column impacted upon its narrative strategies—and in turn augmented the column’s cultural historical significance. The book is a valuable resource for different types of study, not least because of its photographic documentation of the column’s reliefs.
  686. Find this resource:
  687. Torelli, Mario. Typology and Structure of Roman Historical Reliefs. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1982.
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  689. A comprehensive discussion of Roman state reliefs, focusing specifically on the Augustan and Trajanic/Hadrianic periods; the best starting-point for both advanced undergraduate/graduate students and scholars within the field.
  690. Find this resource:
  691. Funerary Reliefs and Sarcophagi
  692.  
  693. Sarcophagi and other funerary reliefs have always had a special place in the study of Roman art. Work has been facilitated here by the detailed scholarly catalogues of the Die antiken Sarkophagreliefs (Koch, et al. 1897–)—a series of weighty volumes (with superlative quality plates) focused above all on iconographic themes. For the most comprehensive guide to the field (structured above all around geographical variation), Koch and Sichtermann 1982 still offers one of the most respected handbooks (although much of the bibliography now looks outdated). On the use of mythological subjects, the most important intervention (aimed at undergraduates and specialist scholars alike) is Zanker and Ewald 2012, translated into English from an earlier German book published in 2004; compare also Bielfeldt 2005, centered around the single mythological figure of Orestes. Since the late 1970s, the focus of attention has slowly expanded beyond the horizon of iconography alone. Where most interpretative attention in the first half of the 20th century had concentrated on cultic and symbolical interpretations of sarcophagi, the field has expanded widely since the turn of the 21st century (for an overview of the diverse range of current approaches, the best edited volume is Elsner and Huskinson 2011). If the most influential earlier survey studies had concentrated on “death and burial” in the Roman world (Toynbee 1996), other discussions have engaged with aspects of religion (Wrede 1981) and above all visuality (Platt 2011); current scholarship is also characterized by a strong focus on sarcophagus reliefs and the funerary sphere of the high and late Empire, with particular interest in burial context and display (cf. Borg 2013, cited under Periodization and Chronology: The Later Empire). Alongside this work has been a renewed interest in the funerary art of freedmen, whose prominent presence within this genre provides our best source of information for this social class (see e.g. Clarke 2003, Petersen 2006 and Mayer 2012, cited under Viewers: Social Distinctions). At the same time, studies have concentrated on what funerary reliefs (and above all their recourse to mythological subjects) might communicate about the personal life of the deceased or indeed of those whom the deceased left behind: Zanker and Ewald 2012 is particularly important here, combining studies of individual myths with sociocultural commentary and interpretation.
  694.  
  695. Bielfeldt, Ruth. Orestes auf römischen Sarkophagen. Berlin: Reimer, 2005.
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  697. An important discussion of the visual roles of myth on Roman sarcophagi, centered around a single mythological figure: Orestes. Notable for combining close formalist study with methodological sophistication.
  698. Find this resource:
  699. Elsner, Jaś, and Janet Huskinson, eds. Life, Death and Representation: Some New Work on Roman Sarcophagi. Berlin: de Gruyter, 2011.
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  701. This edited volume showcases some of the latest trends in Roman sarcophagus studies, bringing together papers on various aspects (including stylistic development, mythological narrative, the economics behind production and distribution, patterns of representation, and religious/cultic backdrops). Illustrations in black and white, with collected bibliography at the book’s end.
  702. Find this resource:
  703. Koch, Guntram, Klaus Fittschen, and Walter Trillmich, eds. Die antiken Sarkophagreliefs. Berlin: Gebr. Mann, 1897–.
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  705. In German. Comprising twenty-five volumes to date, this series presents all known sarcophagus reliefs, organized according to type of decoration (mythological, non-mythological) and subject matter (including individual discussions of different mythological subjects). All volumes are meticulously documented, including detailed catalogue entries and in-depth discussion/interpretation, as well as black-and-white photographs and line drawings.
  706. Find this resource:
  707. Koch, Guntram, and Hellmut Sichtermann. Römische Sarkophage. Munich: Beck, 1982.
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  709. In German. Scholarly “handbook” on Roman sarcophagi (prequel to Koch 2000, cited under Periodization and Chronology: The Origins of Christian Art). Approaches sarcophagi from a range of interpretive angles, but predominant interest lies in regional variation (pp. 276–580). Five hundred ninety-nine photographs on 160 endplates (plus twenty-five line drawings in the text). Extensive references, but frustrating lack of final bibliography. A resource for scholars and advanced graduates.
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  711. Koortbojian, Michael. Myth, Meaning, and Memory on Roman Sarcophagi. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995.
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  713. This study refutes earlier works that aimed to interpret mythological scenes on Roman sarcophagi as a form of religious symbolism. Koortbojian instead probes these images of myths for what they convey about Roman social and cultural attitudes. As a teaching resource, now somewhat superseded by Zanker and Ewald 2012.
  714. Find this resource:
  715. Platt, Verity. Facing the Gods: Epiphany and Representation in Graeco-Roman Art, Literature and Religion. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2011.
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  717. This book is concerned with the phenomenon of representing the divine in the ancient world, and only the last chapter deals with material from the funerary sphere (“Dying to see,” on so-called “epiphanic sarcophagi”). The discussion is nonetheless highly relevant for understanding how Roman funerary art reframes concepts of mortal-immortal relations (compare also Platt’s article on “Framing the Dead on Roman Sarcophagi,” RES: Anthropology and Aesthetics 61–62 (2012): 213–227).
  718. Find this resource:
  719. Toynbee, Jocelyn M. C. Death and Burial in the Roman World. 2d ed. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1996.
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  721. First published in 1971 (Death and Burial in the Roman World. Ithaca: Cornell University Press). The classic Anglophone survey of Roman funerary monuments and associated notions of death, and traditionally used as a textbook. The book provides detailed typological descriptions of cemetery layouts and funerary monuments. Many interpretations can now feel somewhat dated.
  722. Find this resource:
  723. Wrede, Henning. Consecratio in formam deorum: Vergöttlichte Privatpersonen in der römischen Kaiserzeit. Mainz, Germany: Philipp von Zabern, 1981.
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  725. In German. Dealing with a variety of funerary materials, this study (in one sense prefiguring Platt 2011) is concerned with negotiations between mortals and gods; it is especially interested in the phenomenon of presenting mortals in the guise of gods (if not as gods). Meticulously documented, with excellent black-and-white illustrations, but most useful for its detailed catalogue of materials.
  726. Find this resource:
  727. Zanker, Paul, and Björn C. Ewald. Living with Myths: The Imagery of Roman Sarcophagi. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012.
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  729. Published almost a decade after the German original (Mit Mythen leben: Die Bilderwelt der römischen Sarkophage. Munich: Hirmer, 2004), this remains a landmark publication in its analysis of how sarcophagi recycled and appropriated mythological subjects and iconographies. Close, formalist analyses are coupled with broader interpretation of the cultural “mindsets” of makers and viewers. Excellent range of color and black-and-white photographs, many purpose-commissioned.
  730. Find this resource:
  731. Wall-Painting
  732.  
  733. Scholarship on Roman wall-painting was initially characterized by the same type of Kopienkritik and Meisterforschung that shaped the study of Roman “ideal sculpture” (see Historiography and Media: Sculpture: “Idealplastik”): extant paintings were perceived as derivative reflections of lost Greek “originals.” During the late 19th century, there developed a new interest in the chronological evolution of the medium, above all the surrounding “decorative” frameworks of Roman mural painting. In 1882, August Mau published a decisive history of Roman mural painting from the 2nd century BCE to the later 1st century CE, charting its development according to what he labeled the “Four Styles” of Pompeian painting (for an overview of the historiography here, see Ling 1991). Since then, much work has been done to refine Mau’s framework, narrowly focused on issues of chronology and classification. Mau’s work was based almost exclusively on evidence from the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum. Bragantini and Sampaolo 2009 offers a well-illustrated introductory guide to this material, although the most important scholarly resource is Pugliese Caratelli 1990–2003 (cited under General Resources: Reference Works). Over the last decades, excavations in metropolitan Rome and elsewhere in Rome have unearthed important materials for the post-Pompeian history of Roman wall-painting: particularly significant here is Ladstätter and Zimmermann 2011 on materials from Ephesus. Four general introductions to the medium of Roman wall-painting stand out. The most stimulating and well-referenced guide (complete with excellent color pictures) is Croisille 2005, written in French. Ling 1991 is usually the first choice for an English-language textbook, but much of its discussion of “originals” and “copies” now looks somewhat outdated. Leach 2004 is more focused around social historical interpretations than formal analysis, but is well suited for graduate reading (not least on account of its detailed references). Among the newest offerings is Pollitt 2015—an edited volume with chapters dealing with painting across the entire chronological and geographical sweep of the Classical world (rather than with Roman wall-painting alone). Current work on Roman wall-painting looks markedly different from that of just a generation ago. Since the 1990s, scholars have championed the different social roles that wall-painting played within the Roman house. Important here has been the active involvement of Roman viewers in constructing narrative connections between different panels and iconographic themes (following the lead of e.g. Elsner 1995, cited under Viewers, and Wallace-Hadrill 1994, cited under Viewers: Social Distinctions). In terms of Roman wall-painting specifically, Bergmann 1995 was decisive in setting a new agenda around the themes of spectatorship and active visual engagement; more recent work has developed Bergmann’s interest, above all in the context of mythological subjects (e.g. Lorenz 2008).
  734.  
  735. Bergmann, Bettina. “The Roman House as Memory Theatre: The House of the Tragic Poet in Pompeii.” Art Bulletin 76 (1995): 225–256.
  736. DOI: 10.2307/3046021Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  737. An analysis of the zoning of the House of the Tragic Poet in Pompeii by means of its wall-paintings: a landmark and highly influential attempt to explore the contextual meanings of Roman wall-painting. Among its illustrations are vista shots taken from a purpose-made model of the house. The brevity and intellectual sparkiness also make this ideal undergraduate reading.
  738. Find this resource:
  739. Bragantini, Irene, and Valeria Sampaolo, eds. 2009. La pittura pompeiana. Naples, Italy: Electa.
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  741. In Italian. Surveys (with excellent color reproductions) some of the most important Roman wall-paintings now housed in Naples National Archaeological Museum. Better for its pictures than for its text.
  742. Find this resource:
  743. Croisille, Jean-Michel. La peinture romaine. Paris: Picard, 2005.
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  745. In French. A chronologically organized survey of Roman wall-painting; incorporates some rarely explored evidence and takes a more critical stance toward the taxonomies and typologies of traditional wall-painting scholarship. Amply illustrated in color. Surpasses Ling 1991 as the best introduction to the medium.
  746. Find this resource:
  747. Ladstätter, Sabine, and Norbert Zimmermann. Wall Painting in Ephesus. Istanbul: Ege Yayinlari, 2011.
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  749. A comprehensive publication of the important finds from Ephesus: covers the development of Roman wall-painting from the Hellenistic period into the medieval ages. Also provides new, convincing answers to long debates around dating some of the Ephesian evidence. Amply illustrated.
  750. Find this resource:
  751. Leach, Eleanor Winsor. The Social Life of Painting in Ancient Rome and the Bay of Naples. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2004.
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  753. Following on from her 1988 publication on Roman landscape and landscape painting (The Rhetoric of Space; Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press), Leach assesses the social roles that different types of wall-painting played in different parts of the Roman house. Develops the social historical approach to the medium championed by e.g. Wallace-Hadrill 1994 (cited under Viewers: Social Distinctions).
  754. Find this resource:
  755. Ling, Roger. Roman Painting. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1991.
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  757. An accessible survey of Roman painting, centered around the Four Styles of Pompeian paintings, but also including later materials. The illustrations (mainly in black and white) and clear structure make this an undergraduate favorite. But some sections now feel dated: the book precedes more recent interests in the construction of domestic space and the active involvement of Roman viewers.
  758. Find this resource:
  759. Lorenz, Katharina. Bilder machen Räume: Mythenbilder in pompeianischen Häusern. Berlin: de Gruyter, 2008.
  760. DOI: 10.1515/9783110211887Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  761. In German. A discussion of Pompeian mythological wall-paintings, assessing their different narrative strategies (above all the combination of divergent mythical stories within particular Pompeian domestic spaces). Develops the approaches of e.g. Wallace-Hadrill 1994 (cited under Viewers: Social Distinctions) and Bergmann 1995 in its concern with social hierarchies and the active role of Roman viewers.
  762. Find this resource:
  763. Pollitt, Jerome J., ed. The Cambridge History of Painting in the Classical World. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2015.
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  765. A survey of all ancient painting: chapters on Roman painting are written by experts in the field (Rouveret, Pollitt, Bragantini, and Ling). Accompanied by excellent illustrations and advice for further study: a solid resource for graduate study, though some aspects will confuse undergraduate readers.
  766. Find this resource:
  767. Mosaics
  768.  
  769. Unlike other more “portable” artistic media, mosaics were often designed for specific contexts and rooms within a Roman house, temple, or public building. Some of the most exciting recent work on Roman mosaics has used them as a springboard for exploring broader questions about how different spaces were conceptualized within the Roman world (the crucial intervention here was Muth 1998). At the same time, the regional variations in the design and execution of mosaics provides a fascinating perspective for thinking about the diffusion of Roman culture across the Empire (cf. Regional Variations): important here is Lancha 1997 (on “literary” mosaics within western Roman provinces), as well as Blanchard-Lemée, et al. 1996, a lavishly illustrated album of mosaics from Roman Africa accompanied by thematic discussions. There are a number of good introductory guides for advanced undergraduate and graduate students. Dunbabin 1999 offers the most accessible English-language overview of both Greek and Roman mosaics, complete with references and bibliography; Ling 1998 is more basic, but nonetheless suitable for undergraduate teaching (and appealing for its color pictures). One of the best overviews of ancient mosaics is Andreae 2003: this beautifully illustrated and large-format book is particularly important for its photographs, but nonetheless offers a lucid and (mostly) jargon-free German text. Most of these textbooks concentrate on floor mosaics rather than those appended to walls and vaulted ceilings: for the latter, Sear 1977 is still the most cited resource (albeit intended for a more advanced scholarly readership). There are likewise many specialist resources and periodicals for Roman mosaics (some of which are referenced in Dunbabin 1999, pp. 344–347). Scholarship on this material is especially dependent on Pugliese Caratelli 1990–2003 (cited under General Resources: Reference Works): this series provides a detailed photographic album of Pompeian mosaics (with short descriptions). A second key scholarly resource is Donderer 1989. The importance of this volume lies first in its detailed collection of sources about those who made Roman mosaics; and second, its discussion of ancient terminology for mosaic production on the basis of surviving inscriptions. One of the challenges in studying Roman mosaics is the need for large color photographs and reconstructions. An exceptional resource here is Neal and Cosh 2002–2010 (cited under Regional Variations: Western Provinces: Romano-British Art): although dealing solely with Romano-British mosaics, this topographically organized catalogue has set a new publishing standard, not least on account of its color images and reconstruction drawings.
  770.  
  771. Andreae, Bernard. Antike Bildmosaiken. Mainz, Germany: Philipp von Zabern, 2003.
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  773. In German. The 310 color figures—integrated within the text, and combining details with line drawings and reconstruction/topographic diagrams—make this the most visually exciting introduction to Roman mosaics. The text is lucid but introductory (and students should be wary of some conspicuous errors and excesses in interpretation): chapters are organized around specific places, themes, and examples. Extensive captions, but highly selective endnotes.
  774. Find this resource:
  775. Blanchard-Lemée, Michèle, Ennaïfer Mongi, Hédi Slim, and Latifa Slim. Mosaics of Roman Africa: Floor Mosaics from Tunisia. London: British Museum, 1996.
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  777. (Translated from French: Sols de l’Afrique Romaine; Paris: Imprimerie nationale Éditions, 1995.) Large and beautifully produced introduction to Roman mosaics from North Africa between the 2nd and 6th centuries CE. This English-language book is unparalleled for the quality of its large, integrated pictures; the ten thematic chapters, dedicated to particular subjects and motifs, give a basic introduction, despite the slightly convoluted prose. Short guide to bibliography on p. 296.
  778. Find this resource:
  779. Donderer, Michael. Die Mosaizisten der Antike und ihre wirtschaftliche und soziale Stellung: Eine Quellenstudie. Erlangen, Germany: Universitätsbund, 1989.
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  781. In German. Less an art-historical study of Roman mosaics than a wide-ranging investigation—on the basis of surviving textual and archaeological materials—into the economic and social status of those who made them. Particular emphasis on the signatures of mosaic inscriptions (and the terminology used).
  782. Find this resource:
  783. Dunbabin, Katherine M. D. Mosaics of the Greek and Roman World. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1999.
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  785. A dutiful but fairly comprehensive single-volume introduction (with concise footnotes referring to key scholarly publications). Broad chronological and geographical span (also dealing with Greek and Hellenistic origins). The book is structured in two parts, treating first “historical and regional development” (chapters 1–15), and second “technique and production” (chapters 16–20). Pictures and diagrams are integrated within text (though most are in black and white, unlike e.g. Andreae 2003); appendix of maps and useful “glossary of ornamental patterns.”
  786. Find this resource:
  787. Lancha, Janine. Mosaïque et culture dans l’Occident romain (Ier–IVe s.). Rome: Bretschneider, 1997.
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  789. In French. Extensive catalogue of “literary” mosaic subjects in the western Roman provinces, centered principally around their knowledge of Greek and Latin poetry. Some 124 examples are catalogued (pp. 31–300), each according to Roman province, and with particular attention to both iconography and inscriptions. Good-quality pictures (126 large-format black-and-white plates, and thirteen color plates)
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  791. Ling, Roger. Ancient Mosaics. London: British Museum, 1998.
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  793. Less detailed than e.g. Dunbabin 1999, but in some ways better suited to an introductory undergraduate reading list. The eight chapters are organized geographically (with special interest in regional variation); additional final chapters are dedicated to “wall and vault mosaics” and “context and meaning.” Beautifully printed on thick paper, with most of the ninety-five illustrations reproduced in color.
  794. Find this resource:
  795. Muth, Susanne. Erleben von Raum—Leben im Raum: Zur Funktion mythologischer Mosaikbilder in der römisch-Kaiserzeitlichen Wohnarchitektur. Heidelberg, Germany: Verlag Archäologie und Geschichte, 1998.
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  797. In German (with English summary on pp. 346–350). Groundbreaking contextual analysis of Roman domestic mythological mosaics (concentrating on North Africa and Spain between the high and late Empire). Muth analyzes mythological motifs, offering a detailed catalogue of different domestic complexes (pp. 351–448). Her innovative approach is developed in numerous subsequent articles (e.g. “Bildkomposition und Raumstruktur: Zum Mosaik der ‘Grossen Jagd’ von Piazza Armerina in seinem raumfunktionalen Kontext.” Römische Mitteilungen 106 (1999): 189–212).
  798. Find this resource:
  799. Sear, Frank B. Roman Wall and Vault Mosaics. Heidelberg, Germany: F. H. Kerle Verlag, 1977.
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  801. Detailed catalogue of wall and vault as opposed to floor mosaics, including those known only from later drawings. Introductory chapters discuss terminology, as well as the history of the medium, different framing patterns, and techniques and materials. The majority of the book is dedicated to a catalogue of 308 examples (structured according to geographical context: Italy, Eastern provinces, North Africa, and Europe). Specialist research resource.
  802. Find this resource:
  803. Architecture
  804.  
  805. Although “Roman architecture” is frequently treated in isolation from “Roman art” (as indeed it is in this bibliographic guide), the boundaries between the two are inherently fluid: most of the sculpted “state reliefs” that we might categorize under the medium of “sculpture” (see Media: Sculpture: State Relief), for example, were expressly conceptualized in terms of their original architectural context on public buildings, columns, and arches; likewise, recent work on artistic media like mosaics and wall-painting has emphasized the close relationship between the visual themes chosen and their specific location within a domestic or public setting (cf., e.g., Muth 1998, cited under Mosaics; Clarke 1991, cited under Architecture; Lorenz 2008, cited under Wall-Painting). The best recent scholarly survey of Roman architecture is Gros 1996–2001, written in French (no English translation is yet available); the organizational structure of MacDonald 1965–1986 is somewhat less clear, but the work nonetheless offers a well-illustrated English-language guide. Shorter—though with an abundance of photographs, and well-suited for undergraduates—is Ward-Perkins 1981. As a thematic guide to further bibliography, Ulrich and Quenemoen 2013 is now an indispensable handbook for scholars and students alike, while Wilson-Jones 2000 and Taylor 2003 both offer thought-provoking guides to the respective principles and pragmatic challenges of Roman building projects. We also cite here a number of books on particular types of Roman buildings—and from a variety of methodological angles. There is a huge independent bibliography on Roman domestic architecture, but Clarke 1991 is particularly strong on the interconnections between house layout and wall/floor decoration (within the context of Republican and Imperial Italy). Davies 2000, by contrast, deals solely with Imperial funerary monuments, approaching these buildings from a political and cultural historical perspective. On Roman temples specifically, Stamper 2005 provides a detailed survey (more suitable for graduates), with a particular emphasis on issues of tradition and innovation in design. Perhaps the most exciting recent work on Roman architecture, however, is that of Thomas 2007: discussing a range of different building types—and focusing above all on structures built in the 2nd century CE–Thomas exploits both literary and material evidence to explore metaphors of “monumentality” in Roman culture.
  806.  
  807. Clarke, John R. The Houses of Roman Italy, 100 BC-AD 250: Ritual, Space, and Decoration. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991.
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  809. Just one of many key books dealing with Roman domestic architectural space. Notable is the sheer number of case studies discussed (in eight, chronologically arranged chapters); important too is the concern with the intersections between domestic architecture and (above all painted) domestic decoration.
  810. Find this resource:
  811. Davies, Penelope J. E. Death and the Emperor: Roman Imperial Funerary Monuments from Augustus to Marcus Aurelius. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
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  813. (Reprinted by University of Texas Press in 2004.) Analysis of various funerary architectural monuments—as well as of their accompanying imagery—showcasing their active role as “magnificent accession monuments” (p. 173). The monuments themselves are surveyed in chapter 1 (pp. 13–48), giving rise to a series of thematic accounts. Exemplary for its interest in architectural form on the one hand, and social, political, and cultural history on the other.
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  815. Gros, Pierre. L’Architecture Romaine du début du IIIe siècle av. J.C. à la fin du Haut-Empire. 2 vols. Paris: Picard, 1996–2001.
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  817. In French. The most important and comprehensive guide to Roman architecture currently available, split across two monumental volumes (dealing with “public monuments” and “houses, palaces, villas, and tombs”); only a handful of color plates, but abundant black-and-white photos, plans, and drawings. Both volumes are broadly organized around different types of buildings, with end-of-chapter specialist bibliographies. (Given the advanced readership, it is regrettable that there are no endnotes/footnotes.)
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  819. MacDonald, William I. The Architecture of the Roman Empire. 2 vols. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1965–1986.
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  821. Much less detailed than Gros 1996–2001 (and with inferior illustrations)—but in English. The first volume is an “introductory study” (eight chapters, four centered around specific buildings), while the second offers a more thematic “urban appraisal.” Rationale of chapter divisions is not always clear, but the book is useful for its interest in regional homogeneity/variation across the Roman Empire.
  822. Find this resource:
  823. Stamper, John W. The Architecture of Roman Temples: The Republic to the Middle Empire. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2005.
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  825. Treats temple architecture specifically, and in particular the enduring influence of the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus on Roman architectural design (which is used to consider “the authority of precedent” more generally). Later chapters deal with specific Imperial building programs and monuments. Richly illustrated, and a good resource for more-advanced graduate students.
  826. Find this resource:
  827. Taylor, Rabun. Roman Builders: A Study in Architectural Practice. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
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  829. Uses a variety of case studies (above all in Rome, but also e.g. Baalbek) to showcase the various logistical challenges faced by Roman architects. Innovative for reconstructing the various phases of the building process, and above all for the practical and pragmatic questions asked (as well as the reconstruction drawings of building techniques). More suitable for advanced graduate courses than undergraduate surveys.
  830. Find this resource:
  831. Thomas, Edmund. Monumentality and the Roman Empire: Architecture in the Antonine Age. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007.
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  833. Although its case studies focus on the 2nd century CE, this book explores Roman ideologies of the “monumental” more generally, combining literary and archaeological materials. Important for thinking about Roman architecture from a broader, cultural historical perspective (hence the division of chapters into four overarching parts—treating “monumental form,” “monuments of city and empire,” “monuments and memory,” “responses to monuments”).
  834. Find this resource:
  835. Ulrich, Roger B., and Caroline K. Quenemoen. A Companion to Roman Architecture. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013.
  836. DOI: 10.1002/9781118325117Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  837. Single-volume handbook surveying the most important critical issues. Twenty-five chapters (each illustrated, and with separate guides to further reading) vary in structural scope—from chronological periods and geographical variations to particular types of building, patronage, materials, and restoration. Important student resource for facilitating more in-depth research projects.
  838. Find this resource:
  839. Ward-Perkins, John B. Roman Imperial Architecture. London: Penguin, 1981.
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  841. (Originally published—alongside Boëthius 1978, cited under Periodization and Chronology: Etruscan Origins?—as Parts 2 and 3 of Etruscan and Roman Architecture; Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin, 1970, pp. 183–579; this edition has updated references and better-quality images). Basic but well-referenced introductory guide to the forms of Imperial architecture, combining chronologically arranged chapters with chapters on particular cities/geographical areas. Many of the references are now outdated.
  842. Find this resource:
  843. Wilson-Jones, Mark. Principles of Roman Architecture. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2000.
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  845. Combines a historical perspective with modern-day architectural interest in the “aesthetics” of Roman architectural design. Part 1 contains thematic chapters on the practices of/challenges faced by Roman architects, whereas Part 2 focuses on three individual buildings. Large format, richly illustrated with plans and color images.
  846. Find this resource:
  847. Gems and Glyptic Arts
  848.  
  849. The sheer number of engraved gemstones surviving from Antiquity gives them an important—and still somewhat underplayed—significance in the study of Roman art. Given the centrality of this material for the reception of ancient art (above all in the aftermath of the Renaissance: cf. Zazoff 1983, pp. 1–23, 388–395; Zwierlein-Diehl 2007; cf. Legacy and Reception), moreover, gems have a particular significance for understanding the broader historiography of the discipline and the later European reception of Roman art (cf. Historiography). The study of ancient gems is very much dominated by German scholarship. From a historiographic viewpoint, the most decisive publication was Furtwängler 1900: Furtwängler’s classificatory approach set a new scholarly standard, and his methodology still exerts a huge influence over the field today (not only, but especially, in Germany). The two most important recent overviews of ancient gems are Zazoff 1983 and Zwierlein-Diehl 2007—both chronologically organized, but the latter illustrating a broader range of materials. There is no comparable overview in English. Students without German must instead make do with Richter 1971 (essentially a catalogue of selected examples, but with some short introductory chapters providing a concise overview). Alternatively, students might turn to the catalogues of individual English and American museums: particularly helpful here is Henig 1994, a catalogue (with some excellent additional essays) of the gems in Cambridge’s Fitzwilliam Museum. In terms of Internet resources, the Beazley Archive provides a searchable database of some 35,000 examples; unfortunately, however, the website contains very little in the way of more general introduction, and many will be put off by the website’s forbidding interface. There also exist a number of more detailed scholarly works on specific aspects of production, iconography, and materials: Vollenweider 1966 focuses on what can be gleaned about individual artists and workshops in the 1st century BCE and 1st century CE, for example, while Megow 1987 deals exclusively with late Republican and Imperial portrait gems. Regrettably, in our view, the study of intaglio and cameo carving has yet fully to be integrated within the study of other Roman artistic media; indeed, the important concern with typology and classification has come at the cost of more cultural historical approaches to the medium and its various functions in the Roman world. One scintillating exception is Platt 2006: approaching just a handful of examples through the lens of Greek and Latin literary texts, and demonstrating the self-referential “ontological” games of this highly tactile medium, this article is unique in relating gemstone iconography to the various “replicatory” functions of the medium.
  850.  
  851. Beazley Archive.
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  853. The Beazley Archive includes a database (begun in 1998 and ongoing) with 35,000 records and images; it can be searched by way of description, signature, collection/publication, and material. A useful resource for advanced students and scholars, but somewhat let down by the unintuitive user interface.
  854. Find this resource:
  855. Furtwängler, Adolf. Die antiken Gemmen: Geschichte der Steinschneidekunst im Klassischen Altertum. 3 vols. Leipzig and Berlin: Giesecke & Devrient, 1900.
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  857. In German. A monumental, three-volume compendium, comprising a veritable museum of plates (volume 1), a description and explanation of those pictures (volume 2), and a discursive history of “the gem-carver’s art in Classical antiquity” (volume 3). Still useful as a scholarly reference compendium—as much for the history of scholarship as for the material itself.
  858. Find this resource:
  859. Henig, Martin, ed. Classical Gems: Ancient and Modern Intaglios and Cameos in the Fitzwilliam Museum. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1994.
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  861. A lavishly illustrated catalogue of over 1,000 engraved gems in one particular British collection, surveying material from c. 1000 BCE to the 19th century; includes some 300 Roman Republican and Imperial examples, with an additional short but solid essay on “the appreciation of engraved gemstones in antiquity” (p. x–xii).
  862. Find this resource:
  863. Megow, Wolf-Rüdiger. Kameen von Augustus bis Alexander Severus. Berlin: de Gruyter, 1987.
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  865. In German. Abundantly illustrated catalogue—arranged by subject, then by date—of cameo portraits from the late 1st century BCE to the early 3rd century CE (pp. 151–317). The catalogue is preceded by a series of thematic chapters, focused above all on chronology. Specialist scholarly resource.
  866. Find this resource:
  867. Platt, Verity. “Making an Impression: Replication and the Ontology of the Graeco-Roman Seal Stone.” Art History 29 (2006): 233–257.
  868. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8365.2006.00500.xSave Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  869. A more theoretically engaged approach to the “ontology” of gems in Greco-Roman Antiquity, rooted in a critical re-evaluation of their function as sealstones forging images in wax. Taking her lead from the use of “sealing” metaphors among Greek and Roman philosophers, Platt shows how certain iconographic motifs self-referentially play with philosophical theories of mimetic replication and image-making. The range of new and theoretically engaged questions makes for one of the most exciting discussions of the medium in recent years.
  870. Find this resource:
  871. Richter, Gisela M. A. Engraved Gems of the Romans: A Supplement to the History of Roman Art. London: Phaidon, 1971.
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  873. The standard compendium for Anglophone students (and the counterpart to a separate volume by the same author dealing with Greek gems). Essentially a catalogue (with large black-and-white illustrations) of some 700 examples from the Republican and Imperial period, but organized according to subject (with each subsection introduced by thematic introduction). Section on signed gems (pp. 129–153) particularly useful for those interested in makers’ identities.
  874. Find this resource:
  875. Vollenweider, Marie-Louise. Die Steinschneidekunst und ihre Künstler in spätrepublikanischer und augusteischer Zeit. Baden-Baden, Germany: Grimm, 1966.
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  877. In German. Survey of gem-carving in the 1st century BCE and early 1st century CE. Particular interested in what can be gleaned about individual stonecutters and their schools. Useful too for its indices of names and inscriptions—as well as for its 100 black-and-white endplates. Specialist scholarly resource.
  878. Find this resource:
  879. Zazoff, Peter. Die antiken Gemmen. Munich: Beck, 1983.
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  881. In German. The most comprehensive scholarly handbook to ancient intaglio (as opposed to cameo) gems from the prehistoric to the early Christian period, with a final chapter on issues of technique. Pages 260–348 deal with gems from the Roman Republic and Empire (discussed thematically, with particular emphasis on collections in Hanover and Munich), while pp. 1–23 offer a short introduction to the history of research (cf. pp. 388–395). Numerous drawing and 132 black-and-white plates.
  882. Find this resource:
  883. Zwierlein-Diehl, Erika. Antike Gemmen und ihr Nachleben. Berlin: de Gruyter, 2007.
  884. DOI: 10.1515/9783110920406Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  885. In German. One of the weightiest analyses of ancient gems and their afterlife since Furtwängler 1900. Combines a chronological overview of the material (chapters 12–16 discuss Roman gems) with analysis of their subsequent reception, production, and materials. Almost 1,000 illustrations scattered over 231 black-and-white endplates. The most important and up-to-date scholarly reference work.
  886. Find this resource:
  887. Luxury Arts
  888.  
  889. “Luxury arts” is somewhat vaguer category than others used in this section on Media: it refers not to a single artistic medium, but rather to diverse objects from precious metals and other expensive materials, designed to display—and quite literally to materialize—an owner’s wealth. These materials could include not only items of jewelry, but also furniture (cf. Richter 1966, cited under Media), gold and silver vessels for eating and drinking (see Media: Luxury Arts: Gold and Silverplate), and of course glass and gems (see separate entries: Media: Luxury Arts: Glass, Media: Gems and Glyptic Arts). Henig’s survey in his edited Handbook of Roman Art provides the best introductory overview of luxury arts (Henig 1983, cited under Media, pp. 139–165), while Althaus and Sutcliffe 2006 provides lavish photographs and thematic discussions in the context of one specific museum collection. More detailed publications tend either to treat specific “hoards” (e.g. Johns 2010, dealing with one of the most spectacular), or else specific types of object (e.g. Bühler 1973 on luxury, nonmetallic drinking vessels). With regard to Roman jewelry specifically, the most detailed discussion of chronology and geographical variation (at least in the 1st and 2nd centuries CE) is Pfeiler 1970. Higgins 1980 provides a more general overview of ancient jewelry tout court, and is particularly strong on issues of production and technique. Johns 1996 discusses jewelry from Roman Britain specifically, showcasing how rich this material can prove for approaching larger questions about cultural identity and mutual influences in technique between “Celtic” and “Roman” traditions.
  890.  
  891. Althaus, Frank, and Mark Sutcliffe, eds. The Road to Byzantium: Luxury Arts of Antiquity. London: Fontanka, 2006.
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  893. Catalogue accompanying 2006 exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery, and dedicated to objects from the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg. Lavishly illustrated, and important for thinking both about the continuity in ancient traditions, and more generally about the afterlife of Greek and Roman “luxury arts.”
  894. Find this resource:
  895. Bühler, Hans-Peter. Antike Gefässe aus Edelstein. Mainz, Germany: Philipp von Zabern, 1973.
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  897. In German. Best overall survey of nonmetallic, luxury drinking vessels—the majority of them from the Roman Empire. Chronologically organized catalogue of 127 objects (pp. 39–82) preceded by thematic introductions to e.g. materials, forms, workshops, and history (pp. 1–39).
  898. Find this resource:
  899. Higgins, Reynold A. Greek and Roman Jewellery. 2d ed. London: Methuen, 1980.
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  901. (First edition published 1961.) Analysis of both Greek and Roman jewelry, from the 3rd millennium B.C. to A.D. c. 400. Organized in two parts, with five chapters dealing first with “technical issues” (metallurgy, processes of forging, decorating, joining/finishing, and integration of non-metals), and eleven chapters dealing with chronology: chapter 16 deals with Roman materials (pp. 178–192). Illustrated (albeit with lackluster plates), and with references.
  902. Find this resource:
  903. Johns, Catherine. The Jewellery of Roman Britain: Celtic and Classical Traditions. London: UCL Press, 1996.
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  905. Systematic analysis of materials from Roman Britain, organized according to type and function; specific interest in what these materials reflect about Roman and local technical and cultural traditions. Final chapter on the “manufacture of Roman jewelry” particularly helpful for undergraduates (pp. 187–205). Black-and-white images; includes scholarly references and bibliography.
  906. Find this resource:
  907. Johns, Catherine. The Hoxne Late Roman Treasure: Gold Jewellery and Silver Plate. London: British Museum, 2010.
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  909. Discusses largest Roman “treasure” hoard found in Britain (buried in the 5th century CE and discovered in 1992). A catalogue (pp. 211–258) provides an illustrated inventory of all items (with the exception of the 15,000 coins), with thematic essays dealing with each object type in turn.
  910. Find this resource:
  911. Pfeiler, Bärbel. Römischer Goldschmuck des ersten und zweiten Jahrhunderts n. Chr. nach datierten Funden. Mainz, Germany: Philipp von Zabern, 1970.
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  913. In German. Useful for its concentration on a narrower chronological range of materials (1st and 2nd centuries CE, as datable from other finds): this allows the author to compare and contrast jewelry from different regions of the Roman Empire. Only a small number of black-and-white plates.
  914. Find this resource:
  915. Gold and Silverplate
  916.  
  917. The most detailed scholarly handbook to gold and silverplate in the Greek and Roman worlds is Strong 1966. Johns 1990 surveys some of the methodological developments—and residual methodological challenges—within the field (in the context of an extended review article); Kuttner 1995, on the other hand, offers an influential discussion of a single pair of early Julio-Claudian silver cups, combining close visual analysis with a much broader comment on their social, cultural, and political contexts in Augustan Rome. In terms of later Roman materials (which in fact provide the best evidence for ancient gold and silverplate), Leader-Newby 2004 is particularly strong on the cultural contexts of the iconography and the various roles of Classicizing imagery within Christian contexts. The most important discussions of Roman silverplate, however, come in the context of publications on/catalogues of specific finds and hoards. Particularly significant is Cahn and Kaufmann-Heinimann 1984, devoted to the “Kaiseraugst treasure,” but nonetheless comprising an indispensable scholarly resource on ancient silver-working more generally (compare also Mango and Bennett 1994 on the “Sevso Treasure” and Lapatin 2014 on the “Berthouville treasure”). On the forms and functions of silverware in the 1st centuries BCE and CE, two additional works are particularly useful: first, Müller 1994, on the cultural contexts of the “program of pictures” (“Bildprogramm”) on two early Imperial silver cups from Hoby; and second, Painter 2001, a more archaeologically attuned inventory of the silver abandoned in one specific Pompeian house during the Vesuvian eruption of 79 CE.
  918.  
  919. Cahn, Herbert A., and Annemarie Kaufmann-Heinimann, eds. Der spätrömische Silberschatz von Kaiseraugst. 2 vols. Derendingen, Switzerland: Habegger, 1984.
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  921. In German (with one chapter in English, and English summary on pp. 420–421). Definitive catalogue and thematic discussion of the Kaiseraugst hoard, with the second volume (complete with 246 large black-and-white plates) dedicated to detailed illustrations. Unrivalled scholarly reference resource, with useful chapters on Roman silverplate more generally (e.g. Stefanie Martin-Kilcher, “Römisches Tafelsilber: Form und Funktionsfragen,” pp. 393–404).
  922. Find this resource:
  923. Johns, Catherine. “Research on Roman Silver Plate.” Journal of Roman Archaeology 3 (1990): 28–43.
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  925. Review article (responding to four individual books) surveying the field and range of methodological approaches, particularly in the context of Roman provincial archaeology: still useful for its referenced discussion of work from 1966 to 1989 (pp. 29–34), and above all for its comments on “future directions” (pp. 40–43).
  926. Find this resource:
  927. Kuttner, Anne. The Boscoreale Cups of Augustus: Studies in Augustan Art and Politics. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995.
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  929. Thematic analysis of the “Boscoreale cups” (two silver skyphoi in the Louvre) in terms of Julio-Claudian ideology, politics, and culture. Particularly strong on the relation of these “private” silver objects to the “public” monuments of Imperial historical reliefs (pp. 155–171), as well as their significance for thinking about “Augustan art” more generally (cf. Periodization and Chronology: The Augustan “Revolution”).
  930. Find this resource:
  931. Lapatin, Kenneth, ed. The Berthouville Silver Treasure and Roman Luxury. Los Angeles: Getty, 2014.
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  933. Focused around the “Berthouville treasure” (a hoard of some ninety silver objects unearthed in Normandy 1830), this book explores the luxurious functions of silver in Roman Gaul. Accompanies a major museum exhibition first housed at the Getty Villa.
  934. Find this resource:
  935. Leader-Newby, Ruth. Silver and Society in Late Antiquity: Functions and Meanings of Silver Plate in the Fourth to Seventh Centuries. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2004.
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  937. Concerned above all with the cultural significance of Roman silver tableware within the late Empire; interest in the material for what it reflects about continuing traditions of paideia, as well as about “Christianization” within the domestic sphere. Four thematic chapters with introduction and conclusion; black-and-white images integrated within the text.
  938. Find this resource:
  939. Mango, Marlia Mundell, and Anna Bennett. The Sevso Treasure. Vol. 1. Journal of Roman Archaeology Suppl. 12. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, 1994.
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  941. Analysis of the (highly controversial) “Sevso Treasure”—fourteen silver objects produced between the 4th and 5th centuries CE, but without confirmed provenance. Contains full catalogue (pp. 55–480), and additional introduction, technical information, and discussion of inscriptions, weights, and dimensions. (A proposed “Part 2”—which promises, inter alia, a comparative analysis alongside other Late Antique silver treasures—is yet to be published.)
  942. Find this resource:
  943. Müller, Carl Werner. “Das Bildprogramm der Silberbecher von Hoby: Zur Rezeption frühgriechischer Literatur in der römischen Bildkunst der augusteischen Zeit.” Jahrbuch des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts 109 (1994): 321–352.
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  945. In German. Detailed analysis of two early Imperial cups from Hoby on the Danish island of Holland. Discussion relates not only the cups’ subject matter but also their style to the “Classicizing” concerns of Augustan Rome (cf. Periodization and Chronology: The Augustan “Revolution”).
  946. Find this resource:
  947. Painter, Kenneth S. The Insula of the Menander at Pompeii. Vol. 4, The Silver Treasure. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.
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  949. Catalogue of finds from one particular house in Pompeii with fixed terminus ante quem (the volcanic eruption of 79 CE): Painter uses this single hoard of 118 pieces (one of largest hoards of the 1st century CE) to explore uses and function of silverplate in Pompeii. Includes catalogue of finds (pp. 53–77), but particularly interested in social status of owner.
  950. Find this resource:
  951. Strong, Donald E. Greek and Roman Gold and Silver Plate. London: Methuen, 1966.
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  953. Combines a historical and aesthetic interest with scientific analysis: still the most lucid and respected introduction to the field for students and scholars alike. Particularly interested in classification of types and dated examples: chapters 7–10 deal with Roman materials (pp. 123–217). Small black-and-white plates.
  954. Find this resource:
  955. Glass
  956.  
  957. Scholars have understood glass to serve a variety of purposes in the Roman world, ranging from everyday containers (not to mention windows), to luxurious tableware and showpieces (the British Museum’s “Portland Vase” is perhaps the most famous example). In terms of basic undergraduate surveys, two chapters by Jennifer Price provide accessible introductions. The first can be found in Strong and Brown’s Roman Crafts (Strong and Brown 1976, cited under Media, pp. 111–125): this is particularly helpful on processes of production and the history of glass-blowing. The second comes in Henig’s edited Handbook of Roman Art (Henig 1983, cited under Media, pp. 205–219): this discussion includes a more detailed bibliography on pp. 279–280, with information about the most important museum catalogues published before 1983. More detailed—but now the standard scholarly handbook—is Von Saldern 2004. Most treatments of Roman glass amount to catalogues of individual museum collections (the largest and arguably most important collection is that of the Römisch-Germanisches Museum in Cologne: see Fremersdorf 1961). There are in fact relatively few discussions of the medium and its development over time: Fleming 1999 is one attempt at a “cultural history,” whereas Isings 1957 surveys changing vessel-shapes chronologically, concerned primarily with firmly datable finds (as such Isings 1957 has proved a key resource among fieldwork archaeologists). The best introduction to luxury glass vessels—structured around individual exempla, and with stunning color illustrations—is Harden, et al. 1987; also useful for its illustrations is Kunina 1999. There is still more work to be done on representations of glass in other Roman visual media: Naumann-Steckner 1999 is a useful first resource here, examining depictions of glass in Roman wall-painting.
  958.  
  959. Fleming, Stuart J. Roman Glass: Reflections on Cultural Change. Philadelphia: Piccari, 1999.
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  961. Cultural history of Roman glass that attempts to chart changing aesthetic and technical developments against the backdrop of Roman history. Despite that exciting objective, structural weaknesses and digressions make for somewhat confusing introductory reading; the book is nonetheless beautifully illustrated in color.
  962. Find this resource:
  963. Fremersdorf, Fritz. Römisches geformtes Glas in Köln. Cologne: Verlag der Löwe, 1961.
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  965. In German. The Römisch-Germanisches Museum in Cologne has the largest collection of Roman glass (surveyed in an ensuing series of catalogues and treatises by Fremersdorf and others, mostly in this “Die Denkmäler des römischen Köln” series). This particular catalogue surveys glass objects that are either blown or molded into e.g. human figurative shapes, animals, fruits, and equipment (p. 5). Structured around individual exempla, with 179 (mostly black-and-white) plates.
  966. Find this resource:
  967. Harden, Donald B., Hansgerd Hellenkemper, Kenneth Painter, and David Whitehouse. Glass of the Caesars. Milan: Olivetti, 1987.
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  969. Glossy exhibition catalogue concentrating on collections of Roman glass from the Corning Museum of Glass, British Museum, and Römisch-Germanisches Museum in Cologne. Materials are treated in two parts (“pre-glass-blowing” and “post-glass-blowing”), and then divided according to formal criteria of production. Structured around individual examples.
  970. Find this resource:
  971. Isings, Clasina. Roman Glass from Dated Finds. Groningen, The Netherlands, and Djakarta, Indonesia: J. B. Wolters, 1957.
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  973. Key scholarly reference work for dating glass vessels and understanding chronological developments in their form: after an introduction to “glass in the Roman world,” four chapters treat materials in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th centuries, respectively. Discussion is centered around particular “forms” illustrated by sketched line drawings (no plates).
  974. Find this resource:
  975. Kunina, Nina. Ancient Glass in the Hermitage Collection. Saint Petersburg, Russia: ARS, 1999.
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  977. An abundance of large color plates (pp. 45–241) make this one of the best photographic resources. Most illustrations deal with objects in the Hermitage Collection. Final catalogue of 434 objects; also useful for its end-glossary of object types (with line drawings).
  978. Find this resource:
  979. Naumann-Steckner, Friederike. “Glasgefässe in der römischen Wandmalerei.” In Römische Glaskunst und Wandmalerei. Edited by Michael J. Klein, 25–33. Mainz, Germany: Philipp von Zabern, 1999.
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  981. In German (but cf. a related earlier article by the same author in Newby and Painter 1991: “Depictions of glass in Roman wall paintings,” pp. 86–98). Focuses on the relationship between extant glass materials and the depictions of glass vessels in Campanian wall-painting. Other essays in the volume offer additional introductory overviews on Roman glass, concentrating on materials in the Landesmuseum at Mainz.
  982. Find this resource:
  983. Newby, Martine, and Kenneth Painter, eds. Roman Glass: Two Centuries of Art and Invention. London: Society of Antiquaries, 1991.
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  985. Edited proceedings of a 1987 conference (timed to coincide with exhibition of Harden, et al. 1987, and in celebration of work of Donald Harden). Fourteen essays—some on specific objects (e.g. Portland Vase: pp. 33–45) and types of glassware, others on geographical variation and techniques (e.g. invention of glass-blowing: pp. 46–55).
  986. Find this resource:
  987. Von Saldern, Axel. Antikes Glas. Munich: Beck, 2004.
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  989. In German. The most detailed scholarly “handbook” to ancient glass, from the 3rd millennium BCE to Late Antiquity; section 4 (pp. 157–621) discusses “Roman glass” according to different types, materials, molded forms, and geographical locations of origin specifically bibliography; useful appendices on inter alia technology, dating and trade (and expansive bibliography on pp. 657–690). The definitive scholarly resource.
  990. Find this resource:
  991. Numismatics
  992.  
  993. Roman “numismatics”—that is, the study of Roman coins—fits slightly awkwardly between the disciplinary fields of Roman history, economics, and art history. At the same time, the huge number of private collectors of Roman coins means that scholars must often turn to the e.g. auction catalogues alongside other sorts of specialist literature. The imagery of Roman coins has much to teach students of Roman art, however. If economic historians have been especially interested in the quantitative aspects of Roman coin production and distribution, specialists in Roman cultural, social, and political history have turned to coins as evidence for (among other things) the dissemination of Imperial imagery (e.g. Wallace-Hadrill 1986; Manders 2012). But Roman coins have also served a series of more practical art-historical functions: on the one hand, coin types (and their legends) have long been used for identifying the types and chronology of Imperial portraiture and iconography (cf. Bernoulli 1882–1891, cited under Historiography); as the ultimate ancient “mass medium,” on the other hand, coins have something important to tell scholars about ancient ideas of replication and symbolism. There is still much work to be done here in reconciling the specialist concerns of numismatists with the broader interests of Roman art historians (and vice versa): for one attempt at comparing and contrasting the imagery of coins with that of extant material monuments, Hill 1989 offers a first exemplary step here. For those seeking a basic introduction to the field, Kent 1978 offers the most accessible (and best-illustrated) overview; Mattingly 1960 is at once more thorough and more scholarly in its scholarly scope. Metcalf 2012 now offers a masterful handbook to the field, with up-to-date references to the most important bibliography. Note, though, that there is still no single handbook to Roman coins specifically, nor one that manages to survey all the different bibliographic resources available, or indeed to explain systematically (and across disciplinary fields) the huge importance of this material. Contemporary scholarship on Roman coins is dependent on two other reference resources: first, a multivolume catalogue providing the standard typologies of Roman Imperial Coinage (for earlier Republican coinage, Michael Crawford’s work has been particularly important: cf. Crawford 1985). Second, and more recently, the ongoing series of volumes on Roman Provincial Coinage provides an invaluable resource for those interested in more local productions across the Roman Empire. Thanks partly to this second catalogue, coins are now emerging as a key medium for thinking more broadly about relationships between Rome’s geographic “center” and its Imperial peripheries (cf. Regional Variations): Howgego, et al. 2005 (cited under Regional Variations) showcases the important contribution that numismatics is now making here.
  994.  
  995. Crawford, Michael. Coinage and Money under the Roman Republic. London: Methuen, 1985.
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  997. Provides a digested, chronologically organized, and relatively accessible guide to the materials catalogued in Crawford’s typology of Roman Republican Coinage (two volumes; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1974)—the standard scholarly resource, dealing with pre-Imperial coins (and hence the counterpart to Roman Imperial Coinage).
  998. Find this resource:
  999. Hill, Philip. The Monuments of Ancient Rome as Coin Types. London: Seaby, 1989.
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  1001. Concerned with how Republican and Imperial coins could mediate specific monuments, structure, and statues—and hence of particular Roman art-historical interest. Chapters deal with particular types of monuments (including e.g. triumphal arches, equestrian statues, and statue groups), often juxtaposing extant objects with their representation on coins.
  1002. Find this resource:
  1003. Kent, John P. C. Roman Coins. London: Thames and Hudson, 1978.
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  1005. (Revised and translated edition of John P. C. Kent, Bernhard Overbeck, and Armin U. Stylow, Die Römische Münze. Munich: Hirmer, 1973). Basic—and superbly illustrated (with 199 large plates)—album of Roman coins, chronologically organized in fourteen chapters proceeding from the early Roman Republic to 6th century CE. Constantinople. Less detailed than Mattingly 1960, but superior plates. Suitable for undergraduates.
  1006. Find this resource:
  1007. Manders, Erika. Coining Images of Power: Patterns in the Representation of Roman Emperors of Imperial Coinage, A.D. 193–284. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2012.
  1008. DOI: 10.1163/9789004224001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1009. Interested both in the general cultural historical uses of coins within the power politics of the Roman Empire, and more specifically with the changing uses between the late 3rd and 4th centuries CE. Useful for its general methodological reflections (especially in chapter 1: “Coins in context,” 11–62).
  1010. Find this resource:
  1011. Mattingly, Harold. Roman Coins: From the Earliest Times to the Fall of the Western Empire. London: Methuen, 1960.
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  1013. (This is the second and revised edition of a book first published in 1928.) Still the most respected single-volume introduction to Roman coins, structured in three parts (dealing respectively with “The Roman Republic,” “The Empire: Augustus to Diocletian,” and “The Empire: Diocletian to Romulus Augustulus”). Chapters structure discussion according to particular “types” of imagery; sixty-four plates packed with small black-and-white images (albeit of inferior quality to e.g. Kent 1978).
  1014. Find this resource:
  1015. Metcalf, William, ed. The Oxford Handbook of Greek and Roman Coinage. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012.
  1016. DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195305746.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1017. Systematic overview of all major coinages in the classical world, complete with some 900 black-and-white images and a short glossary (pp. 667–669): of the thirty-three chapters (all written by international experts), the eighteen chapters of Part 3 deal with the “Roman world,” mostly organized around either chronology or geography. Best introductory resource, but slightly let down by the lack of introductory guide to basic bibliographic resources.
  1018. Find this resource:
  1019. Roman Imperial Coinage. 10 vols. London: Spink, 1923–1994.
  1020. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1021. The standard reference work (abbreviated as RIC), cataloguing and typologizing all Roman coinage produced by the Roman state between 31 BCE and 491 CE (for civic coins produced in the provinces, see Roman Provincial Coinage). Many of the first edition volumes are currently being revised and reissued in the light of new types and evidence. All volumes abundantly illustrated in black and white. Key scholarly resource.
  1022. Find this resource:
  1023. Roman Provincial Coinage. London: British Museum, 1992–.
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  1025. Ongoing archaeological-cum-historical project (abbreviated as RPC), providing a new standard typology of Roman coins minted in the provinces (and hence the counterpart to the Roman Imperial Coinage project). The project also has an online component, giving free access to all online materials (currently some 13,729 coin types, based on 47,536 specimens, of which 9,061 have images; all are searchable by iconography, place, and time). Cf. Roman Provincial Coinage Online.
  1026. Find this resource:
  1027. Wallace-Hadrill, Andrew. “Image and Authority in the Coinage of Augustus.” Journal of Roman Studies 76 (1986): 66–87.
  1028. DOI: 10.2307/300366Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1029. Considers coinage as a medium for negotiating/communicating Roman autocratic power: a key article in showcasing the cultural historical value of numismatics (while also comparing/contrasting modern assumptions about the medium). The second part of the article focuses on Augustan coins as a case study, demonstrating its various experimentations with earlier Republican practices.
  1030. Find this resource:
  1031. Terracotta and Pottery
  1032.  
  1033. Although Roman terracotta objects outnumber all other Roman artistic media, the study of Roman pottery, lamps, and terracotta figurines and revetments has still to be fully integrated within the discipline of Roman art history. From an art-historical viewpoint, there is huge potential here: the figurative scenes molded into humble Samian ware, for example, show how elite subjects and iconography could filter down the social spectrum (cf. Viewers: Social Distinctions); likewise, the images embossed onto Roman lamps—objects themselves designed to “illuminate”—shed light on much larger cultural ideas about sight, seeing, and vision (as recently demonstrated by Bielfeldt 2014). The best basic introduction to these materials can be found in two chapters on “pottery” and “terracotta revetments, figurines and lamps” in Henig’s Handbook of Roman Art (Henig 1983, cited under Media, pp. 179–204). Charleston 1955 remains the most respected formal guide to the different types of Roman pottery, while the edited volume Malfitana, et al. 2006 demonstrates some of the most recent approaches and interventions. Greene 1992, by contrast, is more thematic in approach, showcasing (for an uninitiated audience) the various ways in which archaeologists might turn to Roman pottery—not only in order to date materials, but also to consider trading patterns, non-elite archaeology, and the relations between the different provinces of the Roman Empire. More methodologically reflective is Peacock 1982, which includes good discussion of the history of scholarship (and which is much more heavily referenced). The study of Roman Samian ware specifically has been revolutionized in recent years by a new index of makers’ stamps (Hartley and Dickinson 2008–2012): the collected chapters in Fulford and Durham 2013 demonstrate just some of the new scholarly approaches that this has facilitated. For Roman terracotta lamps, students have to make do with individual museum collection catalogues (the largest collection is that of the British Museum: see Walters and Bailey 1914–1996). Unique here—and highly illuminating (in every sense)—is Eckardt 2002, which examines all manner of different lighting devices, and across time, from a single Roman province.
  1034.  
  1035. Bielfeldt, Ruth. “Lichtblicke–Sehstrahlen: Zur Präsenz römischer Figuren- und Bildlampen.” In Ding und Mensch in der Antike: Gegenwart und Vergegenwärtigung. Edited by Ruth Bielfeldt, 195–238. Heidelberg, Germany: Winter, 2014.
  1036. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1037. Wholly original attempt to explore how ancient terracotta lighting devices illuminate both Greek and Roman ideas about sight on the one hand, and the agency of objects on the other. An important demonstration of how an unloved and overlooked class of objects can relate to much broader cultural ideas.
  1038. Find this resource:
  1039. Charleston, Robert J. Roman Pottery. London: Faber and Faber, 1955.
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  1041. Discussion, according to type, of the most important forms of Roman pottery—“red gloss,” “glazed pottery,” “coarse pottery”; useful as an illustrated introductory manual (with ninety-six black-and-white and four color plates).
  1042. Find this resource:
  1043. Eckardt, Hella. Illuminating Roman Britain. Montagnac, France: Éditions Monique Mergoil, 2002.
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  1045. Concerned with all aspects of “artificial lighting” in just one Roman province (Roman Britain). Includes a substantial typology of lamps and other lighting objects (pp. 179–342), but also iconographic discussion of the “meaningful images” (pp. 117–134).
  1046. Find this resource:
  1047. Fulford, Michael, and Emma Durham, eds. Seeing Red: New Economic and Social Perspectives of Terra Sigillata. London: Institute of Classical Studies, 2013.
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  1049. Proceedings of an international 2011 conference—and developed in response to Hartley and Dickinson 2008–2012. Most of the twenty-six chapters deal with issues of production, workshops, and trade/distribution, but some also on formal evolution, functions, and iconography (e.g. pp. 340–348, classifying different figural subjects).
  1050. Find this resource:
  1051. Greene, Kevin. Roman Pottery. London: British Museum, 1992.
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  1053. Short and thematic introduction to the field: the best starting-point for undergraduates (with more detailed “further reading” on pp. 62–63). Seven chapters deal not only with chronology, but also technology, economy, and scholarly developments within the scholarly field. Let down by the minuscule size of the black-and-white illustrations.
  1054. Find this resource:
  1055. Hartley, Brian R., and Brenda M. Dickinson. Names on Terra Sigillata: An Index of Makers’ Stamps and Signatures on Gallo-Roman Terra Sigillata (Samian Ware). 9 vols. London: Institute of Classical Studies, 2008–2012.
  1056. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1057. Catalogue of named manufacturer stamps on red tableware manufactured in Gaul between the 1st and 3rd centuries CE (so called Gallic sigillata, or “Samian ware”). Includes over 425,000 records, associated with almost 5,000 confirmed potters. This reference work will prove important for future generations interested not only in production and names (see Makers), but also trading patterns.
  1058. Find this resource:
  1059. Malfitana, Daniele, Jeroen Poblome, and John Lund, eds. Old Pottery in a New Century: Innovating Perspectives on Roman Pottery Studies. Rome: Bretschneider, 2006.
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  1061. Mostly in English (although with many contributions in Italian, and one in German). Heavily referenced and abundantly illustrated scholarly volume based on proceedings of a 2004 conference; deals with materials between the 2nd century BCE and 7th century CE.
  1062. Find this resource:
  1063. Peacock, David P. S. Pottery in the Roman World: An Ethnoarchaeological Approach. Harlow, UK: Longman, 1982.
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  1065. Broad evaluative synthesis of the most common materials and the principles of studying them, and an excellent overview of previous approaches (pp. 1–5). Illustrated with maps, diagrams, and photographs throughout, with particular emphasis on methodology. Best theoretically informed introduction.
  1066. Find this resource:
  1067. Walters, Henry B. (vol. 1), and Donald M. Bailey (vols. 2–4). A Catalogue of the Greek and Roman Lamps in the British Museum. 4 vols. London: British Museum, 1914–1996.
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  1069. Four-volume catalogue (with abundant drawings and plates) of the world’s largest collection of ancient lamps. The first volume attempts a basic typology according to chronology and medium, the second deals with Roman lamps made in Italy, the third with Roman provincial lamps, and the fourth with lampstands and lamps of metal and stone. Research resource.
  1070. Find this resource:
  1071. Regional Variations
  1072.  
  1073. The products of “Roman art” are not simply “Roman”: the objects that we chronologically delineate as ancient “Roman” in origin in fact derive from all manner of lands and cultures across the Roman Empire. How, then, should scholars make sense of such regional variation of form, function, subject, iconography, and style? In the 19th century and for much of the 20th, objects deemed to fall aesthetically short of “Classical” standards were usually judged “inferior” to those made in Rome (and ultimately those of classical Greece: see Historiography). The latter part of the 20th century witnessed a marked shift in methodological approach (for the best historiographic overviews, see Mattingly 2004, and above all Webster 2001; within English scholarship, Woolf 1998 and Millett 1990, cited under Regional Variations: Western Provinces: Romano-British Art, have been particularly influential). Informed by postcolonial theory, numerous scholars have become interested in how “provincial” art actively negotiates cultural identity. International research projects—in particular, the Corpus Signorum Imperii Romani—have likewise allowed scholars to catalogue and interpret those regional differences. “Regional variations” have subsequently attracted a huge bibliography, bridging the subdisciplinary fields of Roman history, archaeology, and visual culture. The best overall introduction to “provincial archaeology” is Fischer 2002, which contains a masterful bibliographic appendix. For many scholars, the issue of regional variation is already integrated within their studies of specific media: Schollmeyer 2005 (cited under Media: Sculpture), pp. 134–148, for example, gives an excellent synoptic survey of different local styles in sculpture, while Koch and Sichtermann 1982 (cited under Media: Sculpture: Funerary Reliefs and Sarcophagi) and Koch 2000 (cited under Periodization and Chronology: The Origins of Christian Art) discuss sarcophagi according to local schools of production. Similarly, Pfeiler 1970 (cited under Media: Luxury Arts) surveys local variations in Roman jewelry, just as Von Saldern 2004 (cited under Media: Luxury Arts: Glass) discusses regional differences in glassware. The most detailed overview of regional variation in Roman art is the edited volume (in German) Noelke 2003. Less sizeable—but nonetheless more theoretically engaged—are the essays in Scott and Webster 2003, growing directly out of Webster 2001: these offer the best English-language introduction to the conceptual issues. For undergraduates, Stewart 2008 is also useful, focused above all on sculpture. In addition, it is worth mentioning here the recent work on the local production of Roman coinage (see Roman Provincial Coinage, cited under Media: Luxury Arts: Numismatics): numismatics can give key—and as yet not fully tapped—insights into how local styles, iconography, and symbols were quite literally stamped onto the currency of Empire (cf. Howgego, et al. 2005).
  1074.  
  1075. Corpus Signorum Imperii Romani. n.p., 1964–.
  1076. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1077. Multiple languages; abbreviated as CSIR. International collaborative project (launched in 1963, and currently standing at over ninety volumes), with the aim of publishing/cataloguing a “corpus of sculpture of the Roman Empire.” Volumes are organized and published per country (there are currently twenty volumes dedicated to Roman-British sculpture): contributing countries include Austria, Belgium, Britain, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Holland, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, and Tunisia. Cf. here.
  1078. Find this resource:
  1079. Fischer, Thomas. Die römischen Provinzen: Eine Einführung in das Studium ihrer Archäologie. Stuttgart: Theiss, 2002.
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  1081. In German. Advanced undergraduate handbook surveying the field of Roman “provincial” archaeology and its various scholarly tools, resources, and challenges. Particularly useful for art historians are the eleventh chapter on types of “Kunst und Kleinkunst” (pp. 152–182) and the sixteenth chapter on “Fundmaterial” (pp. 206–231). Extensive, thematically arranged bibliography on pp. 325–392.
  1082. Find this resource:
  1083. Howgego, Christopher, Volker Heuchert, and Andrew Burnett, eds. Coinage and Identity in the Roman Provinces. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.
  1084. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1085. Exploration of how coins projected and mediated local senses of identity across the Roman Empire, and how these interconnected with “central” Roman Imperial ideologies (c. 200 BCE–300 CE). The sixteen chapters by international experts are illustrated with tables, maps, and black-and-white endplates. Key for demonstrating the potential contribution of numismatics in the field of “regional variation.”
  1086. Find this resource:
  1087. Mattingly, David J. “Being Roman: Expressing Identity in a Provincial Setting.” Journal of Roman Archaeology 17 (2004): 5–25.
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  1089. Key review article on postcolonial attitudes toward “Romanization,” arguing for a diversity of cultural identities in Roman Britain in particular. Stronger for its methodological and theoretical reflections rather than as an analysis of specific regional variations in artistic styles and forms.
  1090. Find this resource:
  1091. Noelke, Peter, ed. Romanisation und Resistenz in Plastik, Architektur und Inschriften der Provinzen des Imperium Romanum: Neue Funde und Forschungen. Mainz, Germany: Philipp von Zabern, 2003.
  1092. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1093. In German (with some contributions in English and French). Proceedings of a large international conference in 2001, rethinking “Romanization” (especially as evidenced by visual culture) across the Roman Empire between the late Republic and early 3rd century CE. Chapters are organized into six sections dedicated to Britain, Gaul/Germany, “Danube provinces,” Greece, Spain, and Italy.
  1094. Find this resource:
  1095. Scott, Sarah, and Jane Webster, eds. Roman Imperialism and Provincial Art. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
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  1097. Twelve chapters developing the theoretical insights of Webster 2001, but with closer stylistic and formal engagement with “provincial” exempla (sixty-seven integrated black-and-white illustrations). Three insightful introductory chapters surveying the bibliography and questions of method; the book is then structured geographically into four parts (“Metropolitan Art and the Depiction of Rome’s ‘Others’”; “Art in the Roman West”; “Art in Roman North Africa”; “Art in the Roman East”).
  1098. Find this resource:
  1099. Stewart, Peter. “Art of the Empire”. In The Social History of Roman Art. By Peter Stewart, 143–172. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
  1100. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1101. A solid and theoretically inflected guide to “provincialism” in Roman art; deals with general methodological questions (with additional reference to the “Greek heritage” and “Late Antiquity”), rather than surveying the materials geographically. Well suited to undergraduates (with some additional basic references in the footnotes). Somewhat compromised by the grainy photographs.
  1102. Find this resource:
  1103. Webster, Jane. “Creolizing the Roman Provinces”. American Journal of Archaeology 105 (2001): 209–225.
  1104. DOI: 10.2307/507271Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1105. A key scholarly intervention in refiguring “Romanization” not as acculturation, but as a two-way process of cultural merging; specifically focused on Romano-Celtic iconography (but without illustrations). Surveys historiography or studying “provincial” Roman art and archaeology, along with the postcolonial backlash. Useful undergraduate reading less for its materials than for its theoretical considerations.
  1106. Find this resource:
  1107. Woolf, Gregory. Becoming Roman: The Origins of Provincial Civilisation in Gaul. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1998.
  1108. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511518614Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1109. Although focused on late Republican/early Imperial Roman Gaul specifically (and discussion of “art” essentially limited to quantitative distribution maps rather than stylistic questions), this book had a major impact on theoretical modes of approaching “Romanization.” Final chapter on “Being Roman in Gaul” (pp. 238–250) essential reading for students interested in provincial identities.
  1110. Find this resource:
  1111. Rome and Italy
  1112.  
  1113. There are a host of different archaeological and topographical guides to the urban monuments of Rome itself. Useful above all for specialist scholars are Steinby 2001–2013 and Carandini 2012 (both cited under General Resources: Reference Works); more aimed toward tourists in Rome—but nonetheless useful to undergraduate students—are Coarelli 2007 and Claridge 2010. On the objects displayed in Rome’s many archaeological museums, Helbig 1963–1972 offers a superlative guide; Bravi 2012, by contrast, is particularly strong on the historical display of Greek art in Rome, especially in the early Empire, while Favro 2005 gives a graphic description and analysis of the appearance of Augustan Rome. More generally on the “urbanism” of Rome, as well as other Roman cities, Gros and Torelli 2007 is particularly helpful. Alongside Rome, the second most studied city on the Italian peninsula is Pompeii, with its unique preservation history (destroyed, like Herculaneum and other neighboring sites, by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in CE 79). Descoeudres 1994 and Zanker 1998 offer stimulating pathways into the complex evidence; Pugliese Caratelli 1990–2003 (cited under General Resources: Reference Works) is unsurpassed as a scholarly resource for research on Pompeian urbanism and, more generally, on the role of mosaics and paintings within the day-to-day workings of a Roman city.
  1114.  
  1115. Bravi, Alessandra. Ornamental Urbis: Opere d’arte greche negli spazi romani. Bari, Italy: Edipuglia, 2012.
  1116. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1117. In Italian. Thematic analysis of the appropriation and display of key works of Greek art in Rome during the late Republic and early Empire (cf. Collecting). Eleven chapters mostly focused around individual spaces in Rome, with particular emphasis on Augustan monuments.
  1118. Find this resource:
  1119. Claridge, Amanda. Rome: An Archaeological Guide. 2d ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.
  1120. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1121. A clearly organized and lucidly written archaeological guide to Rome, especially intended for the modern-day visitor; the account is supported by bibliography and advice for further reading; also includes numerous maps, plans, and line drawings.
  1122. Find this resource:
  1123. Coarelli, Filippo. Rome and Environs: An Archaeological Guide. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007.
  1124. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1125. This English translation of a volume in the famous Laterza Archaeological Guide series provides detailed accounts of individual archaeological sites within the city and its environs; well supported with maps, plans, line drawings, and suggestions for further reading. Surpasses Claridge 2010 with regard to scope and academic detail, but not always as clear (and with some more controversial interpretations).
  1126. Find this resource:
  1127. Descoeudres, Jean-Paul, ed. Pompeii Revisited: Life and Death of a Roman Town. Milan: Meditarch, 1994.
  1128. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1129. Showcases a kaleidoscopic range of different approaches to life in Pompeii. Chapters apply a refreshingly contextual perspective to many traditional genres of Roman art (with particular attention to wall-painting).
  1130. Find this resource:
  1131. Favro, Diane. “Making Rome a World City.” In The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Augustus. Edited by Karl Galinsky, 234–263. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2005.
  1132. DOI: 10.1017/CCOL0521807964Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1133. To some extent a compressed version of the approach in Favro 1996 (cited under Periodization and Chronology: The Augustan “Revolution”), this chapter presents a comprehensive and very stimulating discussion of the forces (political and otherwise) that shaped the layout of metropolitan Rome in the Augustan age—and, in turn, helped define the cultural identity of those who moved within it.
  1134. Find this resource:
  1135. Gros, Pierre, and Mario Torelli. Storia dell’urbanistica: Il mondo romano. Rome: Laterza, 2007.
  1136. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1137. In Italian. The most comprehensive treatment of urban structures across the Roman Empire, with discussion of conceptual issues, chronology, and individual cities and towns (with particular—but not exclusive—attention to Italy). Surveys standard patterns of Roman urbanism as well as regional differences. Well documented with maps and plans.
  1138. Find this resource:
  1139. Helbig, Wolfgang. Führer durch die öffentlichen Sammlungen klassischer Altertümer in Rom. 4 vols. 4th ed. Edited by Bernard Andreae and Tobias Dohrn. Tübingen, Germany: Wasmuth, 1963–1972.
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  1141. In German. Revised edition of the classic guide to the collections of Rome, which was first published in 1891 (Führer durch die öffentlichen Sammlungen klassischer Alterthümer in Rom. Leipzig: K. Baedeker). Expert discussions of individual monuments and sculptures. A free online version of the first edition is available here.
  1142. Find this resource:
  1143. Zanker, Paul. Pompeii: Public and Private Life. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1998.
  1144. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1145. Brings together (in English translation) some of Zanker’s previous discussions of Pompeian villa culture, urban layout, and funerary self-representation: provides a detailed picture of the characteristics of Pompeian life, and the differences to Rome.
  1146. Find this resource:
  1147. The Greek East
  1148.  
  1149. The lands of the “Greek East” (that is, the “old” territories of the Greek world, geographically east of Rome) have been the subject of renewed scholarly interest since the 1990s, and have been central to recent debates about the nature of “Romanization.” Alcock 1993 marked a watershed moment here (focused around the Roman province of Achaea), while the essays in Hoff and Rotroff 1997 analyze the material culture of Roman Athens; an earlier survey of the art of this region under Roman rule can be found in Vermeule 1968. Alongside studies of mainland Greece under Rome, recent years have also witnessed a resurgence of interest in the art and material culture of Asia Minor and the “Near East.” This region offers many well-preserved sites which were not subsequently built over and which therefore provide a wealth of archaeological information. The most important site here is that of Aphrodisias. Thanks to its scrupulous and meticulously documented archaeological excavation, Aphrodisias provides Roman art historians with our most detailed evidence for the “Romanization” of the Greek East from the late Republic to Late Antiquity: Smith 2013 offers a detailed catalogue and interpretation of the important Aphrodisias “Sebasteion” reliefs, while the chapters in Ratté and Smith 2008 survey some of the other most important recent scholarly contributions on the art and archaeology of the city. More generally on the sculptural record of Roman Asia Minor, the essays in D’Andria and Romeo 2011 offer a solid scholarly introduction. Still further to the east, toward modern Lebanon and Syria, other sites provide different insights into Romans engagement with the legacy of the wider Hellenistic world: Eliav, et al. 2008 focuses on sculpture from the region, while Butcher 2003 survives the art and culture of Roman Syria in particular. Kropp 2013, by contrast, provides an innovative thematic survey of materials from modern Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, and Jordan from the fall of the Seleucid Empire to the establishment of a Roman provincial administration.
  1150.  
  1151. Alcock, Susan E. Graecia Capta: The Landscape of Roman Greece. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1993.
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  1153. A groundbreaking reinterpretation of the Greek province of Achaea under Rome: although not an art-historical study in the strict sense, this book breaks important ground for understanding how Roman rule shaped the Greek countryside and, in turn, its material culture.
  1154. Find this resource:
  1155. Butcher, Kevin. Roman Syria and the Near East. Los Angeles: Getty, 2003.
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  1157. This comprehensive guide to the history, archaeology, and art of Syria and the Near East covers not only the period of the Roman Empire, but also the transitional periods before and after. Accompanied by excellent illustrations and a useful bibliography.
  1158. Find this resource:
  1159. D’Andria, Francesco, and Ilaria Romeo, eds. Roman Sculpture in Asia Minor. Proceedings of the international conference to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Italian excavations at Hierapolis in Phrygia. 24–26 May 2007, Cavallino (Lecce). Journal of Roman Archaeology Suppl. 80. Portsmouth, RI: Journal of Roman Archaeology, 2011.
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  1161. Derived from a conference on Hierapolis in Phrygia, and focusing on the themes of cultural memory and identity, this edited volume brings together many expert voices (in four languages); the book covers much ground—not only in terms of geographical scope, but also in its discussion of different sculptural genres.
  1162. Find this resource:
  1163. Eliav, Yaron, Elise Friedland, and Sharon Herbert, eds. The Sculptural Environment of the Roman Near East: Reflections on Culture, Ideology and Power. Leuven, Belgium: Peeters, 2008.
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  1165. This edited volume deals with the production and display of Roman sculpture across the Near East, with chapters examining both the material and the literary record. Sculpture is approached from a variety of different cultural perspectives, with particular attention paid to how it was shaped by different ethnically and religiously defined cultural groups (including Jewish and early Christian: cf. Periodization and Chronology: The Origins of Christian Art).
  1166. Find this resource:
  1167. Hoff, Michael C., and Susan I. Rotroff, eds. The Romanization of Athens. Oxford: Oxbow, 1997.
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  1169. The proceedings of a 1996 conference, combining papers on the material culture of Roman Athens with discussions of artistic production of architecture, sculpture, and pottery from the late Republic into the Imperial period. Provides important insights in terms of how Roman interventions deliberately altered the urban structure of Athens.
  1170. Find this resource:
  1171. Kropp, Andreas J. M. Images and Monuments of Near Eastern Dynasts, 100 B.C.–A.D. 100. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013.
  1172. DOI: 10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780199670727.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1173. Archaeological/art-historical analysis of the monuments and styles championed by the “client” kings of the Near East, focusing on the period between the fall of the Seleucid Empire and Rome’s establishment of its own administrative system. Structured thematically around genres and monument types, albeit with a final chapter surveying different “projections of royal ideology.”
  1174. Find this resource:
  1175. Ratté, Christopher, and Roland R. R. Smith, eds. New Research on the City and Its Monuments. Aphrodisias Papers 4. Journal of Roman Archaeology Suppl. 70. Portsmouth, RI: Journal of Roman Archaeology, 2008.
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  1177. One of the latest volumes on the material and visual culture of Roman Aphrodisias, including discussions of the city’s urban development and its various artistic genres. Published at the usual high standard of this series; chapters contain detailed references to earlier works.
  1178. Find this resource:
  1179. Smith, Roland R. R. The Marble Reliefs from the Julio-Claudian Sebasteion. Aphrodisias 6. Darmstadt: Philipp von Zabern, 2013.
  1180. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1181. Building on Smith’s previous articles on the important Sebasteion complex at Aphrodisias, this volume now catalogues all of the extant surviving reliefs, exploring their historical significance for thinking about relations with Rome. This is just the latest book within the “Aphrodisias” series, which catalogues the rich and important materials from this city (cf. e.g., on portrait statues, Smith, Roland R. R., ed. Roman Portrait Statuary from Aphrodisias. Aphrodisias 2. Mainz, Germany: Philipp von Zabern, 2006).
  1182. Find this resource:
  1183. Vermeule, Cornelius C. Roman Imperial Art in Greece and Asia Minor. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1968.
  1184. DOI: 10.4159/harvard.9780674436770Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1185. Although now somewhat dated (not least in the light of more recent excavations), Vermeule’s book was among the first to offer a comprehensive survey of “Greek” art (as geographically defined) under Roman rule. Accompanied by numerous photographs.
  1186. Find this resource:
  1187. Egypt
  1188.  
  1189. Like the Greek East, Egypt also confronted the Roman Empire with a strong, well-developed indigenous culture, only in part affected by processes of Hellenization. Recent scholarship on the art of Roman Egypt might be divided into three broad categories. First, a number of studies have been devoted to mummy portraiture—and above all to the so-called “Fayum portraits” (Doxiadis 1995, Borg 1996, Walker and Bierbrier 1997). Second (in line with the broader interest in “geographical variations” discussed in this chapter), scholars have explored the continuation of indigenous, “Egyptian” cultural practices even under the rule of Rome: Beck, et al. 2005 provides one of the best overviews here. Third—and increasingly in recent years—some of the most insightful work has been dedicated to the emulation of Egyptian or “Egyptianizing” elements in the art of Rome and mainland Italy (Roullet 1972, De Vos 1980, Versluys 2002, Ashton 2004).
  1190.  
  1191. Ashton, Sally-Ann. Roman Egyptomania. Oxford: Golden House, 2004.
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  1193. This catalogue accompanied the 2004–2005 exhibition at the Cambridge Fitzwilliam Museum. It deals with Egyptian objects found in Italy and with “Egyptianizing” Roman art, discussing the complex processes of acculturation at play here. Abundantly illustrated (though picture quality is mixed).
  1194. Find this resource:
  1195. Beck, Herbert, Peter C. Bol, and Mareile Bückling, eds. Ägypten-Griechenland-Rom: Abwehr und Berührung. Tübingen, Germany: Wasmuth, 2005.
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  1197. In German. This catalogue accompanied the 2005 exhibition at the Liebieghaus in Frankfurt; essays deal with both Greek and Roman encounters with Egypt, tracing this through a wide array of artistic media both in Egypt itself and across the ancient Mediterranean. Well illustrated, and excellent thematic essays.
  1198. Find this resource:
  1199. Borg, Barbara. Mummienporträts: Chronologie und kultureller Kontext. Mainz, Germany: Philipp von Zabern, 1996.
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  1201. In German. Explores Egyptian “mummy portraits”; rather than simply explore their exotic appearances, the book draws important connections with other forms of private Roman portraiture. The result is a detailed, clear assessment of practices of representation in multiethnic Roman Egypt.
  1202. Find this resource:
  1203. De Vos, Marietta. L’egittomania in pitture e mosaici Romano-Campani della prima età Imperiale. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 1980.
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  1205. In Italian. This monograph traces Egyptian elements in the art of Roman Campania (above all in mosaics and wall-painting): it catalogues and examines the use of Egyptianizing motifs, subjects, and styles across the houses of Pompeii and Herculaneum.
  1206. Find this resource:
  1207. Doxiadis, Euphrosyne. The Mysterious Fayum Portraits: Faces from Ancient Egypt. London: Thames & Hudson, 1995.
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  1209. The author’s background as a practicing artist gives this volume its specific perspective: unlike e.g. Borg 1996, the book focuses on artistic technique, examining the place of “Fayum” paintings in the wider traditions of Greek and Roman painting. Particularly valuable because of its numerous illustrations in color.
  1210. Find this resource:
  1211. Roullet, Anne. The Egyptian and Egyptianizing Monuments of Imperial Rome. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 1972.
  1212. DOI: 10.1163/9789004294882Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1213. Comprehensive collection of all “Egyptianizing” material evidence found in metropolitan Rome, consisting of an extended catalogue, a chapter on formal and stylistic aspects, and another on the urban contexts of the monuments. Accompanied by excellent black-and-white illustrations.
  1214. Find this resource:
  1215. Versluys, Miguel John. Aegyptiaca Romana: Nilotic Scenes and the Roman Views of Egypt. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2002.
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  1217. A detailed reassessment of the cultural aspirations the Romans associated with Egypt, based on Nilotic scenes in Roman Imperial art (primarily from Italy itself, but also covering other parts of the Empire). Versluys presents a wide range of material in detailed scholarly catalogues; many (though not all) discussed scenes are illustrated.
  1218. Find this resource:
  1219. Walker, Susanne, and Morris I. Bierbrier, eds. Ancient Faces: Mummy Portraits from Roman Egypt. London: British Museum, 1997.
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  1221. This catalogue accompanied the 1997 exhibition at the British Museum and provides a very readable introduction to the painted “mummy” portraits of Fayum and elsewhere, along with excellent documentation.
  1222. Find this resource:
  1223. Western Provinces
  1224.  
  1225. Many of the works already cited under Regional Variations deal with the western provinces of the Roman Empire specifically (especially important are Scott and Webster 2003, pp. 95–152, the geographically arranged chapters of Noelke 2003, and the various sculptural volumes in Corpus Signorum Imperii Romani, both cited under Regional Variations). One of the challenges facing the student of this material is a linguistic one: publications largely tend to be written in the modern-day language of the former Roman province (including e.g. Spanish, French, Dutch, German, Portuguese etc.). While a myriad of books are dedicated to individual provinces, moreover, there is in fact very little in the way of survey across modern nationalist lines: although e.g. Blagg and Millett 1990 treats “the Roman Empire in the West,” the edited volume’s thematic essays only touch in passing upon mosaics, paintings, and sculptures. Carroll 2001 is helpful as a one-volume guide to materials from Gaul, just as Keay 1988 surveys “Roman Spain” (also see section on Romano-British Art). Hales 2003 approaches the visual culture of the western provinces from the specific context of domestic art, and in a cross-cultural, comparative way. Particularly important is the evidence of western mosaics: Lancha 1997 gives one survey here, approaching “Romanization” in terms of patrons’ knowledge of Greek and Latin poetry.
  1226.  
  1227. Blagg, Thomas, and Martin Millett, eds. The Early Roman Empire in the West. Oxford: Oxbow, 1990.
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  1229. (Most commonly available as a digital reprint from 2002.) Although the fifteen chapters only deal with “art” in passing (if at all), this edited volume played an instrumental role in shifting ideas about western “Romanization.” Particularly important is Millett’s essay on “Romanization: historical issues and archaeological interpretation” (a counterpart to Millett 1990, cited under Romano-British Art).
  1230. Find this resource:
  1231. Carroll, Maureen. Romans, Celts and Germans: The German Provinces of Gaul. Stroud, UK: Tempus, 2001.
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  1233. Succinct and thematic English-language overview of the archaeology of Germania Superior and Germania Inferior (encompassing parts of modern-day Germany, Switzerland, Holland, France, and Belgium); there is a particular interest in process of “Romanization”—both in towns and in the countryside. Art-historical analysis is integrated with a cultural historical approach (note, though, the relative paucity of images: fifty-nine integrated black-and-white pictures, and sixteen color plates).
  1234. Find this resource:
  1235. Hales, Shelley. “The Houses of the Western Provinces.” In The Roman House and Social Identity. By Shelley Hales, 167–206. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
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  1237. Explores three case studies of domestic architecture and decoration (in France, Britain, and North Africa) in order to demonstrate the “variety and yet cohesion of the Imperial experience in the Western Roman Empire” (p. 204). Useful synoptic reading for undergraduates, with adequate black-and-white illustrations (though only minimal endnotes on pp. 265–268).
  1238. Find this resource:
  1239. Keay, Simon J. Roman Spain. London: British Museum, 1988.
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  1241. Wide-ranging analysis of Spain before and after Roman colonization, with good discussion of Romano-Spanish architecture (pp. 116–144). The nine chapters proceed thematically, each with a “further reading” section. Discussion of mosaics, statues, and pottery is integrated within the predominantly archaeological approach. Excellent black-and-white illustrations are combined with crisp text (and some color plates). Excellent overarching English guide.
  1242. Find this resource:
  1243. Lancha, Janine. Mosaïque et culture dans l’Occident romain (Ier–IVe s.). Rome: Bretschneider, 1997.
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  1245. In French. Catalogues and discusses some 124 western Roman mosaics dating from the early to late Empire as a basis for considering their knowledge of Greek and Latin literary classics. Catalogue section treats mosaics according to their geographical location (pp. 31–300). Good-quality pictures (126 large-format black-and-white plates, and thirteen color plates).
  1246. Find this resource:
  1247. Romano-British Art
  1248.  
  1249. For obvious reasons, the visual culture of Roman Britain has attracted a larger Anglophone bibliography than that of any other western Roman province; the geographical insularity of Britain has likewise made it a particularly rich case study for thinking more broadly about “Romanization” in art (see Regional Variations). The textbook usually favored by undergraduates here is Henig 1995. Toynbee 1964 was intended as a more detailed scholarly resource (and is useful for its organization of material around specific media), whereas Toynbee 1962 is essentially a catalogue of 200 chosen objects. In terms of scholarly historiography, Haverfield 1923 and Collingwood 1930 set a 20th-century agenda—one that was overhauled by the postcolonial perspective of Millett 1990 (for discussion and analysis, see Webster 2001 and Scott and Webster 2003, pp. 1–8; both cited under Regional Variations). Particularly important for new scholarly research is Neal and Cosh’s four-volume album of Romano-British mosaics (Neal and Cosh 2002–2010); Scott 2000 offers a thematic guide to Romano-British mosaics, especially attuned to functions and cultural contexts. With regards to Romano-British sculpture, the richest scholarly resource is Corpus Signorum Imperii Romani (cited under Regional Variations): in 2014, some twenty volumes have been dedicated to Romano-British materials, organized by geographical region or else by specific collection.
  1250.  
  1251. Collingwood, Robin G. The Archaeology of Roman Britain. London: Methuen, 1930.
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  1253. Like Haverfield 1923, this book should be read for its historiographic influence rather than as a textbook within the field (for a review of its importance, see Webster 2001, pp. 211–212). Sixteen chapters survey the archaeological materials, with particular emphasis on architecture (but relatively little discussion of the figurative arts). Much more sensitive to “nativist” elements than Haverfield 1923.
  1254. Find this resource:
  1255. Haverfield, Francis. The Romanization of Roman Britain. 4th ed. Oxford: Clarendon, 1923.
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  1257. (The latest, revised edition of a book first published in 1906.) Like Collingwood 1930, this is to be read more for its historiographic importance than for its content. Haverfield’s model of “Romanization in art” (pp. 48–56) has been the foil of numerous more recent “postcolonial” responses (e.g. Millett 1990, pp. 1–8). (For a good evaluation of Haverfield’s approach, see Webster 2001, p. 209.)
  1258. Find this resource:
  1259. Henig, Martin. The Art of Roman Britain. London: Batsford, 1995.
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  1261. The most accessible introduction to Romano-British art, with 109 large integrated black-and-white images (and some color plates); attempts to champion Romano-British art’s (much-maligned) aesthetic merits. Thematically organized—which can make it difficult for undergraduates and beginners to get a handle on individual media (Toynbee 1964 is better here, despite its greater detail). The final chapter gives a useful synopsis of posthumous “attitudes to the art of Roman Britain” (pp. 174–189).
  1262. Find this resource:
  1263. Millett, Martin. The Romanization of Britain: An Essay in Archaeological Method. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1990.
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  1265. Illustrated and highly innovative analysis of Britain’s “Romanization” from an explicitly local (rather than “Roman”) perspective; reconfigures Haverfield’s model of “Romanization” (Haverfield 1923) as a native-led process of deliberate emulation. Millett’s landmark book helped set a new “postcolonial” agenda within the field (cf. Woolf 1998 and Webster 2001). Some discussion of “art and Romanization” (e.g. pp. 112–117), though primary interest lies in the archaeology more broadly.
  1266. Find this resource:
  1267. Neal, David S., and Stephen R. Cosh. Roman Mosaics of Britain. 4 vols. London: Illuminata for the Society of Antiquaries of London, 2002–2010.
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  1269. Four superbly illustrated volumes cataloguing around 2,000 mosaics in total. Volumes are topographically organized, treating northern Britain (including the Midlands and East Anglia), southwest Britain, southeast Britain, and western Britain (including Wales); illustrated in color throughout (especially useful for watercolor reconstructions). Indispensable scholarly resource for future research.
  1270. Find this resource:
  1271. Scott, Sarah. Art and Society in Fourth-Century Britain: Villa Mosaics in Context. Oxford: Oxbow, 2000.
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  1273. Thematic survey of British mosaics for advanced undergraduates, graduates, and specialists, with particular interest in their status as “provincial art” (pp. 10–13). Overviews of chronology and regions give way to discussions of architectural contexts, iconographic subjects, the rise of Christianity, and elite patrons/viewers. Compromised by the grainy quality of the seventy-five black-and-white illustrations: students will now want to use the book alongside the excellent catalogues Neal and Cosh 2002–2010.
  1274. Find this resource:
  1275. Toynbee, Jocelyn M. C. Art in Roman Britain. London: Phaidon, 1962.
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  1277. Catalogue in celebration of a 1961 exhibition at Goldsmiths’ Hall, London. Introductory essay (pp. 1–17), followed by a catalogue of 200 objects organized by medium. Particularly useful for its 262 images (reproduced in a central plate section).
  1278. Find this resource:
  1279. Toynbee, Jocelyn M. C. Art in Britain under the Romans. Oxford: Clarendon, 1964.
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  1281. Much more detailed than the catalogue of Toynbee 1962, but less generously illustrated. Still the definitive reference work on Romano-British art, with fourteen chapters principally structured around different media. Useful as graduate and scholarly resource, although the separate section of ninety-nine black-and-white plates at the back of the book makes this a less compelling introductory textbook than e.g. Henig 1995.
  1282. Find this resource:
  1283. Literary Sources
  1284.  
  1285. Students of Roman art do not have to rely on archaeological materials alone: Greek and Latin writers themselves give precious insights not only into individual monuments and artists, but also more generally into how “art” was conceptualized in the Roman world. As ever within the field of Classical art, it is inherently difficult to separate the “Greek” from the “Roman” here (cf. Historiography): the vast majority of our textual sources for Greek art are also in fact by Roman-era writers (whether writing in Latin and Greek). If most “Roman” literary discussions of art focus on “Greek” exempla, they nonetheless give a critical insight into the specific cultural concerns and interests of Roman viewers: when considered carefully, Latin discussions of Greek art can give an unparalleled perspective on Roman “art and taste” (Becatti 1951). Of particular scholarly importance is the Elder Pliny’s Natural History, and in particular the final five books of Pliny’s work: Carey 2003 offers one of the most art-historically sensitive analyses of the text within its 1st-century CE Imperial context. The huge array of ancient texts available to the student of Roman art defies any synoptic survey here: the most important works are presented, with facing English translation, in the Loeb Classical Library editions published by Harvard University Press; in terms of online resources, the Perseus Project is the most thorough reference tool (though not all texts are available in English). Lapatin 2012 surveys the different genres of ancient texts available (referencing some of the most important secondary literature), whereas Pollitt 1983 is a useful undergraduate compendium of translated sources on Roman art (cf. Becatti 1951; Chevallier 1991). The most encyclopedic anthology of literary sources, however, is Overbeck 1868, which collects all relevant ancient texts on individual Greek artists, most of them written by Imperial Roman and Greek authors (cf. also Makers): Muller-Dufeu 2002 provides a French translation of the most important sources on Greek sculpture (based on Overbeck 1868), but Kansteiner, et al. 2014 now offers a completely revised and expanded edition in the so-called Der Neue Overbeck. Unlike the other works referenced here, Pollitt 1974 is structured as a glossary of the most important Greek and Latin critical terms: each term begins with a compendium of the most relative ancient sources (provided both in the original language and in English translation). For students interested in the more theoretical question of how to reconcile the visual materials with the literary evidence, Elsner 1996 (cited under General Resources: Anthologies and Edited Volumes) makes for a stimulating starting-point.
  1286.  
  1287. Becatti, Giovanni. Arte e gusto negli scrittori latini. Florence: Sansoni, 1951.
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  1289. In Italian (with an appendix of 337 untranslated Latin texts on pp. 299–453). Interpretive survey of the artistic tastes of Roman Republican and Imperial authors, dealing principally with those dating from the 1st century BCE to the 2nd century CE. An introductory chapter (pp. 1–62) gives way to a survey of fourteen different Latin authors, discussed in the light of extant visual materials (as reflected in the 153 images illustrated in the final black-and-white plates).
  1290. Find this resource:
  1291. Carey, Sorcha. Pliny’s Catalogue of Culture: Art and Empire in the Natural History. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003.
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  1293. Thematic analysis of books 33–37 of Pliny the Elder’s Natural History—our most important ancient source for Classical art, and especially Roman Imperial attitudes to it. Examines aspects of the Natural History against the backdrop of contemporary Roman sculpture and painting, demonstrating the distinctly “Roman” tastes and interests underlying the text. Particularly strong on Pliny’s concerns with “the artifice of nature,” reading the text against contemporary material case studies, and vice versa (pp. 102–137).
  1294. Find this resource:
  1295. Chevallier, Raymond. L’artiste, le collectioneur et le faussaire: Pour une sociologie de l’art romain. Paris: Armand Colin, 1991.
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  1297. In French. Survey, in ten chapters, not only of Roman attitudes toward collecting, but of Roman ideas toward “art” more generally (as based primarily on literary sources). Some useful discussions of individual writers, but less useful than Becatti 1951; rationale for organizing material across and within chapters at times confusing. No images.
  1298. Find this resource:
  1299. Kansteiner, Sascha, Klaus Hallof, Lauri Lehmann, Bernd Seidensticker, and Klaus Stemmer, eds. Der Neue Overbeck: Die antiken Schriftquellen zu den bildenden Künsten der Griechen. 5 vols. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2014.
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  1301. Thoroughly revised edited—in five weighty volumes—of Overbeck 1868, and including some 4,280 literary sources and inscriptions. In fact, this “new Overbeck” is also a “new Loewy” (see Loewy 1885, cited under Makers), combining literary and epigraphic references to artist names. The chronological arrangement of entries essentially follows Overbeck 1868, but all sources are presented in the original and translation, complete with detailed references to secondary literature.
  1302. Find this resource:
  1303. Lapatin, Kenneth. “Ancient Writers on Art.” In A Companion to Greek Art. Vol. 1. Edited by Tylor Jo Smith and Dimitris Plantzos, 273–289. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012.
  1304. DOI: 10.1002/9781118273289Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1305. A concise undergraduate introduction to the different types of literary sources available, complete with detailed references to secondary analyses; structured by genre (“inscriptions,” “artists” treatises,” “Pliny and Pausanias,” “Homer and the poets,” “orators, rhetoricians, and essayists,” “philosophers,” “historians and others”).
  1306. Find this resource:
  1307. Muller-Dufeu, Marion. La sculpture grecque: Sources littéraires et épigraphiques. Paris: École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts, 2002.
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  1309. In French. Selective anthology of the most important sources collected in Overbeck 1868, including numerous new texts and inscriptions. Texts provided in original language with facing French translation (and some introductory comments on different sections). Nos. 2555–3065 (pp. 857–1023) deal with “l’art grec sous la domination romaine et l’art gréco-romain.”
  1310. Find this resource:
  1311. Overbeck, Johannes A. Die antiken Schriftquellen zur Geschichte der bildenden Künste bei den Griechen. Leipzig: Engelmann, 1868.
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  1313. In German (Greek and Latin texts presented without translation). Although somewhat forbidding for all but advanced graduate students, this is still the most important compendium of literary references to sculpture and painting (some 2,400 in total). Organized chronologically, and then by medium, according to the ancient artists and works to which sources refer. Now superceded by the revised “Der Neue Overbeck” project (Kansteiner, et al. 2014). Note that both Overbeck’s book and the revised edition restrict themselves to “Greek” (rather than “Roman”) artists.
  1314. Find this resource:
  1315. Perseus Project.
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  1317. Extensive (albeit selective) online resource for assessing both Greek and Latin texts, as well (often) as English translations. The user interface offers some basic vocabulary and syntactical assistance for students reading the texts in Latin and Greek. Students should note that there are some notable absences here (including the most relevant books of Pliny’s Natural History, which is instead available—in Latin only here.
  1318. Find this resource:
  1319. Pollitt, Jerome J. The Ancient View of Greek Art: Criticism, History, and Terminology. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1974.
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  1321. (To be distinguished from the abridged “student edition” of the same title, where the 336-page glossary is reduced to 159 pages). An explanatory A–Z glossary of the most important Greek and Latin critical terms used by ancient writers. Ancient sources are presented in both the original and translation, followed by an interpretive commentary. Part 1—on “art criticism in antiquity” (pp. 1–71) is now somewhat outdated, not least in its definitions of “popular criticism.”
  1322. Find this resource:
  1323. Pollitt, Jerome J. The Art of Rome, c. 753 B.C.-A.D. 337: Sources and Documents. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1983.
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  1325. Compendium of some of the most important ancient sources (with extensive commentary, and in translation) on Roman art and artists. Organized chronologically from “Roman Republic,” through “The Roman Empire,” to “Late Antiquity.” Sister volume to the author’s The Art of Ancient Greece: Sources and Documents (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1990)—which, although dedicated to “Greek art,” is nonetheless dominated by Roman-era sources.
  1326. Find this resource:
  1327. Makers
  1328.  
  1329. One scholarly challenge in studying Roman art is the lack of available information about those who made it. While modern art historians have put great store on the identities of artists, this information is patchy at best when it comes to the Roman world. Although some literary sources do reflect an interest in makers (see Literary Sources, and especially Overbeck 1868 and Kansteiner, et al. 2014 cited there), the vast majority of extant objects go unsigned. If different scholars have reached radically different conclusions about the importance and social standing of “artists” in the Roman world, they have nevertheless tended to rely on a common collection of scholarly resources. Most important is Loewy 1885—a compendium of ancient artist signatures that is organized chronologically from the Archaic Greek world to the Roman Empire; also useful is Vollkommer 2001–2004 (cited under General Resources: Reference Works), which includes brief essays (arranged in alphabetical order) on the artists known to us from classical Antiquity. On Roman artists specifically, Calabi-Limentani 1958 catalogues some of the most important signatures, and offers one overview of contemporary attitudes toward those who made Roman art. Where Calabi-Limentani proceeds thematically, Toynbee 1951 is useful as an (English-language) survey of what is known about Roman artists in particular media. A number of additional resources for artisans in specific media are also helpful: e.g. Vollenweider 1966 (for gemcutters; cited under Media: Gems and Glyptic Arts); Art of Making and Russell 2013 (on stone-carvers; both cited under Media: Sculpture); Donderer 1989 (for mosaicists; cited under Media: Mosaics); and, from a different perspective, Hartley and Dickinson 2008–2012 (for the manufacturer names stamped onto Roman Samian ware; cited under Media: Luxury Arts: Terracotta and Pottery). The best undergraduate introduction to the social standing of both Greek and Roman “craftsmen” is Burford 1972. Burford’s concern with working conditions, organization, and production has been supplemented by numerous more recent finds: in addition to Van Voorhis 1998 (which publishes some of our most important evidence for the training of sculptors in Roman Aphrodisias), the essays in Kristensen and Poulsen 2012 all deal with archaeological evidence for workshop. Stewart 2008 provides one masterful attempt to put together literary and material evidence to ask “who made Roman art?”: the resulting chapter provides a concise overview for advanced undergraduate and graduate students. The view, expressed by Burford 1972, that all Classical “artists” should better be considered as “craftsmen” has been challenged by a number of recent contributions. Muller-Dufeu 2011 turns to ancient literary sources to champion the idea that at least some artists in the Greco-Roman world were understood as “creators,” foreshadowing the later Renaissance rhetoric of the “genius” artist. Where Muller-Dufeu 2011 deals almost exclusively with texts, Squire 2013 returns to the evidence of artist signatures, arguing that, at least for some elite audiences, Roman name-inscriptions had the potential to play knowing, self-referential games with their viewers.
  1330.  
  1331. Burford, Alison. Craftsmen in Greek and Roman Society. London: Thames & Hudson, 1972.
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  1333. Still an important basic survey of Greek and Roman “craftsmen”; broad chronological range moving from Archaic Greece to Late Antiquity. Combines analysis of literary sources with extant material evidence (though sparsely illustrated); final chapter on “concepts of the nature of craftsmanship” (pp. 184–218) is particularly useful for getting students to think about different ideas of “art”—and “artists”—in the ancient as opposed to modern world.
  1334. Find this resource:
  1335. Calabi-Limentani, Ida. Studi sulla società romana: Il lavoro artistico. Milan: Istituto Editoriale Cisalpino, 1958.
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  1337. In Italian. Analyzes the status and standing of different sorts of Roman “artists,” discussing their background, organization of labor, works (from the perspective of technical vocabulary), and systems of patronage. Especially useful for its appendix of 224 artist inscriptions, segregated according to medium (pp. 151–180).
  1338. Find this resource:
  1339. Kristensen, Troels Myrup, and Birte Poulsen, eds. Ateliers and Artisans in Roman Art and Archaeology. Journal of Roman Archaeology Suppl. 92. Portsmouth, RI: Journal of Roman Archaeology, 2012.
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  1341. Nine essays (including a short introduction, with useful survey of bibliography) dealing with questions of production, workshops, and trade; specific chapters are largely dedicated to individual case studies (with a broad geographical range—from Aphrodisias to Roman Britain).
  1342. Find this resource:
  1343. Loewy, Emanuel. Inschriften griechischer Bildhauer. Leipzig: Teubner, 1885.
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  1345. In German. Still the most important compendium of extant artist signatures; organized chronologically from the 6th century BCE to the “Römische Kaiserzeit,” the book catalogues some 175 signatures (mainly in Greek, but also some in Latin) from the Roman Republic and Empire (pp. 163–273). The materials gathered in Loewy’s book have now been revised in Kansteiner, et al. 2014 (cited under Literary Sources).
  1346. Find this resource:
  1347. Muller-Dufeu, Marion. “Créer du vivant”: Sculpteurs et artistes dans l’antiquité grecque. Villeneuve d’Ascq, France: Presses Universitaires du Septentrion, 2011.
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  1349. In French. Continuation of an earlier project on ancient textual sources for Greek sculpture (see Muller-Dufeu 2002, cited under Literary Sources). The emphasis here is on literary texts rather than archaeological materials: Muller-Dufeu champions the idea that Antiquity did have a concept of the artist as “creator.” Chapter 2, exploring textual testimonia pertaining to e.g. apprenticeships and patronage, is particularly useful. However, the lack of index—and the collapsing of chronology—limits the book’s usefulness as a reference resource.
  1350. Find this resource:
  1351. Squire, Michael J. “Ars in Their I’s: Authority and Authorship in Graeco-Roman Visual Culture.” In The Author’s Voice in Classical and Late Antiquity. Edited by Anna Marmodoro and Jonathan Hill, 357–414. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013.
  1352. DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199670567.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1353. Considers the cultural conceptualization of the “artist” (artifex) in the Roman world, with specific reference to Roman “forgeries” (cf. Fuchs 1999, cited under Periodization and Chronology: The Art of the Republic). Particular emphasis on the cultural practice of signing artworks and the use of “pseudonymous” names; footnotes guide advanced students around the available secondary literature. (Cf. the author’s essay on “Roman Art and the Artist” in Borg 2015, cited under General Resources: Anthologies and Edited Volumes.)
  1354. Find this resource:
  1355. Stewart, Peter. “Who Made Roman Art?” In The Social History of Roman Art. By Peter Stewart, 10–38. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
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  1357. Surveys the available evidence for artists in the context of the “problem” of Roman art (the fact that, where evidence is available, it points unequivocally to “Greek” makers). Also includes a well-referenced discussion of patronage. Although short, the footnotes and references allow more advanced students to follow up individual case studies.
  1358. Find this resource:
  1359. Toynbee, Jocelyn M. C. Some Notes on Artists in the Roman World. Brussels: Latomus, 1951.
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  1361. A short pamphlet surveying what we know about the names and identities of those responsible for Roman art, on the basis of both literary and archaeological evidence. Toynbee’s overarching thesis argues against the scholarly antithesis between “Greek” and “Roman” art, emphasizing the importance of “Greek” individuals (as evidenced by inscribed signatures) for making “Roman” art. Separate chapters treat architects, sculptors, painters, and mosaicists.
  1362. Find this resource:
  1363. Van Voorhis, Julie A. “Apprentices’ Pieces and the Training of Sculptors at Aphrodisias.” Journal of Roman Archaeology 11 (1998): 175–192.
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  1365. Catalogues and analyzes twenty-eight carved marble hands and feet—so-called “apprentices’ pieces,” found in different parts of the city—for the evidence they supply about how sculptors were trained at Aphrodisias. These exceptional finds have a huge importance for approaching the process of production in one of the most important sculptural centers of the Roman world.
  1366. Find this resource:
  1367. Viewers
  1368.  
  1369. Traditionally, the study of Roman art has focused on objects viewed. With the injection of more theoretical (especially psychoanalytical and cognitive) approaches to the study of art history, however, there has been a marked increase in studies on viewing Roman art. Although this trend is often associated with the “new art history” of the late 20th century, its intellectual debts stretch back to much earlier works: particularly important were the contributions of Alois Riegl (Riegl 1985, first published in 1901, cited under Periodization and Chronology: The Origins of Christian Art) and Franz Wickhoff (Wickhoff 1900, first published in 1895, cited under Historiography). Since the 1990s, scholarship on Roman art has witnessed a marked rise in studies on viewer responses and the “viewer’s share”: Zanker 1997 offers a good initial introduction, while Bergmann and Kondoleon 1999 demonstrates how this work has guided research into Roman “spectacle” at large. The field of semiotics has likewise exerted a particular influence. In Germany, a key contribution came in Hölscher 2004 (first published in German in 1987), which characterizes Roman art—or, more specifically, Roman sculpture—as a “semantic system.” Within the English-speaking world, the most important work has been that of Jaś Elsner—reflected in all manner of publications (e.g. Elsner 1991), but nowhere more so than in his monograph on “art and the Roman viewer” (Elsner 1995) and in his collected essays on “Roman eyes” (Elsner 2007). Elsner’s interest in visual subjectivity has revolutionized the English-speaking field of Roman art history; subsequent scholars have also attempted to develop different aspects of his approach—whether in terms of “spectator figures” in Campanian wall-painting (Lorenz 2007), for example, or else Roman ideas about viewing the gods and the dead (e.g. Platt 2011, cited under Media: Sculpture: Funerary Reliefs and Sarcophagi). But not all aspects of Elsner’s approach have met with universal approval. One response has been to problematize Elsner’s supposed notion of “single” or “ideal” sorts of Roman viewers: numerous recent scholars have drawn attention to the social diversity of “Roman” viewers—an aspect discussed in a subsidiary section on Social Distinctions. Within this “viewers” category we also include works dealing with visual “narrative” in Roman art—that is, how viewers exploited visual stimuli to tell stories and histories. One of the most important contributions here came in Brilliant 1984, influenced by the explosion of “word and image” studies in the late 1970s and early 1980s (cf. also Elsner 1996, cited under General Resources: Anthologies and Edited Volumes). More recently, other scholars have drawn attention to the markedly more complex ways in which Roman media interrogated the relations between words and pictures, with particular emphasis on individual visual response: Squire 2011, dedicated to one particular group of Greco-Roman objects, is just one example, again highly influenced by Elsner 1995.
  1370.  
  1371. Bergmann, Bettina, and Christine Kondoleon, eds. The Art of Ancient Spectacle. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1999.
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  1373. Concentrating specifically on spectators, not viewers, this study comprises papers on different types of spectacle, including games, religious events, and urban scenery. Copiously illustrated, and in large format.
  1374. Find this resource:
  1375. Brilliant, Richard. Visual Narrative: Story-Telling in Etruscan and Roman Art. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1984.
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  1377. An influential and theoretically grounded attempt at considering Roman visual narrative in its own right rather than as something wholly dependent on the textual. The analyses of Pompeian picture combinations, and state and sarcophagi reliefs, still have many important insights to offer into the ways Roman viewers were made to engage with art.
  1378. Find this resource:
  1379. Elsner, Jaś. “Cult and Sculpture: Sacrifice in the Ara Pacis Augustae.” Journal of Roman Studies 81 (1991): 50–61.
  1380. DOI: 10.2307/300488Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1381. This article on Augustus’ Ara Pacis in Rome challenges the fundamental assumption that “official” Roman images bore single meanings. Elsner instead focuses on how processes of viewing themselves function as a means of producing significance: the article paved the way for some of Elsner’s more extensive discussions of the “Roman viewer”—not least Elsner 1995; Elsner’s arguments of the Ara Pacis have by no means been universally accepted.
  1382. Find this resource:
  1383. Elsner, Jaś. Art and the Roman Viewer: The Transformation of Art from the Pagan World to Christianity. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1995.
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  1385. The sorts of approaches foreshadowed in Elsner 1991 are applied here to a range of case studies—all in an attempt to explain the transitions from early Imperial to early “Christian” art (cf. Periodization and Chronology: The Origins of Christian Art). A stimulating tour-de-force that elicited controversy in its time, but which also set a new scholarly agenda for considering “viewing” and “viewers” in Roman art.
  1386. Find this resource:
  1387. Elsner, Jaś. Roman Eyes: Visuality and Subjectivity in Art and Text. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2007.
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  1389. Collection of some of Elsner’s most important articles (revised from articles first published between 1991 and 2007). The ten chapters (with additional introduction and epilogue) are split into two parts, dealing respectively with “ancient discourses on art” and “ways of viewing.” A crucial scholarly intervention that has helped bridge the gap between the study of Roman art and art history more generally.
  1390. Find this resource:
  1391. Hölscher, Tonio. The Language of Images in Roman Art. Translated by Anthony Snodgrass and Annemarie Künzl-Snodgrass. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2004.
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  1393. First published in German (Römische Bildsprache als semantisches System; Heidelberg, Germany: Winter, 1987). Hölscher reconstructs a “system” for understanding the semantics of style in Roman art, focusing above all on viewer reception. Jaś Elsner’s introduction surveys the book’s place within a longer historiography. (For some sharp-sighted critiques, see also Jaś Elsner, “Classicism in Roman Art.” In Classical Pasts: The Classical Traditions of Greece and Rome; Edited by James Porter, 270–296. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2006).
  1394. Find this resource:
  1395. Lorenz, Katharina. “The Ear of the Beholder: Spectator Figures in Pompeian Painting.” Art History 30.5 (2007): 665–682.
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  1397. An English-language presentation of the author’s model for contextually analyzing visual narrative in Pompeian wall-painting (developing Lorenz 2008, cited under Media: Wall-Painting). Lorenz argues for the long-ignored “spectator figures” in Pompeian mythological paintings to be taken as embedded prompts for the external viewer.
  1398. Find this resource:
  1399. Squire, Michael J. The Iliad in a Nutshell: Visualizing Epic on the Tabulae Iliacae. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.
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  1401. A re-evaluation of an understudied group of early Imperial objects that combine miniature images and inscriptions (the so-called “iliac tablets”); analyzes the interwoven complexities of both viewing and reading in the Roman world, with a particular eye to the dynamics of Roman storytelling (and hence responding to e.g. Brilliant 1984).
  1402. Find this resource:
  1403. Zanker, Paul. “In Search of the Roman Viewer.” In The Interpretation of Architectural Sculpture in Greece and Rome. Edited by Diane Buitron-Oliver, 179–191. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 1997.
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  1405. Studying how religious buildings and rituals are represented on Roman coins, Zanker argues that such iconic forms constitute an ideal laboratory for considering changes in cultural perception. Just one of many important contributions by the author, but useful as an English introduction (cf. e.g. his “Nouvelles orientations de la recherche en iconographie: Commanditaires et spectateurs.” Revue Archéologique (1994): 281–293).
  1406. Find this resource:
  1407. Social Distinctions
  1408.  
  1409. The resurgence of interest in “viewing” Roman art has gone hand in hand with a renewed scholarly interest in different social classes of viewers. Fundamental was Bianchi-Bandinelli 1967 (cited under Historiography), a landmark intervention that helped put issues of class and social distinction back onto the scholarly agenda. More recent studies have generally moved away from the political agendas that underpinned Bianchi-Bandinelli’s earlier work; a central concern, though, remains the attempt to differentiate between different social subgroups of viewer. For undergraduates, Stewart 2008 is particularly useful for its explicit attempt at writing a “sociology” of Roman art tout court, while Wallace-Hadrill 1994 has had particular influence on the study of decorative forms (above all wall-painting) in the houses of different Roman social groups. Other relevant studies range from the analysis of costume in Roman art (Goette 1990) to considerations of the art of the both the upper (Pollini 1993) and not-so-upper classes of Roman society. Three recent English-language works are also particularly important here, each focusing on visual forms among the “lower” echelons of Roman society: first, Clarke 2003, dealing with “art in the lives of ordinary Romans”; second, Petersen 2006, treating the art of the Roman “freedmen” (that is, former Roman slaves); and finally, Mayer 2012, analyzing the sorts of visual culture favored by (what Mayer controversially labels) a “middle-class” social group of Roman viewers.
  1410.  
  1411. Clarke, John R. Art in the Lives of Ordinary Romans: Visual Representation and Non-Elite Viewers in Italy. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003.
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  1413. This study concentrates on non-elite viewers, attempting to reconstruct their modes of both visual expression and visual response; Clarke draws on the “popular” culture of spectacle in Roman art, as well as its cultural historical constructions of humor (the subject of Clarke’s Looking at Laughter: Humor, Power, and Transgression in Roman Visual Culture, 100 B.C.–A.D. 250. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007).
  1414. Find this resource:
  1415. Goette, Hans Rupprecht. Studien zu römischen Togadarstellungen. Mainz, Germany: Philipp von Zabern, 1990.
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  1417. In German. A comprehensive survey of the Roman toga and its different permutations. Puts particular emphasis on the way in which the toga was used in the visual record to facilitate social distinctions. Accompanied by a wide range of excellent illustrations.
  1418. Find this resource:
  1419. Mayer, Emanuel. The Ancient Middle Classes: Urban Life and Aesthetics in the Roman Empire 100 BCE–250 CE. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2012.
  1420. DOI: 10.4159/harvard.9780674065345Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1421. Attempts to locate a particular sort of Roman “middle-class” viewers—and one distinct from those treated by e.g. Clarke 2003 and Petersen 2006. Mayer tries to explain private art of the early Imperial period as driven by a consumer revolution and to reconstruct a particular Roman “middle-class” mode of viewing. This is a daring and provocative book, but one that has also courted controversy for its anachronistic categorizations (cf. e.g. European Review of History/Revue européene d’histoire 20.2 (2013): 314–316).
  1422. Find this resource:
  1423. Petersen, Lauren Hackworth. The Freedman in Roman Art and Art History. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
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  1425. Primarily focused on evidence from Pompeii and Ostia, this study takes a new, methodologically informed look at what Roman visual culture reveals about the social category of Roman ex-slaves. Chapters explore both the ancient materials and their modern historiography, analyzing the art of Roman freedmen in cultic contexts, in the home and above all in the funerary realm.
  1426. Find this resource:
  1427. Pollini, John. “The Cartoceto Bronzes: Portraits of a Roman Aristocratic Family of the Late First Century B.C.” American Journal of Archaeology 97.3 (1993): 423–446.
  1428. DOI: 10.2307/506364Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1429. Pollini’s article introduces an excellent case study for thinking about the mechanics of Roman aristocratic artistic self-representation: it is centered around the rare find of a family dedication, consisting of four bronze figures, probably dating to the late 1st century BCE. In doing so, the article analyzes some of the central issues surrounding monumental competition in the late Republic.
  1430. Find this resource:
  1431. Stewart, Peter. The Social History of Roman Art. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
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  1433. Useful as a clear and well-referenced guide for students and scholars alike. Examines questions about those who produced Roman art, as well as about how Roman visual culture was used to delineate different specific and cultural distinctions. Stands out in particular for its discussion of the role of portraiture (cf. Media: Sculpture: Portraiture). Disappointing for its grainy illustrations.
  1434. Find this resource:
  1435. Wallace-Hadrill, Andrew. Houses and Society in Pompeii and Herculaneum. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1994.
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  1437. An at-once qualitative and quantitative analysis of different Roman domestic decoration types, with an emphasis on wall-painting in Pompeii and Herculaneum. This provides the basis for a sociohistorical interpretation of how different parts of the Roman house were conceptualized in terms of different classes of viewers.
  1438. Find this resource:
  1439. Collecting
  1440.  
  1441. Closely connected to scholarship on “viewing” Roman art has been work on the cultural practice of “collecting” it: what factors influenced the selection of visual media, styles, and subjects? How were objects collected and displayed alongside each other in the Roman world? And what might these practices reveal about Roman attitudes to visual culture at large? One important response to these questions came in the essays collected in Gelzer and Flashar 1979, discussing the broader cultures of “classicism” in late Republican and early Imperial Rome. Most subsequent studies on Roman collecting have focused on single media—and above all on the display of sculpture. Particularly noteworthy is Neudecker 1988, discussing the combined display of statues and other objects in individual villa contexts, as well as Mattusch 2005, treating instead a single case study (the Villa dei Papiri outside Herculaneum). Where Neudecker provides a detailed topographic catalogue of sculptural finds in individual villas, Bergmann 1995 offers a much shorter analysis of the underlying cultural stakes of collecting and displaying Greek art in Rome, and is particularly noteworthy for dealing with both sculpture and painting together: this makes for an ideal discussion piece among advanced undergraduates. A rather different line of inquiry has focused around issues of trade and supply: the evidence of ancient shipwrecks, often containing cargoes of sculpture and other artworks, has been particularly important (and no publication more so than Salies, et al. 1994). One of the most exciting aspects of this interdisciplinary topic has been the need to consider archaeological evidence alongside extant Greek and Latin texts. Tanner 2006 (pp. 205–302) makes particular headway here, considering literary and material evidence for Roman practices of collecting each alongside the other, and analyzing what these reflect about ancient concepts of “art” more generally. Prioux 2008 focuses on ancient epigrams on or about art, and is particularly attuned to artistic collecting as a (meta-)poetic trope. Most recently, Rutledge 2012 has analyzed public collections of art (and above all sculpture) displayed in Rome, demonstrating the rich dividends to be had from combining literary and archaeological perspectives (compare also Bravi 2012, cited under Regional Variations: Rome and Italy).
  1442.  
  1443. Bergmann, Bettina. “Greek Masterpieces and Roman Recreative Fiction.” In Special Issue: Greece in Rome. Edited by Charles Segal. Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 97 (1995): 79–120.
  1444. DOI: 10.2307/311302Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1445. Just one of several influential essays in a special journal issue dedicated to “Greece in Rome: Influence, integration, resistance.” Bergmann is concerned with the “double life” of Greek objects in Rome; although discussing different media, the article is especially strong on Roman wall-painting, with detailed analysis of the make-believe “picture-galleries” (pinacothecae) of the Villa Farnesina in Rome.
  1446. Find this resource:
  1447. Gelzer, Thomas, and Hellmut Flashar, eds. Le classicisme à Rome aux Iers. siècles avant et après J.C.: Neuf exposés suivis de discussions. Geneva, Switzerland: Fondation Hardt, 1979.
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  1449. In French, German, and English. Proceedings from a landmark 1978 conference on the Roman reception of Greek culture in late Republican/early Imperial rhetoric, philosophy, art. Important for its interdisciplinary breadth (reflected in the recorded questions and discussions after each paper). Particularly influential has been Paul Zanker’s German essay, “Zur Funktion und Bedeutung griechischer Skulptur in der Römerzeit” (pp. 283–314).
  1450. Find this resource:
  1451. Mattusch, Carol. The Villa dei Papiri at Herculaneum: Life and Afterlife of a Sculpture Collection. Los Angeles: Getty, 2005.
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  1453. Detailed catalogue (with high-quality, mostly color illustrations) of the various bronze and marble statuary collected in a particularly important Roman villa, preserved by the Vesuvian eruption of CE 79. Uses formal and technical analysis to consider origins/derivation, as well as design, with extensive bibliographic references.
  1454. Find this resource:
  1455. Neudecker, Richard. Die Skulpturenausstattung römischer Villen in Italien. Mainz, Germany: Philipp von Zabern, 1988.
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  1457. In German (but for an English summary of Neudecker’s conclusions, cf. “The Roman Villa as a Locus for Art Collections”, in The Roman Villa: Villa Urbana, edited by Alfred Frazer, 77–91; Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1998). Comprehensive catalogue of the statues/sculptural fragments from seventy-eight Republican and Imperial villa complexes (pp. 130–247, albeit with only minimal illustrations); excellent introductory chapters likewise survey literary evidence for Roman sculptural collections.
  1458. Find this resource:
  1459. Prioux, Évelyne. Petits musées en vers: Épigramme et discours sur les collections antiques. Paris: CTHS Éditions, 2008.
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  1461. In French. Combined literary and visual exploration of the cultural poetics of collecting, with particular emphasis on Greek epigrams on artworks. Part 1 focuses on three Roman scenarios where images and Greek epigrams were juxtaposed; Part 2 discusses Hellenistic Greek and Latin epigrammatic poetic treatments of artworks. Despite the images and illustrations, the book’s emphasis is very much on ancient literary ideas of artistic collection.
  1462. Find this resource:
  1463. Rutledge, Steven H. Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012.
  1464. DOI: 10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780199573233.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1465. Thematic exploration of Rome as “museum city,” concentrating on the public civic collection and display of artworks; the book associates choices of objects displayed with broader Roman Imperial discourses of authority, power, and legitimacy. Rutledge is much stronger on literary sources than on the archaeology (the book is heavily referenced, but with some serious oversights in bibliography).
  1466. Find this resource:
  1467. Salies, Gisela Hellenkemper, Hans-Hoyer Prittwitz und Gaffron, and Gerhard Bauchhenß, eds. Das Wrack: Der antike Schiffsfund von Mahdia. 2 vols. Cologne: Rheinland-Verlag, 1994.
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  1469. Chapters in German, French, and English; based on a 1994–1995 exhibition at the Rheinisches Landesmuseum in Bonn. International experts discuss the spectacular cargo from a shipwreck found off the coast of Tunisia: chapters explore not only the ship (Part 1) and varied cargo (Part 2), but also the Roman market for Greek art (Part 3) and various technical questions concerning the sculptures (Part 4). Lavish illustrations and abundant references.
  1470. Find this resource:
  1471. Tanner, Jeremy. The Invention of Art History in Ancient Greece: Religion, Society and Artistic Rationalisation. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
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  1473. Tanner’s final two chapters on art as “high culture in Hellenistic Greece and the Roman Empire,” and “art after art history” (pp. 205–302) explore both Hellenistic and Roman collecting practices in terms of contemporary ideas of “art.” Highly stimulating (and sometimes challenging) advanced reading, with particular emphasis on literary sources, with only minimal illustrations.
  1474. Find this resource:
  1475. Legacy and Reception
  1476.  
  1477. Recent years have witnessed an explosion of scholarship on the reception of Roman art in western artistic traditions over the last two millennia. One of the most useful resources is Haskell and Penny 1981, centered around the afterlife of particular sculptures between the 16th and 19th centuries; Cuzin, et al. 2000 is important for expanding that project into the 20th century (albeit through a smaller series of case studies), and not least for its color images. More expansive in scope—and handy as a single-volume, English undergraduate resource—is Greenhalgh 1978. Other works deal with attitudes toward Roman art at particular moments and places: Coltman 2009, for example, deals with modern British collections of Classical sculpture, while Settis 1984–1986 deals with the legacy of Classical art in Italy (and is particularly strong on its Renaissance reception). The best attempt to integrate the study of Roman art’s reception into that of its ancient historical meanings (and vice versa) is Beard and Henderson 2001 (cited under General Resources: Textbooks). While “reception studies” have attracted a burgeoning bibliography within the field of classics, there has been much less written about the explicit methodological stakes of theorizing “reception” within the sphere of Classical art: Prettejohn 2012 makes for one notable exception here, while Squire 2014 surveys the broader literature (and offers a number of methodological critiques). Of the many other edited volumes that deal with issues of legacy and reception, Payne, et al. 2000 has been particularly important in establishing a dialogue between scholars of ancient materials and specialists in the history of later western art. Relatively few scholars, by contrast, have dealt with how issues of legacy and reception impact upon the display of Roman (and indeed other) art in contemporary museums: Melotti 2011 is particularly interesting in this regard, and also surveys some of the earlier bibliography.
  1478.  
  1479. Coltman, Viccy. Classical Sculpture and the Culture of Collecting in Britain since 1760. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.
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  1481. This book (to be used alongside Coltman’s Fabricating the Antique: Neoclassicism in Britain, 1760–1800; Chicago: Chicago University Press, 2006) surveys the British reception of Classical sculpture through a series of thematic case studies. Coltman is interested in both aristocratic collections and the origins of Classical art history as a discipline.
  1482. Find this resource:
  1483. Cuzin, Jean-Pierre, Jean-Rene Garborit, and Alain Pasquier, eds. D’après l’antique. Paris: Louvre, 2000.
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  1485. In French. Extensive catalogue accompanying Louvre reception on the western reception of Classical art, from the medieval period to the modern day. Particular emphasis on objects displayed in Louvre (and especially strong on the 19th- and 20th-century reception of the Venus de Milo). Useful for all undergraduates—regardless of their French language skills—on account of its superlative color illustrations.
  1486. Find this resource:
  1487. Greenhalgh, Michael. The Classical Tradition in Art. London: Duckworth, 1978.
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  1489. Compact, chronologically arranged overview of the reception of Greco-Roman art and architecture, focusing on the Early Renaissance through to the late 18th century; only a very brief discussion of 19th-century responses (and 20th-century materials are conspicuously absent). Greenhalgh’s romantic answer to “what is classicism?” (pp. 11–17) now looks rather outdated. Contains numerous references and illustrations (all in black and white).
  1490. Find this resource:
  1491. Haskell, Frances, and Nicholas Penny. Taste and the Antique: The Lure of Classical Sculpture, 1500–1900. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1981.
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  1493. A history of the various fames and fortunes of individual Classical sculptures, with thematic introduction and (exclusively) black-and-white photographs. Each essay deals not only with the excavation history, but also with critical and artistic responses—introducing an amazing range of different sources. The authors wear their immense learning lightly, providing a rich resource for undergraduates and scholars alike.
  1494. Find this resource:
  1495. Melotti, Marxiano. The Plastic Venuses: Archaeological Tourism in Post-Modern Society. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars, 2011.
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  1497. An innovative and stimulating appraisal of how the modern-day tourist industry “packages” ancient cultural monuments (with a particular emphasis on Greco-Roman materials); analyzes the contemporary consumerist stakes that underlie various museological displays. The four chapters are structured around individual case studies, many of them dealing with the display of Roman art (e.g. at Pompeii, Getty Villa in Malibu, and various museums in Rome). Provocative and thought-provoking.
  1498. Find this resource:
  1499. Payne, Alina, Ann Kuttner, and Rebekah Smick, eds. Antiquity and Its Interpreters. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
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  1501. Focused on the reception of physical and textual remains from Rome specifically, concerned principally with the Renaissance: twenty-two essays (most of them by scholars outside the field of classics/Classical art history/Classical archaeology) deal with different case studies, but all are concerned with the active cultural “construction” of interpretive views.
  1502. Find this resource:
  1503. Prettejohn, Elizabeth. The Modernity of Ancient Sculpture. London: I. B. Tauris, 2012.
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  1505. Perhaps the most sustained and impassionate plea for the importance of “reception studies” within the study of Classical art history. The three chapters proceed thematically while also moving forward in time from the 18th to the 20th century. Useful for getting undergraduates to think critically about some of the underlying methodological issues (though Prettejohn’s own approach is not without its methodological critics: cf. Squire 2014).
  1506. Find this resource:
  1507. Settis, Salvatore, ed. Memoria dell’antico nell’arte italiana. 3 vols. Turin, Italy: Einaudi, 1984–1986.
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  1509. In Italian. Monumental anthology of specially commissioned chapters (written by international experts) on the reception of Classical art and architecture in Italy; a series of thematic essays chart the rise of both antiquarianism and the discipline of archaeology. The three volumes proceed chronologically from the medieval period to 18th century, with a particular focus on the Renaissance. Rich research resource, but relatively small number of (black-and-white) images.
  1510. Find this resource:
  1511. Squire, Michael J. “Theories of Reception.” In The Oxford Handbook of Greek and Roman Art and Architecture. Edited by Clemente Marconi, 637–661. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014.
  1512. DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199783304.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1513. Surveys the contribution made by “reception studies” in the context of Classical art history more broadly, responding to the (“anti-historicist”) methodological approach espoused by Prettejohn 2012 in particular. Includes detailed and up-to-date pointers for further reading.
  1514. Find this resource:
  1515. The Laocoon
  1516.  
  1517. We have chosen to end our bibliography on “legacy and reception”—as indeed our bibliography on “Roman art” tout court—with scholarship on just one sculpture: the statue-group of Laocoon discovered in Rome in 1506. Many of the works cited under Legacy and Reception discuss the statue-group. But the Laocoon has spurred a particularly important set of methodological reflections about how to reconcile the historical study of a “Roman” artwork with more recent aesthetic and critical responses. Within the English-speaking world, Brilliant 2000 has been particularly influential, demonstrating how art-historical discussions of the statue’s “original” meanings are necessarily interwoven with later responses. Bieber 1967 also offers some useful background reading (especially on the statue’s various art-historical influences), while Koortbojian 2000 provides a helpful synopsis of immediate critical responses in the 16th century (much more detailed is Settis 1999, pp. 85–230). Likewise, Nisbet 1979 conveniently summarizes the all-important German critical interpretations in the 18th and 19th centuries. The 500th anniversary of the statue’s discovery in 2006 gave rise to a host of edited volumes in French, Italian, and German (the three most important are Décultot, et al. 2003; Buranelli, et al. 2006; and Gall and Wolkenhauer 2009). All of these volumes demonstrate the broad range of disciplinary subjects that necessarily converge around the study of Roman sculpture; more than that, they simultaneously attest to the importance of this Roman material to all western art history—and across a remarkably wide range of periods, places, and media.
  1518.  
  1519. Bieber, Margarete. Laocoon: The Influence of the Group since Its Rediscovery. 2d ed. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1967.
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  1521. A self-confessedly “small” book (p. 2)—and most students now prefer e.g. Brilliant 2000; still, this essay has an historiographic importance for combining a historicist study of the “original” statue group with a diachronic interest in its reception.
  1522. Find this resource:
  1523. Brilliant, Richard. My Laocoon: Alternative Claims in the Interpretation of Artworks. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000.
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  1525. Charts a series of different historical responses to the Laocoon, thereby showcasing how “the veil of interpretations [seems to]. . . interfere with the direct perception of this prestigious artwork” (p. xiv). The book’s organizational structure makes for somewhat jumpy undergraduate reading, but is fundamental for thinking about broader methodological issues about reception.
  1526. Find this resource:
  1527. Buranelli, Francesco, Paolo Liverani, and Arnold Nesselrath, eds. Laocoonte: Alle origini dei Musei Vaticani. Rome: Bretschneider, 2006.
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  1529. In Italian. Catalogue of an exhibition held in the Musei Vaticani to mark the 500th anniversary of the sculpture’s discovery between 2006 and 2007. Stunning color pictures throughout. Eight chapters deal with specific themes and moments of reception, while the catalogue section charts 101 relevant objects, manuscripts, and drawings. Extensive bibliography on 201–217.
  1530. Find this resource:
  1531. Décultot, Elisabeth, Jacques Le Rider, and François Queyrel, eds. Le Laocoön: Histoire et réception. Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 2003.
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  1533. In French (but with English and German abstracts on pp. 303–326). Like Gall and Wolkenhauer 2009, the twenty chapters of this book combine historical analysis of the statue and its underlying myth with thematic analyses, dealing with specific moments within its reception from the 16th to the 20th century. Chapters written by an international group of scholars, and all contain detailed references; poor-quality illustrations.
  1534. Find this resource:
  1535. Gall, Dorothee, and Anja Wolkenhauer, eds. Laokoon in Literatur und Kunst: Schriften des Symposions “Laokoon in Literatur und Kunst” vom 30.11.2006, Universität Bonn. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2009.
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  1537. In German. Thirteen chapters survey the Laocoon from a host of different interpretive angles, combining “historical” analysis of the Laocoon myth, with expert chapters on the group’s reception (particularly strong is Bäbler’s chapter on “Lessing und Winckelmann,” 228–241).
  1538. Find this resource:
  1539. Koortbojian, Michael. “Pliny’s Laocoon?” In Antiquity and Its Interpreters. Edited by Alina Payne, Anne Kuttner and Rebekah Smick, 199–216. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
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  1541. Focuses on the immediate aftermath of the Laocoon’s discovery in 1506, and how Renaissance interpreters struggled to reconcile ancient literary references with the new find. Contains translations of the most important 16th-century materials, making these accessible for non-Italian speakers; stronger on Renaissance literary references than on contemporary artistic responses.
  1542. Find this resource:
  1543. Nisbet, H. B. “Laocoön in Germany: The Reception of the Group since Winckelmann.” Oxford German Studies 10 (1979): 22–63.
  1544. DOI: 10.1179/ogs.1979.10.1.22Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1545. Examines “salient points” in the statue’s 18th- and 19th-century German reception, with notable discussion of (inter alios) Winckelmann, Lessing, Herder, Heinse, Schiller, and Goethe. Excellent survey of the shifting critical stakes, with detailed quotations from some of the most important literary passages (albeit in German, without English translation).
  1546. Find this resource:
  1547. Settis, Salvatore. Laocoonte: Fama e stile. Rome: Donzelli, 1999.
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  1549. In Italian. Combines relatively short discussion of the statue group in its Roman context (pp. 3–81), with detailed appendix dealing with the statue’s reception in the 16th century (by Sonia Maffei, pp. 85–230), and a discussion of its restoration (by Ludovico Rebaudo, pp. 231–258).
  1550. Find this resource:
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