A Companion to Roman Art

Roman art has become a valuable object of study, not only for its aesthetic qualities, but as a historical source in its own right. It provides us with insights into Roman self–perceptions, value systems, and ways of perceiving the world that complement information taken from written sources. In this Companion, the reader is introduced through Roman art to the daily Roman world, its preoccupations and cultural characteristics.

These socio–historical aspects of Roman art require a contextualized approach, which addresses questions such as its physical and topographical contexts (houses and villas, tombs and public spaces etc.), patronage and intentions, the reception of art by various groups of viewers and users under various circumstances and conditions. The book includes sections focusing on, methodology and approaches, genres, contexts of display and usage of art, and on its modern reception and utilization. The authors are a global group of scholars, and their contributions reflect a diverse set of national academic traditions and approaches to our understanding of Roman art.

Introduction

Part I. Methods and approaches

1. Defining Roman art
Christopher H. Hallett

2. Roman historical representations
Tonio Hölscher

3. Methodological approaches to the dating and identification of Roman portraits
Klaus Fittschen

4. Roman art and gender studies
Natalie Kampen

Part II: The beginnings and end of Roman art

5. Republican Rome and Italic art
Massimiliano Papini

6. Adapting Greek art
Rachel Kousser

7. The Art of Late Antiquity: A contextual approach
Alessandra Bravi

Part III: Producing and commissioning Roman art

8. Technique and message in Roman art
Mont Allen

9. Roman art and the artist
Michael Squire

10. Roman art and the state
Peter J. Holliday

11. Arte plebea and non–elite Roman art
Lauren Hackworth Petersen

Part IV: Genres

12. Roman portraits
Jane Fejfer

13. Wall painting
Katharina Lorenz

14. Mosaics
Roger Ling

15. Roman sarcophagi
Michael Koortbojian

16. Decorative art
Friederike Sinn

17. Luxury arts
Kenneth Lapatin

18. Roman architecture as art?
Edmund Thomas

Part V: Contexts

Section 1: Roman art and private space

19. Art in Roman Town Houses
Simon Ellis

20. Art in the Roman villa
Richard Neudecker

21. The decoration of private space in the later Roman empire
Susanne Muth

Section 2: Roman art and death

22. The decoration of Roman tombs
Francisca Feraudi–Gruénais

23. Catacombs and the beginnings of Christian tomb decoration
Norbert Zimmermann

Section 3: Roman art and the empire

24. The Greek East under Rome
Roland R.R. Smith

25. The western Roman provinces
Roger J.A. Wilson

Part VI: Themes

26. Contextualising Roman art and nature
Maureen Carroll

27. Roman art and spectacle
Zahra Newby

28. Roman art and myth
Francesco de Angelis

Part VII: Reception of Roman art in the modern world

29. The myth of Pompeii: Fragments, frescoes and the visual imagination
Rosemary J. Barrow

30. Roman architecture through the ages
Stefan Altekamp

Barbara E. Borg is Professor of Classical Archaeology at the University of Exeter. She has published widely on Greek and Roman art and archaeology, including Der Logos des Mythos. Allegorien und Personifikationen in der frühen griechischen Kunst (2002), Paideia: The World of the Second Sophistic (2004), Die antiken Skulupturen in Castle Howard (with H. von Hesberg, A. Linfert, 2005), and A Matter of Life and Death: Towards a Social History of Roman Tombs (forthcoming).