Egypt in Italy: Visions of Egypt in Roman Imperial Culture
Cambridge University Press, 4/6/2015
EAN 9781107040489, ISBN10: 1107040485
Hardcover, 288 pages, 26.1 x 18.5 x 1.9 cm
Language: English
This book examines the appetite for Egyptian and Egyptian-looking artwork in Italy during the century following Rome's annexation of Aegyptus as a province. In the early imperial period, Roman interest in Egyptian culture was widespread, as evidenced by works ranging from the monumental obelisks, brought to the capital over the Mediterranean Sea by the emperors, to locally made emulations of Egyptian artifacts found in private homes and in temples to Egyptian gods. Although the foreign appearance of these artworks was central to their appeal, this book situates them within their social, political, and artistic contexts in Roman Italy. Swetnam-Burland focuses on what these works meant to their owners and their viewers in their new settings, by exploring evidence for the artists who produced them and by examining their relationship to the contemporary literature that informed Roman perceptions of Egyptian history, customs, and myths.
Introduction
from Egypt to Italy
1. Egyptian objects, Roman contexts
appropriation and aesthetics
2. Aegyptus Redacta
Augustus' obelisks and the spoils of Egypt
3. The sanctuary of Isis in Pompeii
dedication and devotion, myth and ritual
Appendix 3.1
marble inscriptions from the sanctuary of Isis
Appendix 3.2
dipinti near the sanctuary of Isis
Appendix 3.3
multiples and adaptations
Io panel paintings
Appendix 3.4
graffiti quoting
or, adapting Ovid from Pompeii
4. Images of Egypt
land at the limit of belief
Appendix 4
the structure and argument of 'Juvenal 15'
Conclusion
the afterlives of objects.