The Language of Images in Roman Art
Cambridge University Press
Edition: Illustrated, 11/18/2004
EAN 9780521665698, ISBN10: 0521665698
Paperback, 188 pages, 22.9 x 15.2 x 1.1 cm
Language: English
This book, first published in 2004, develops a theory for the understanding of Roman pictorial art. By treating Roman art as a semantic system it establishes a connection between artistic forms and the ideological messages contained within. The history of Roman art traditionally followed the model of a sequence of stylistic phases affecting the works of their era in the manner of a uniform Zeitgeist. By contrast, the author shows different stylistic forms being used for different themes and messages. The reception of Greek models, a key phenomenon of Roman art, thus appear in a new light. The formulations of specific messages are established from Greek art types of different eras serving to express Roman ideological values: classical forms for the grandeur of the state, Hellenistic forms for the struggling effort of warfare. In this way a conceptual and comprehensible pictorial language arose, uniting the multicultural population of the Roman state.
Foreword
Preface
1. Introduction
2. The Greek paradigm
example for lifestyle, academic subject, or building block of imperial culture?
3. The monuments
questions, categories, theses
4. Battle-scenes
the tradition of Hellenistic pathos
5. Battle-scenes
their reception in Rome
6. State ceremonial
the tradition of Classical dignity
7. The semantic system
the elements and their use
8. The semantic system
premises and structure
9. The origins of the system
dynamics and statics
10. Language of imagery and style
11. Formal system and style in the theory of rhetoric and of imagery
12. Conclusion
language of imagery and culture of empire
Bibliography, supplementary bibliography.