Module description
Just as today, the decoration of Roman interior spaces tells us much about the individual who chose them and the society and region in which they were made. This term we examine a variety of media employed to embellish the interiors of both public and private Roman buildings as well as the adornment of individuals in order to investigate the dynamics of taste and fashion as well as changing aspirations and beliefs. Materials covered include mosaics, wallpaintings, household furnishings, tablewares and jewellery.
The aim of this module is to provide an understanding of the range and role of Roman visual culture with special focus on the decorative output from Rome and the provinces between the 2nd century BC and the 4th century AD. Students will become familiar with the visual material through close analysis of the function and meaning if the iconography in order to understand its significance in the wider physical, social and historical contexts. They will also explore its position in relationship to earlier artistic output as well as the nature of the contemporary ancient literature and its impact on our understanding of ancient art. Students will also become aware of the dynamics of our changing views of the past from the important discoveries of the 18th century through to current theoretical arguments in art history, anthropology and archaeology.
Assessment details
1 x 750-word commentary (30%); 1 x 2,000 essay (70%)
Teaching pattern
10 x 1-hour lectures (in 1 group) and 10 x 1-hour seminars (separated into 2 groups)
Suggested reading list
Suggested introductory reading
This is suggested reading and purchase of these books is not mandatory.
Beard, M. & J. Henderson, Classical Art: from Greece to Rome (Oxford, 2001).
Berger, J. Ways of Seeing (London, 1972).
Brilliant, R. Roman Art from the Republic to Constantine (London, 1974).
Burn, L. Greek and Roman Art in the British Museum (London, 1992).
Clarke, J.R. Art in the Lives of Ordinary Romans (Berkeley, 2003).
D'Ambra, E. Art and Identity in the Roman World (London, 1998).
Dunbabin, K.M.D. Mosaics of the Greek and Roman World (Cambridge, 1999).
Elsner, J. Imperial Rome and Christian Triumph (Oxford, 1998).
Gazda, E.K. (ed.) Roman Art in the Private Sphere (Ann Arbor, 1991).
Kleiner, F. A History of Roman Art (2nd ed.), (Belmont, 2010).
Ling, R. Roman Painting (Cambridge, 1991).
Ramage, N.H. & A. Ramage, Roman Art: Romulus to Constantine (Englewood Cliffs, 2004).
Scott, S. & J. Webster (eds.), Roman Imperialism and Provincial Art (Cambridge, 2003).
Smith, R.R.R. ‘The use of images: visual history and ancient history’, in T.P. Wallace-Hadrill, A. Houses and Society in Pompeii and Herculaneum (Princeton, 1994).
Wiseman (ed.), Classics in Progress: Essays on Ancient Greece and Rome (Oxford, 2002), 59-102.
Stewart, P.C.N. Roman art (Oxford, 2004).
Stewart, P.C.N. The Social History of Roman Art (Cambridge, 2008).
Zanker, P. Pompeii: Public and Private Life (Cambridge, Mass., 1998)