Effigies. Ancient Portraiture as Figuration of the Particular. Morphomata 53 (original) (raw)

The Roman freestanding portrait bust: Origins, context, and early history. (Volumes I and II)

1993

The freestanding bust consists of a head, neck, shoulders, and chest raised up from its resting surface by a squared undersupport. It was a common format for portraiture in the Roman empire, but little attention has been paid to the freestanding bust itself, either as an artistic format or a social phenomenon. Although they are often thought to have served as ancestral portraits in the houses of Roman aristocrats, the origin and function of freestanding busts are by no means certain. Through examination of surviving datable busts and investigation of their contexts, in this study I attempt to determine when this portrait format was first used and by whom and for what purpose it was invented. I first examine the antecedents of the freestanding portrait bust and assess the evidence for the date when it was first used. That evidence suggests that the freestanding bust was used first in the city of Rome shortly after the mid-first century B.C. The sculptors who created the earliest freestanding busts and the patrons who commissioned them were not influenced by abbreviated portrait formats from Egypt, the Near East, or Greece. Instead, they drew upon the long tradition of abbreviated funerary portrait sculpture of Italy itself. After examining numerous busts, I have discovered that many sculptures presumed to be freestanding portrait busts are not in fact freestanding busts, but rather busts intended for portrait herms. By examining the contexts of freestanding busts and herm busts, I demonstrate that the freestanding bust had a more sharply defined function than did the herm bust and was used by a smaller segment of Roman society. Herm portraits were placed in domestic and public settings and could portray both elite and non-elite subjects. During the early Empire, freestanding busts were used for tomb portraits of non-elite persons, primarily freed slaves. Finally, by plotting the measurements of datable freestanding busts and comparing their shapes, I demonstrate that the common practice of dating portraits by means of the proportions and shape of the busts on which they appear, is unreliable.Ph.D.Ancient historyArchaeologyArt historyCommunication and the ArtsSocial SciencesUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/129142/2/9332136.pd

Between the Living and the Dead: Use, Reuse, and Imitation of Painted Portraits in Late Antiquity

Journal of Roman Archaeology, 2022

Painted portraits on wood and cloth were common in the ancient world and prized as authentic and lifelike images. Affordable, portable, and desirable, they were an important form of representation, but rarely survive in the archaeological record outside Egypt. This article approaches the study of painted portraiture in a way that does not necessitate the survival of the images themselves. It analyzes evidence for the use, reuse, and imitation of painted portraits in the catacombs of 4th-c. Rome by examining the remains of settings and attachments for portraits, the shadows left by them on walls, and portraits in other media which imitate panel paintings. The article considers why painted portraits were so effective in funerary contexts and what connection they may have had to domestic portraiture. It also explores the development of panel portrait imitation through the phenomenon of the “square nimbus.”

Portraits: 400 Years of Hellenistic Portraits - 400 Jahre hellenistische Portraits

Portraits - 400 Years of Hellenistic Portraits, 2020

>500 highest quality portrait coin images in highest resolution and large size from across the Hellenistic world incl 3 previously unknown hellenistic kings; 14 research articles on Hellenistic Portraiture on coins and other media. 410 pages threadbound hardcover. The 2.5kg book can be ordered via raeticus@yahoo.de ISBN 978-3-922840-41-1 Ausgehend von den Münzportraits der hellenistischen Herrscher und Herrscherinnen (über 500 Münzen werden allein im Katalogteil in mehrfacher Vergrößerung abgebildet, dazu die Rückseiten in einheitlicher Vergrößerung) werden auch die Herrscherportraits in den anderen Medien (Rundplastik, Relief, Malerei, Glyptik) analysiert. Dargestellt wird die Entwicklung von den Vorläufern in der griechischen und graeco-persischen Welt bis zum Übergang in das römische Kaiserporträt. Schwerpunkte der Einzeluntersuchungen bilden das Portrait Alexanders des Großen, die Bildnisse der Seleukiden und Seleukidinnen sowie der Ptolemäer, aber auch Darstellungen von Herrschern mit bestimmten Attributen oder Überlegungen zum Übergang zwischen hellenistischen und römischen Porträts.