Roman Paintings.pdf (original) (raw)
Roman Mosaics in the J. Paul Getty Museum, by Alexis Belis
With an introduction by Christine Kondoleon, and contributions by Nicole Budrovich, Kenneth Lapatin, and Sean Leatherbury In Roman decor, elaborate mosaics transformed entire rooms into spectacular settings of vibrant color, figural imagery, and abstract design. Intricate patterns and narrative scenes were created by setting tesserae—small pieces of stone or glass—into floors and walls. The mosaics in the collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum span the second through the sixth centuries AD and reveal the diversity of compositions found throughout the empire during this period. Recovered from various archaeological contexts, these mosaics provide a glimpse into the richly embellished architecture of the ancient world. This optimized online catalogue enables the reader to explore these ancient objects using zoomable high-resolution photography, embedded glossary terms, comparative images linked to sites on the web, and interactive maps drawn from the Digital Atlas of the Roman Empire. The complete catalogue, as well as object data and main images, can be downloaded for free in multiple formats. For readers who wish to have a bound reference copy, a paperback version is available for sale.
The Classical Review, 2007
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Art in Roman Life. From Villa to Grave.
By what seems a miracle, a collection of rustic 8th century B.C. huts on a hill gradually grew into a kingdom, a republic, and finally an empire that dominated three continents. At its height in the 2nd century A.D. Roman territory stretched from the Atlantic Ocean to the Persian Gulf and from the British Isles to the upper reaches of the Nile. Nothing can recreate the splendor and scale of Rome's achievement. What can be evoked are some specific aspects of that achievement. The exhibition on which this book is based attempted to provide a setting for a diverse collection of Roman portrait sculptures donated to the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art by Tom and Nan Riley in 1996. This book documents the original exhibition, Art in Roman Life: Villa to Grave, held at the CRMA from September 2003 to October 2005. After the close of the exhibition, a smaller version of the show was installed in December 2005 and will be on display for the foreseeable future. This new installation exhibits all of the Riley sculptures and a selection of artifacts from the original exhibition. We hope that this book will be used not only by all who visited and remember the original exhibition, but also by those who visit the museum to see the Riley collection of portrait sculptures for the first time. (from the Introduction by R.D. De Puma)
Roman Wall Painting and the Art of Vision
This study uncovers ways in which the Roman obsession with the sense of sight is translated into its visual culture. The dissertation has two main goals: to examine the pictorial language of internal viewers in mythological wall paintings from ca. AD 20-79 and suggest ways in which these representations could interact with their audience, provoking or initiating reactions. Although the presence of and emphasis on internal gazes in Roman paintings has been repeatedly noted in prior scholarship, this motif has occupied a marginal place in the wider study of wall painting, which has focused primarily on the representation of supernumerary, or spectator figures, as compositional signposts. This study departs from earlier work in examining multiple types of viewers and treating these motifs as more than meaningless formal elements. An iconographic approach is used to look at the behavior, context, and gestures of the internal audience to identify and distinguish different types of viewers while concurrent cultural notions of vision help inform the potential reception of these images. Drawing from both art historical evidence and ancient scientific theory on optics and catoptrics, this study offers further insight into how Romans visualized different ways of seeing and potentially interacted with these representations. Representations of sight and viewing experience are found in a variety of mythological scenes and the accompanying catalogue includes over 200 examples. Based on the evidence, there appear to be three overarching motifs: spectators; reflections, mirrors, and the figures who look at them; and lovers. Each of these motifs is distinguished by a formulaic iconography including gesture, relationship with other figures, and physical position within the composition. In addition, the motifs are discussed in relation to the contemporary scientific theories of optics and cultural traditions of spectatorship to suggest ways in which these internal figures may act as more than compositional signposts. In accordance with the first century AD trend towards more active spectators as well as the noted popularity of tactile, physical vision, one can argue that the painted internal viewers, reflections, and lovers offer different modes of meaning for the external viewer not connected to mythological narrative. Based on this conclusion, the wall paintings and the motif of internal viewers signal new methods of visual communication which blur the divide between painting and viewer, virtual and real space. i ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The completion of this project was made possible through the kind support of many organizations and individuals. The financial generosity of the University of Virginia's McIntire Department of Art, the Linder Family, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and the Getty Foundation provided the necessary travel, research, and writing time for this project. My greatest appreciation is due to the Soprintendente Speciale per i Beni Archeologici di Napoli e Pompei, Teresa Elena Cinquantaquattro, as well as the Direttore Ufficio Scavi di Pompei, Antonio Varone, for graciously granting me admission to, and access to photograph, restricted areas of Pompeii and Herculaneum, as well as items held by the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli. I also owe a special thanks to the many custodii at Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Stabiae who repeatedly unlocked houses, provided directions, and offered the occasional espresso, as I photographed and documented paintings in situ. I would like to thank the following individuals for their assistance and collegiality: Jeremy Boggs (UVa Scholars' Lab), Lesley Fitton (British Museum), Shari Kenfield (Research Photographs, Princeton University), Christopher Lightfoot (Metropolitan Museum of Art), Alex Reid (British Museum), Valeria Sampaolo, (Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli), and Alex Truscott (British Museum). I would also like to thank the librarians and staff at the Getty Research Institute, specifically Tracey Schuster and the staff of the Special Collections, for their persistence and diligent attention as I culled through the Vander Poel archive. While in Rome I 42 For an excellent discussion see Natalie Kampen. "On Writing Histories of Roman Art," ArtBull 85.2 (2003): 371-386.