The Embodied Object: Recensions of the Dead on Roman Sarcophagi, Art History, The Embodied Object in Classical Antiquity Volume 41, Issue 3 Special Issue: The Embodied Object in Classical Antiquity June 2018 Pages 546-565 (original) (raw)
Related papers
Allen, Mont. "Isolating the Deceased in the Picture: Tools and Technique on Mythological Sarcophagi." In *Flesheaters: An International Symposium on Roman Sarcophagi*, edited by Christopher H. Hallett, 97-123. Sarkophag-Studien, no. 11. Wiesbaden: Reichert, 2019. (peer-reviewed)
Of all the ways to integrate real human subjects with mythological subject matter on Roman sarcophagi, none was more direct than the strategy of mythological portraiture: the outfitting of mythological figures with portrait heads featuring the facial features of real individuals. But if this mode of commemoration were to work, it required one thing: that the viewer be able to distinguish the heads of deceased humans from those of mythological characters at a glance. The solution developed by Roman carvers was to separate these figures through the tooling of their hairdos: while the hair of mythic figures was extensively drilled, that of the deceased was rendered solely with the chisel. This article examines how Roman sculptors thus invested sculptural technique itself with semantic meaning, as a contrast in tools and toolmarks was pressed into service as a language for artiiculating the ontological status – and with it, the representational function – of the various figures arrayed on the coffin.
A Roman sarcophagus and its patron. BY J. Sorabella
thoughts and emotions of private individuals. The marble sarcophagi that came into widespread use in the second century A.D. are among the most artistically impressive sepulchral monuments, for their large surfaces are often elaborately carved with scenes from Greek mythology. Scholars have searched the episodes portrayed for allegorical meanings and signs acknowledging a life after death. This line of inquiry has illuminated various systems of belief but rarely addressed the persons who made, commissioned, and selected sarcophagi. Since the death of a loved one and the task of consigning him or her from experience into memory are personal responsibilities only partly circumscribed by custom, every Roman sarcophagus represents an individual confrontation with tradition and conventional practice. With this in mind, it seems wise to heed Hellmut Sichtermann's warning not to seek universal or official meanings for Roman sepulchral imagery.' Close analysis of specific examples can reveal personal concerns that might have influenced ancient choices. When something is known about the actual buyer, occupant, or context of a sarcophagus, it is possible to consider what particular myths might have meant to an otherwise undocumented personage in antiquity.2 Scholars have used funerary inscriptions in several useful studies of Roman society, but often the focus on epigraphy excludes analysis of the images that accompany the texts.3 As Guntram Koch points out, inscribed sarcophagi have much to impart about private patronage, social structures, and personal relationships among the Romans.4 A Roman sarcophagus of the early third century in The Metropolitan Museum of Art is particularly promising for a study of this kind, for it bears an inscription identifying both the deceased and the patron (Figures 1, 2).5 On the lid is a portrait of the deceased with a coiffure made fashionable by the empress Julia ? The Metropolitan Museum of Art 2001 METROPOLITAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 36 The notes for this article begin on page 79. Domna, beside which these lines appear: ANINIA x. The inscription is conventional, yet it distinguishes the sarcophagus-one of very few known to have been dedicated by a daughter of the deceased-as a case of unusual patronage and a rare document of such a familial relationship.7 Commemorative inscriptions appear infrequently on Roman sarcophagi with mythological decoration, where the panels prepared for them are often left blank. On other types of grave monuments where inscriptions are more abundant, grieving parents, husbands, and wives are the usual dedicants.8 In standard fashion, the inscription here gives the names of the dedicant and of the deceased, as well as the latter's age at death. The word MARI is generally read as a dative for mother, matri, in the same case as the name of the deceased.9 The spelling of the word is irregular and represents a scribal error not without parallel in Latin epigraphy.'o Modifying MARI is the word INCON-PARABILE, one of several flattering adjectives routinely applied to the dead in Latin epitaphs; some others are dulcissimo (sweetest), carissimo (dearest), and piissimo (most faithful). Again, the orthography deviates from the standard with the substitution of Nfor M, but the variant is common and seems to reflect contemporary pronunciation." The form resembles the accusative, but there are examples in epigraphy of datives that end in E, and the conventional application of the adjective to the deceased suggests that third-century Roman readers would not have understood the monument itself as the incomparable object of the verb fecit. 2
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
Gesture – Stance – Movement: Communicating Bodies in the Aegean Bronze Age, 2024
The idea that the iconography of the limestone sarcophagus from Agia Triada depicts the funerary rites of its occupant has long retained favour. One figure has traditionally been interpreted as representing the deceasedthe male recipient in the 'presentation' scene. Considering the broader archaeological and iconographic context of the sarcophagus at Agia Triada, contemporaneous trends in larnax decoration taking inspiration from elite art and architecture, and the attributes and bodily expression of key figures within the pictorial scenes, the sarcophagus's production for a high-status womanperhaps one of the ritual officiants illustrated on the long sidesseems more probable. Rather than serving as a visual source for interpreting Cretan funerary rites, the sarcophagus might be better understood as a biographical statement about the status and social role of its occupant within Agia Triada's elite community.