Details of further reading suggestions as well as a relevant bibliography for the course will be provided at the start of term
Essential bibliography includes:
Bartman, E. (1999) Portraits of Livia. Imaging the imperial woman in Augustan Rome. CUP.
Borg, Barbara (ed.) (2015) A Companion to Roman Art. Wiley-Blackwell
Fejfer, J. (2008) Roman Portraits in Context. De Gruyter.
Flower, H. (1996) Ancestor Masks and Aristocratic Power in Roman Culture. Clarendon Press.
Flower, H.I. (2006) The Art of Forgetting: Disgrace and Oblivion in Roman Political Culture. University of North Carolina Press.
Friedland, E.A., Sobocinski, M.G. and Gazda, E.K. (eds) (2015) Oxford Handbook of Roman Sculpture.
Galinsky, K. (1996) Augustan Culture. PUP.
Hallett, C. (2005) The Roman Nude. OUP.
James, S.L. and S. Dillon (2012) (eds), A Companion to Women in the Ancient World. Wiley-Balckwell.
Kleiner, D.E.E. (1992) Roman Sculpture. YUP.
Rose, C.B. (1997a) Dynastic Commemoration and Imperial Portraiture in the Julio-Claudian Period. CUP.
Varner, E. (2000) (ed.) From Caligula to Constantine: Tyranny and Transformation in Roman Portraiture. Michael C. Carlos Museum.
Stewart, P. (2003) Statues in Roman Society. Representation and Response. OUP.
Wood, S. (1999) Imperial Women. A Study in Public Images, 40 B.C. - A.D. 68. Brill.
COURSE SCHEDULE
Introduction
1. Introduction to the course and to portrait studies
Course requirements and logistics. Reading portraits in context
2. Form, materials and expectation
Honorific and commemorative aspects of portraits; expectations and audience response; choices of materials and techniques
3. The honorific statue habit in the ancient world
Tradition of statue awards; recipients of honorific statues; bases and inscriptions; access to statue awards in Rome/Italian towns; patronage/statue gift exchange and competition
4. Persuasive images and the agency of viewing – framing
Portrait statues as persuasive agents not descriptive records; the role of the viewer – frames of viewing
5. Republican honorific portraits
Second- and first-century BC works; origins of the style; message in the style: individuality, political identity, internationalism
6. Hellenistic/Republican statue bodies
Second- and first-century BC, and first-century AD works
Himation, toga, nude; juxtaposition of face and body; statue body as costume. Code-switching.
7. Augustus and the creative of an imperial portrait
Formation of an imperial style; the male portrait; individuality, idealization, and typologies
8. Creation of an imperial female honorific portraits
Themes/works First century BC-first century AD; creating public images for women; individuality, idealization, and typologies
9. Male statue types – replication and social performativity
Early empire. Characteristics of togate, cuirassed, and nude statue choices. Visual impact: replication and variation, access and exclusivity
10. Elite female statue types – female not-portrait portraits
Appropriate statue bodies for women in public. Fundilia-Eumachia type, Large/Small Herculaneum types. Code-switching
11. Experimentation and tradition: political statement of portrait
Portrait approaches between Nero and Trajan. Political identities and visual experimentation
12. Commissions, gift-exchange and ‘period-faces’
Portraits as gift exchange (loyalty and euergetism); methods of commissioning works; approved models and assimilated looks
13. Review
14. Mid-term exam
15. Second-century AD development and experimentation
Second century AD; the styled image: beards and paideia; relationship between empress and elite
16. Contexts of viewing and display
Alteration and variation of toga; display settings and viewing engagement; multiples and variety in dedicatory choices
17. Female adornment and hair: presence and social agency
Female hairstyles: status, association, visual individualization
18. Elite female statue types – presence and social agency
Second and third century AD public imaging of women; gendered roles and statue types; Large/Small Herculaneum types, Ceres types
19. Bust portraits and abbreviated formats
Themes/works Abbreviated statuary formats; the freestanding bust; display, development, iconography
20. The late imperial image
Third and fourth century AD; Micro-references and close-up; public role and recognizability
21. Damnatio memoriae – the absent image
Memory and memory sanctions: cultural memory, expectation and rhetoric; absence as representation
22. The reworked image – agency
New and former identities: redefinition as sympathetic magic, emulation, transfer, or practicality?
23. The late antique portrait
Portrait approaches and social articulation
24. Statue practice in late antiquity
Late antique statue dedications; choices and forms of statue bodies; reuse of statues
25. Reflexive relationships
The agency of portrait statues; the role of the viewer in a social space
26. Reception and activated replication
Case studies in reception: relationship between artist and viewer; examples of history of study of ancient art.
27. Review
Themes/works Overview and discussion of course content
28. Review
Themes/works Overview and discussion of course content
Final exam
Date, time and place to be announced