Roman Art/Art Under Roman Occupation

Catalog description

The history of the people who lived in Rome and under Roman occupation spans over 1500 years, from ca. 750 BCE to 750 CE. It covers creative communities documented in archaeological and textual remains spread across three continents (Europe, Africa and Asia), crisscrossing lands and riding the currents of multiple rivers, seas and the eastern Atlantic Ocean. The Colosseum, the Pantheon, the marble and gilt bronze statuary of empire and much more testify to an extraordinary period and geography of visual, material and spatial creativity. In part for these reasons, the study of “Roman art” has itself held a central place in the humanities generally and in the discipline of Art History specifically. Yet the field is fraught; Roman art is tainted with imperialism and colonialism, and its promulgation in European and American curricula has fostered supremacist tendencies as much as it has underpinned aesthetics and philosophy. So, we must ask, what does it mean for something to be Roman, and what does a canon of Roman art look like? How can we reach beyond the politics of empire-building to see what people in these places and moments experienced as they created and activated the materials of daily life in such a world? This is a survey, but it is not an ordinary survey of Roman art. We will take 20 specific object—from small silver cups to colossal marble temples—and pull them apart to uncover the people they touched, the ways their presences ramified and what they may reveal about being Roman…and not being Roman.