BiblioVault - Books about Roman Art

I Claudia II

Women in Roman Art and Society

Edited by Diana E. E. Kleiner and Susan B. Matheson

University of Texas Press, 2000

I, Claudia: Women in Ancient Rome—an exhibition and catalog produced by the Yale University Art Gallery—provided the first comprehensive study of the lives of Roman women as revealed in Roman art. Responding to the popular success of the exhibit and catalog, Diana E. E. Kleiner and Susan B. Matheson here gather ten additional essays by specialists in art history, history, and papyrology to offer further reflections on women in Roman society based on the material evidence provided by art, archaeology, and ancient literary sources.

In addition to the editors, the contributors are Cornelius C. Vermeule, Rolf Winkes, Mary T. Boatwright, Susan Wood, Eve D'Ambra, Andrew Oliver, Diana Delia, and Ann Ellis Hanson. Their essays, illustrated with black-and-white photos of the art under discussion, treat such themes as mothers and sons, marriage and widowhood, aging, adornment, imperial portraiture, and patronage.

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Roman Art

Susan Walker

Harvard University Press, 1991

The grand monuments scattered across Europe, the Near East and northern Africa are impressive reminders of the art of the Roman Empire, but they only tell part of the story. The artistic legacy of the Romans also survives in many other forms, and in this book Susan Walker focuses on four main themes--the heritage of Greece, portraiture, public art, and furnishing and decorating homes. From the early Republic through to the later Empire the taste for Greek culture was an important influence on the Romans, but one which they adapted to create an art uniquely theirs. Drawing on the magnificent collections of the British Museum, Dr Walker discusses a wide range of Roman antiquities, from monumental sculpture for public places, portraits of emperors and private citizens, to mosaics, wall-paintings and tableware for enjoyment in more intimate surroundings.

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Roman Art in the Private Sphere

New Perspectives on the Architecture and Decor of the Domus, Villa, and Insula

Elaine K. Gazda, Editor

University of Michigan Press, 2010

"This is a stimulating book and should be compulsory reading for all students of Roman art."
---Classical Review

"[A] model exploration into the ways private décor can be used to facilitate a larger understanding of Roman art and society."
---Classical World

Roman Art in the Private Sphere presents an impressive case for the social and art historical importance of the paintings, mosaics, and sculptures that filled the private houses of the Roman elite. The six essays in this volume range from the first century BCE to the fourth century CE, and from the Italian peninsula to the Eastern Empire and North African provinces, treating works of art that belonged to every major Roman housing type: the single-family atrium houses and the insula apartment blocks in Italian cities, the dramatically sited villas of the Campanian coast and countryside, and the palatial mansions of late antique provincial aristocrats. This new edition includes a fresh contribution by editor Elaine Gazda, tracing the developments in the treatment of private Roman art since the publication of the original edition of Roman Art in the Private Sphere.

Elaine K. Gazda is Professor of the History of Art and Curator of Hellenistic and Roman Antiquities at the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, University of Michigan.

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Roman Art in the Private Sphere

New Perspectives on the Architecture and Decor of the Domus, Villa, and Insula

Elaine K. Gazda, Editor

University of Michigan Press, 1991

"This is a stimulating book and should be compulsory reading for all students of Roman art."

---Classical Review

"For all the authors, attention to the ensemble, a sense of the relation between the formal and the iconographic, and the desire to historicize their material contribute to making this anthology unusual in its rigorous and creative attention to the way that art and architecture participate in the construction of the image of the Roman elite."

---Art Bulletin

Roman Art in the Private Sphere presents an impressive case for the social and art historical importance of the paintings, mosaics, and sculptures that filled the private houses of the Roman elite. The six essays in this volume range from the first century B.C.E. to the fourth century C.E., and from the Italian peninsula to the Eastern Empire and North African provinces.

The essays treat works of art that belonged to every major Roman housing type: the single-family atrium houses and the insula apartment blocks in Italian cities, the dramatically sited villas of the Campanian coast and countryside, and the palatial mansions of late antique provincial aristocrats.

In a complementary fashion the essays consider domestic art in relation to questions of decorum, status, wealth, social privilege, and obligation. Patrons emerge as actively interested in the character of their surroundings; artists appear as responsive to the desire of their patrons. The evidence in private art of homosexual conduct in high society is also set forth.

Originality of subject matter, sophisticated appreciation of stylistic and compositional nuance, and philosophical perceptions of the relationship of humanity and nature are among the themes that the essays explore. Together they demonstrate that Roman domestic art must be viewed on its own terms.

Elaine K. Gazda is Professor of the History of Art and Curator of Hellenistic and Roman Antiquities at the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, University of Michigan.

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Studies in East Christian and Roman Art

Walter Dennison and Charles R. Morey

University of Michigan Press, 1918

Studies in East Christian and Roman Art offers a detailed study of important elements of East Christian and Roman art. In particular, there are studies of two miniatures from a manuscript of St. John of Climacus and eight from a manuscript of the Gospels, as well as the painted covers of the Washington Manuscript of the Gospels, and extensive illustrations.

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