Beyond Boundaries: Connecting Visual Cultures in the Provinces of Ancient Rome

by Susan E. Alcock (Editor), Mariana Egri (Editor), James F.D. Frakes (Editor)

Overview

The Roman Empire had a rich and multifaceted visual culture, which was often variegated due to the sprawling geography of its provinces. In this remarkable work of scholarship, a group of international scholars has come together to find alternative ways to discuss the nature and development of the art and archaeology of the Roman provinces. The result is a collection of nineteen compelling essays — accompanied by carefully curated visual documentation, seven detailed maps, and an extensive bibliography— organized around the four major themes of provincial contexts, tradition and innovation, networks and movements, and local accents in an imperial context. Easy assumptions about provincial dependence on metropolitian models give way to more complicated stories. Similarities and divergences in local and regional responses to Rome appear, but not always in predictable places and in far from predictable patterns.
 
The authors dismiss entrenched barriers between art and archaeology, center and provinces, even “good art” and “bad art,” extending their observations well beyond the empire’s boundaries, and examining phenomena, sites, and monuments not often found in books about Roman art history or archaeology. The book thus functions to encourage continued critical engagement with how scholars study the material past of the Roman Empire and, indeed, of imperial systems in general.
 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781606064719
Publisher:	Getty Publications
Publication date:	05/01/2016
Edition description:	1
Pages:	408
Product dimensions:	7.30(w) x 10.30(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Susan E. Alcock is professor of classical archaeology and classics, as well as special counsel for institutional outreach and engagement, Office of the President, at the University of Michigan. Mariana Egri is associate professor of archaeology at the Babeş-Bolyai University of Cluj-Napoca, Romania. James F. D. Frakes is associate professor of art history at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte.
 

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments viii

Maps of the Roman World ix

The Roman Empire

Northern Provinces and Scandinavia

Western Provinces

Eastern Provinces

The Cyclades

Egypt and the Red Sea

Kushan Gandhara

Introduction Susan E. Alcock Mariana Egri James F. D. Frakes 1

Part 1 Approaches to Provincial Contexts

1 What Is a Province? Alicia Jiménez 16

2 A Synoecism of Cultures incRoman Greece Maria Papaioannou 31

3 Networks: Exile and Tourism in the Roman Cyclades Rebecca Sweetman 46

4 A Portrait of the Artist as a Mosaicist under the Roman Empire Will Wootton 62

5 Material Matters: Object, Authorship, and Audience in the Arts of Rome's Empire Steven Hijmans 84

Part 2 Tradition, Innovation, Manipulation

6 Developing a "Sculptural Habit": The Creation of a Sculptural Tradition in the Roman Central Balkans Dragana Mladenovic 104

7 In Search of Identities: A Preliminary Report on the Visual and Textual Context of the Funerary Monuments of Roman Macedonia A. D. Rizakis I. Touratsoglou 120

8 Coins before Conquest in Celtic France: An Art Lost to Empire Kimberly Cassibry 137

9 Mallokouria: Portraits of Local Elite Boys in Roman Egypt Marianne Bergmann 156

10 The Architecture of Changing Sacrificial Practices in Pre-Roman and Roman Gaul Claudia Moser 174

Part 3 Networks, Movements, Meanings

11 Celtic Design, Roman Subject: A Portrait of Marcus Aurelius from Rural Britain Susan Walker 192

12 Footsteps in Stone: Variability within a Global Culture Louise Revell 206

13 Objective Alterity: Import Consumption in the Ports of Roman Egypt Jennifer Gates-Foster 222

14 Roman Medallions in Scandinavia: Shifting Contexts of Space, Time, and Meaning Nancy L. Wicker 232

15 The British Museum Hariti: Toward Understanding Transculturalism in Gandhara Naman P. Ahuja 247

Part 4 Local Accents in the Imperial Context

16 Gods, Masks, and Monstra: Situational Syncretisms in Roman Africa Matthew M. McCarty 266

17 Constructed Landscapes: Designing Urban Centers in Roman Africa Thomas Morton 281

18 Heritage and Homogeneity in the Coinage of Early Roman Antioch Carlos F. Noreña 294

19 Looking at the Classical Past: Tradition, Identity, and Copies of Nobilia Opera in Roman Greece Valentina Di Napoli 307

Bibliography 327

About the Authors 371

Illustration Credits 375

Index 377

Editorial Reviews

In addition to the quality of most of the contributions, the value of this collection lies in the fact that different ideas on the same sets of problems are included in a single volume (unfortunately a rare occurrence), which makes the reading of the whole a very stimulating exercise.”—Bryn Mawr Classical Review


“Beautiful and carefully edited.”—Art Newspaper

From the Publisher

The contributions to this volume . . . offer nuanced interpretations of provincial visual cultures. . . . This volume is recommended especially for institutional libraries supporting art historians and classicists.”
 

Religious Studies Review