Overview

Imagery and iconography served specific functions in public, private, and ritual spheres in the Roman world. State-sanctioned imagery communicated politically charged ideas through an often-complex pictorial language, composed of emblems and attributes that signaled aspects of policy. In the private sphere, imagery communicated ethnic, social, and religious identities through specific signs, symbols, and forms, and through the emulation of state-sanctioned art. This volume focuses primarily on visual imagery in the Roman world, examined by context and period, and the evolving scholarly traditions of iconographic analysis and visual semiotics that have framed the modern study of these images. Among other subjects, essays touch on iconography and style in republican and early imperial art, public sculpture and social practice in the Roman Empire, coin iconography, funerary imagery, imagery in ritual use, and images and interpretation of Africans in Roman art. The Oxford Handbook of Roman Imagery and Iconography is an important reference work for both the communicative value of images in the Roman world and the tradition of iconographical analysis.

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9780190850326

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The discussion of Roman imagery and iconography on such a broad level, the interdisciplinary attempt to place Roman imagery and iconography into its larger social context and the wide variety of media taken into consideration, including the minor arts, makes this a handbook that any scholar and student of Roman art should have on their shelves. Its extensive coverage of Roman imagery across chronological, geographic and social contexts makes it an essential resource for any scholar of antiquity. * Journal of Roman Studies *

The discussion of Roman imagery and iconography on such a broad level, the interdisciplinary attempt to place Roman imagery and iconography into its larger social context and the wide variety of media taken into consideration, including the minor arts, makes this a handbook that any scholar and student of Roman art should have on their shelves. Its extensive coverage of Roman imagery across chronological, geographic and social contexts makes it an essential resource for any scholar of antiquity. * Journal of Roman Studies * We may congratulate the editors and the authors—both junior and senior researchers—with this fine book and hope that it will get its appreciation in the coming decades. * Eric M. Moormann, Bryn Mawr Classical Review * Fine book * Eric M. Moormann, Bryn Mawr Classical Review *

Author Information

Lea K. Cline is Associate Professor of Art History at Illinois State University. Nathan T. Elkins is Visiting Research Scholar at the American Numismatic Society and Editor (ancient world) of the American Journal of Numismatics

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