Imperial Rome and Christian Triumph: The Art of the Roman Empire AD 100-450

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Oxford University Press, 1998 - Art - 297 pages
Western culture saw some of the most significant and innovative developments take place during the passage from antiquity to the middle ages. This stimulating new book investigates the role of the visual arts as both reflections and agents of those changes. It tackles two inter-related periodsof internal transformation within the Roman Empire: the phenomenon known as the 'Second Sophistic' (c. ad 100300)two centuries of self-conscious and enthusiastic hellenism, and the era of late antiquity (c. ad 250450) when the empire underwent a religious conversion to Christianity. Vases, murals, statues, and masonry are explored in relation to such issues as power, death, society, acculturation, and religion. By examining questions of reception, viewing, and the culture of spectacle alongside the more traditional art-historical themes of imperial patronage and stylisticchange, Jas Elsner presents a fresh and challenging account of an extraordinarily rich cultural crucible in which many fundamental developments of later European art had their origins. 'a highly individual work . . . wonderful visual and comparative analysis . . . I can think of no other general book on Roman art that deals so elegantly and informatively with the theme of visuality and visual desire.' Professor Natalie Boymel Kampen, Barnard College, New York 'exciting and original . . . a vibrant impression of creative energy and innovation held in constant tension by the persistence of more traditional motifs and techniques. Elsner constantly surprises and intrigues the reader by approaching familiar material in new ways.' Professor Averil Cameron,Keble College, Oxford

From inside the book

Contents

Introduction I
1
A Visual Culture
27
Art and Imperial Power
53
Art and Social Life
91
Art and Death
145
IMAGES AND TRANSFORMATION
167
Art and Religion
199
Cost Value and the Discourse of Art
239
Afterword Some Futures of Christian Art
251
Notes
260
Bibliographic Essay
278
Copyright

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About the author (1998)

Jaś Elsner is Lecturer in the History of Art at the Courtauld Institute, London.

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