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| Titre : | Art in the Lives of Ordinary Romans: Visual Representation and Non-Elite Viewers in Italy, 100 B.C.-A.D. 315 |
| Auteurs : | John Clarke |
| Type de document : | document électronique |
| Editeur : | [S.l.] : University of California Press, 2006 |
| ISBN/ISSN/EAN : | 978-2-907052-29-0 |
| Résumé : |
This splendidly illustrated book brings to life the ancient Romans whom modern scholarship has largely ignored: slaves, ex-slaves, foreigners, and the freeborn working poor. Though they had no access to the upper echelons of society, ordinary Romans enlivened their world with all manner of artworks. Discussing a wide range of art in the late republic and early empireÔÇöfrom familiar monuments to the obscure Caupona of Salvius and little-studied tomb reliefsÔÇöJohn R. Clarke provides a tantalizing glimpse into the lives of ordinary Roman people. Writing for a wide audience, he illuminates the dynamics of a discerning and sophisticated population, overturning much accepted wisdom about them, and opening our eyes to their astounding cultural diversity. Clarke begins by asking: How did emperors use monumental displays to communicate their policies to ordinary people? His innovative readings demonstrate how the Ara Pacis, the columns of Trajan and of Marcus Aurelius, and the Arch of Constantine announced each dynasty's program for handling the lower classes. Clarke then considers art commissioned by the non-elites themselvesÔÇöthe paintings, mosaics, and reliefs that decorated their homes, shops, taverns, and tombstones. In a series of paintings from taverns and houses, for instance, he uncovers wickedly funny combinations of text and image used by ordinary Romans to poke fun at elite pretensions in art, philosophy, and poetry. In addition to providing perceptive readings of many works of Roman art, this original and entertaining book demonstrates why historians must recognize, rather than erase, complexity and contradiction and asks new questions about class, culture, and social regulation that are highly relevant in today's global culture. ### From Publishers Weekly How did ordinary people living in Roman Italy understand and use visual art? That's the question that Clarke aims to answer in this dense but fascinating work of art history. A Regents professor at the University of Texas, Austin, Clarke has already written several books on ancient Rome (The Houses of Roman Italy; Roman Black-and-White Figural Mosaics; etc.), and the depth and breath of his knowledge shine in this latest work. Ninety-eight percent of Roman society was composed of slaves, ex-slaves, foreigners and freeborn workers, and in the book's first section, Clarke considers how imperial Romans portrayed these non-elites in their artwork. But the most interesting sections come later, in parts two and three, where the author analyzes the works that ordinary Romans made in public spaces (like taverns) and in their own homes. The book is packed with information about Roman customs, social structures and history. But for all its scholarship, Clarke's prose is impressively readable, mostly because the author deliberately eschews jargon and makes clear, reasonable connections between Roman habits and our own. Discussing the non-elite use of portraiture, for example, Clarke writes that "many of us have a place in our home....where we exhibit photographs of family; it's a way to tell guests, through pictures, something about ourselves." This is a fine and absorbing work; despite its high price, it deserves a wide audience of readers. Copyright ┬® Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. ### Review "Fresh, improvised, and anything but standard...Clarke's [book] will constitute the best and maybe the only way of looking at much of Roman art. [This] thoughtful and humane book is a welcome reminder of how much more there is to art history than social status and political power. Lavishly and beautifully illustrated with original photography." - Greg Woolf, Times Literary Supplement (tls) "An enriched and more varied view of the complexity of Roman artistic production...Recommended." - R. Brilliant, Choice: Current Reviews For Academic Libraries "Art in the Lives of Ordinary Romans is superbly out of the ordinary. John Clarke's significant and intriguing book takes stock of a half-century of lively discourse on the art and culture of Rome's non-elite patrons and viewers." - Diana E. E. Kleiner, author of Roman Sculpture" |
