Query: Roman imperial portraits

title: The Marble of Roman Imperial Portraits

title: Fluidity and Fluctuation: the Shifting Dynamics of Condemnation in Roman Imperial Portraits

title: A group of Roman imperial portraits at Corinth

title: A Group of Roman Imperial Portraits at Corinth. II. Tiberius

title: A Group of Roman Imperial Portraits at Corinth. III. Gaius and Lucius Caesar

title: A Group of Roman Imperial Portraits at Corinth. IV. The Four Torsos

title: Britt Haarlov: New Identifications of Third Century Roman Imperial Portraits (Odense University Classical Studies, 7. Pp. 26; 50 half tone plates. Odense: University Press, 1975. Paper, Dan. kr. 50.

title: The Influence of the Eastern Roman Civilization on the Imperial Portraits in Egypt and the Neighboring Countries from the First to the Fourth Century AD
abstract: Roman Sculpture with artists from across a huge empire and changing public tastes over centuries, is above all else, remarkable for its sheer variety and eclectic mix. The art form blended the idealized perfection of earlier Classical Greek sculpture with a greater aspiration for realism and absorbed artistic preferences and styles from the East to create images in stone and bronze which rank among the finest works from antiquity. Aside from their own unique contribution, Roman sculptors have also, with their popular copies of earlier Greek masterpieces, preserved for posterity invaluable works which would have otherwise been completely lost to world art. The aim of this paper is to discuss a distinguished type of Roman sculpture which is the portrait and the differences between the schools, periods, functions and characteristics in the eastern Roman Empire. Although the political circumstances around the empire was almost the same yet Egypt had always succeeded to keep its own style and special artistic features. Egyptian artists were always affected by their predecessors and tried to keep their culture and characteristics throughput the ages. The paper will try to move smoothly through these periods focusing on Roman Egypt and the art of portraits till the early period of Christianity.

title: Elite and mass appeal of Roman imperial female portraiture: the case of Vibia Sabina
abstract: Sabina's portraiture has been characterized by her mature type that evokes the ideal adornment of Hellenic goddesses. Yet her earlier heads show experimentation with coiffures also depicted on private portraits. One portrait head, in particular, represents Sabina with a hybrid coiffure, combining elements of a period style with those connoting Venus. The process of development of portrait types, and their relationship to private portraits may be delineated through a study of such lesser known works.

title: SERIOUS FUN IN A POTTED HISTORY AT THE SATURNALIA? SOME IMPERIAL PORTRAITS IN JULIAN THE APOSTATE'S CAESARS, A MEDALLION IMAGE OF JULIAN AND THE 'GALLIENAE AUGUSTAE' AUREI
abstract: Within a fantastical narrative setting, Julian's Caesars offers a 'potted history' of Rome's rulers from Julius Caesar to Constantine; in its story, five 'Caesars' and Alexander the Great enter a contest to determine which of them had been the greatest. Julian's prologue to the story represents it ambiguously as both a satirical contribution to the fun at a Saturnalia, and a 'myth' offering profitable instruction on serious matters. The assessment of Julian's underlying mood and purposes in composing Caesars is accordingly problematic: questions arise about the balance of humour and earnestness in his narrative voice, the extent to which his fiction's 'instructiveness' was implicitly a lesson in historical 'facts' the extent and idiosyncrasies of his own knowledge of Roman history, and the level of literary and historical awareness he anticipated in his target audience. This paper addresses these questions with reference to Julian's depictions of some particular emperors and of Alexander in Caesars, and to potentially relevant visual images on a medallion dated to Julian's reign and in an earlier coin series. Its argument falls into five sections: (I) introductory discussion of the 'Saturnalian' cultural context of Caesars and the circumstances of its composition, and of modern 'psychologising' readings of its author's purposes and state of mind; (II) assessment of the hypothesis that Marcus Aurelius and Alexander serve in Caesars as exemplary 'models' for emulation in its author's eyes; (III) assessment of a visual image of Julian that some adduce as evidence of 'Alexanderimitation' by him at the time of Caesars' composition; (IV) critique of a hypothesis that postulates suppressed anger and prurience at the heart of Caesars' ostensibly humorous 'potted history' (V) a speculative closing discussion relating Caesars' depiction of a particular emperor (Gallienus) to his portrait head in a much discussed coin image, and to an episode in his reign as reported in a lost account by a third century historian (Dexippus) The discussion reverts in closing to two central matters: Caesars' problematic standing as a guide to the extent of Julian's historical knowledge, and the balance of humour, fact and fiction in the piece. I thank the two anonymous assessors of this paper and the co editors of Histos for helpful comments and refinements; I am grateful to Raffaella Smith for assistance with the reproduction and formatting of items of visual evidence within the text, and to John Marincola for astute copy editing of it.