The Freedman in Roman Art and History

Erscheinungsjahr 2011
ISBN: 978-1-107-60359-2
Verlag: Cambridge University Press

Buch, Englisch, 312 Seiten, Format (B × H): 178 mm x 254 mm, Gewicht: 608 g

From monumental tombs and domestic decoration, to acts of benefaction and portraits of ancestors, Roman freed slaves, or freedmen, were prodigious patrons of art and architecture. Traditionally, however, the history of Roman art has been told primarily through the monumental remains of the emperors and ancient writers who worked in their circles. In this study, Lauren Petersen critically investigates the notion of 'freedman art' in scholarship, dependent as it is on elite-authored texts that are filled with hyperbole and stereotypes of freedmen, such as the memorable fictional character Trimalchio, a boorish ex-slave in Petronius' Satyricon. She emphasizes integrated visual ensembles within defined historical and social contexts and aims to show how material culture can reflect preoccupations that were prevalent throughout Roman society. Interdisciplinary in scope, this book explores the many ways that monuments and artistic commissions by freedmen spoke to a much more complex reality than that presented in literature.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Petersen, Lauren

Petersen, Lauren Hackworth

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Kunst Kunstgeschichte Kunstgeschichte: Klassisch (Griechisch & Römisch)
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Alte Geschichte & Archäologie Geschichte der klassischen Antike Römische Geschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Kunst Künstlerische Stoffe, Motive, Themen Künstlerische Stoffe, Motive, Themen: Menschen, Häusliches Umfeld

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction: the Roman freedman, 'freedman art', and Trimalchio; Public life and assimilation; 1. Rebuilding Pompeii: the Popidius family and the Temple of Isis; 2. The visibility of the Augustales in Pompeii; 3. Memory-making in the funerary realm: the tomb of the baker in Rome; Social integration: domus and family; 4. 'Freedman taste' in domus decoration; 5. To claim a domus: the house of the Caecilii at Pompeii; 6. Family and community at the Isola Sacra Necropolis: the Tomb of the Varii.

Über Autor(innen)

Petersen, Lauren Hackworth
Lauren Hackworth Petersen is Associate Professor of Art History at the University of Delaware. A scholar of Roman art and architecture, she has published in Arethusa and The Art Bulletin, among other journals, and has received grants from the American Academy in Rome, the National Endowment of the Humanities, the Getty Foundation and the American Council of Learned Societies.

Lauren Hackworth Petersen is Assistant Professor of Art History at the University of Delaware. A scholar of Roman art and architecture, she has published in Arethusa and The Art Bulletin, has received fellowships from the American Academy in Rome, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Getty Foundation.