The Roman Nude: Heroic Portrait Statuary 200 B.C. - A.D. 300 (Oxford Studies in Ancient Culture and Representation) (Oxford Studies in Ancient Culture & Representation) - Softcover

Hallett, Christopher H.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 019959970X ISBN 13: 9780199599707

Publisher: Oxford University Press, U.S.A., 2011

Synopsis

Statues of important Romans frequently represented them nude. Men were portrayed naked holding weapons. The naked emperor might wield the thunderbolt of Jupiter, while Roman women assumed the guide of the nude love-goddess, Venus. When faced with these strange images, modern viewers are usually unsympathetic, finding them incongruous, even tasteless. They are mostly written off as just another example of Roman `bad taste'. This book offers a new approach. Comprehensively illustrated with black and white photographs of its subjects, it investigates how this tradition arose, and how the nudity of these portraits was meant to be understood by contemporary viewers. And, since the Romans also employed a range of costumes for their statues (toga, armour, Greek philosopher's cloak), it asks, `What could the nude images express that other costumes could not? ' It is Christopher Hallett's claim that - looked at in this way - these `Roman nudes' turn out to be documents of the first importance for the cultural historian.

About this title

Review:

Both the collection of evidence and much of the iconographic analysis represent an important contribution which will be of lasting value. (Margaret H. Williams, Journal of Roman Studies)

[A] thorough and well-researched study (Elizabeth Bartman, Classical World)

[a] solid work(s) of scholarship...remind(s) us of the hard and physical aspect of ancient culture, too often centred on warlike competitiveness. (Antiquity 80)

The Roman Nude admirably and energetically contextualizes its enigmatic subject. (Emma Dench, Art History)

About the Author:

Christopher H. Hallett is Professor of History of Art and Classics, University of California at Berkeley.

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press, U.S.A.
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 019959970X
• ISBN 13: 9780199599707
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 418