Using Images in Late Antiquity

BMCR 2015.01.
35 on the BMCR blog
Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2015.01.35
Stine Birk, Troels Myrup Kristensen,

Birte Poulsen (ed.), Using Images in
Late Antiquity. Oxford; Philadelphia:
Oxbow Books, 2014. Pp. viii, 312; 16
p. of plates. ISBN 9781782972617.
$65.00 (pb).
Reviewed by Benjamin Anderson, Cornell University
([email protected])
Preview
The title of this collection, simply phrased and encompassing a broad
range of potential inquiries, conceals a sophisticated and focused
contribution to the literature on late antique art. The volume comprises
fourteen essays, of which two are printed in Italian and the remainder
in English, all derived from papers delivered at the Danish Institute in
Rome in 2010. The paperback is well produced: the binding of my
copy has withstood cavalier treatment, and the grey-scale figures,
published within the essays, and color plates, set at the end, are
consistently legible. I noted no typos.
The first essay, by Paolo Liverani, heralds the volumes happy
disregard for traditional divisions between sacred and secular through
an examination of the inscriptions that accompanied images on civic
monuments and in church interiors of the fourth through the sixth
centuries. Modes of address and their relationship to figural imagery
are classified according to a typology developed by Giovanni Pozzi.
In late antiquity, modes of address that had previously been reserved
for private and commemorative monuments appeared on public
monuments. The inscription of the Arch of Constantine, an impersonal
address to an impersonal viewer, reproduced the traditional approach
of civic monuments. By contrast, the mosaic and the inscription of the
triumphal arch of the Constantinian basilica of St. Peter encouraged
viewers to address Christ in a paraliturgical manner (26), and thus to
constitute themselves as a Christian community.
The three essays that follow engage portraiture in diverse fashions.

Stine Birk tackles the use of portrait heads on idealized figures on
Roman sarcophagi, advancing the hypothesis that iconography on
sarcophagi expresses the gender of the deceased and the portrait the
sex (41). Eric R. Varner considers Constantines appropriation of
Maxentiuss monumental interventions in the city of Rome, including
extended treatment of the colossus. Instead of suppressing his
erstwhile rivals patronage, Constantine adopted its historicized
rhetoric (70) to his own ends. Sarah E. Bassett turns to honorific
statuary from Constantinople, with particular attention to the use of
reflective materials (silver, polished alabaster, colored glass, and
jewels) to project an image of imperial sanctity, radiance, and
luminosity (91).
The next two essays address the production and reception of sculpture.
Lea Stirling asks whether the reputations of famous artists and
concepts of historical styles informed late antique evaluation of
specific statues. Despite frequent literary invocations of the brilliance
of particular artists (111), collectors were probably more interested in
the iconography and provenance of the statues that they acquired.
Trinidad Nogales Basarrate presents an account of local sculptural
production in Augusta Emerita (modern Mrida) between the third and
the sixth centuries.
The image of the city forms the common thread connecting the next
four essays. Ine Jacobs analyzes the fate of urban temples in the
Theodosian period. Although some temples were violently destroyed
or left to decay, these were (literally) unattractive options that
produced urban eyesores. Far more common was the re-purposing of
temples, either to religious or to secular functions, and their systematic
dismantling for building materials. Both options produced manifold
benefits: the eventual outcome ... surpasses the interests of subgroups
in society (144), serving a widely shared interest in the maintenance
of the civic landscape.
Simon Malmberg draws attention to proximate clusters of imperial
palaces, city gates, and extra-mural martyr basilicas in
Constantinople, Rome, and Ravenna, which bound together the city
and its immediate hinterland (184). Hendrik Dey argues for the
topographical accuracy (203) of urban vignettes on the floor
mosaics of late antique churches in Palestine, Syria, and Arabia. Their
prominence in ecclesiastical settings demonstrates the vitality of an
ideal image of urban monumentality in civic and religious imaginaries
alike. Birte Poulsen considers the range of associations that could be

evoked by domestic depictions of the personifications of cities, from
the owners paideia to their membership in an international jet-set
(222).
The next three essays consider the revaluation of traditional
iconographies in late antiquity. Katherine M. D. Dunbabin explores
the relationships between the mythological scenes depicted on
mosaics between the second and sixth centuries and the stage
performances of pantomime artists and dancers. In the later mosaics,
mythological figures became detached from strict narrative contexts
and represented instead examples of moral qualities (247), a
transition that may have paralleled contemporary changes in stage
practice. Theater and the figural arts were more closely interrelated
than is often admitted; indeed, it is more useful to think of them as
developing in tandem, than to speak of one influencing the other.
Arnaldo Marcone argues that the relationships between pagan and
Christian iconographies are best represented by cultural, not
religious history, emphasizing shared ideals of paideia. Troels Myrup
Kristensen addresses the construction of idolatry by Christians
through images of statues placed atop columns.
Kristensens examples range from the late antique to the middle
Byzantine, introducing a shift to post-Roman topics that is continued
in the concluding essay. Katharina Meinecke presents preliminary
results of research into the sources of motifs on the carved facade of
the Umayyad qasr at Mshatta, which she understands to constitute a
program expressing the universalist ambitions of the young caliphate.
In their brief introduction, the editors situate the volume within the
burgeoning field of late antique visual culture which has received
major impetus over the last 30 years or so (1). Indeed, the conference
at the Danish Institute took place exactly three decades after the
publication of Peter Browns seminal essay on Art and society in late
antiquity.1 Many themes developed to great profit in the volume
under review are found in nuce in those ten pages of Browns, for
example: the role of bishops in the urban renewal of the late fourth
and fifth centuries; the central importance of dedicatory inscriptions;
the emperor as the urban benefactor writ large; late antique art as an
art of the city... that assumed onlookers who could supply the
associations triggered off by a few clear pointers; and the use of
traditional images as part of a neutral technology of life.
The contributions to the present volume also share the conviction that
artifacts of the civic world, traditionally studied under the rubric of
late Roman art, and those of the ecclesiastical world, traditionally
studied as early Christian, speak most eloquently when viewed
together as products of a bedrock of shared humanity (in Browns
words). This broad- mindedness constitutes the volumes most
obvious strength for an audience of specialists. Furthermore, all of the
essays are marked by a laudable clarity of purpose and expression,
rendering them suitable for discussion in graduate seminars; many
will find their way onto undergraduate syllabi as well.
Notes:
1. Peter R. L. Brown, Art and society in late antiquity, in Kurt
Weitzmann, ed., Age of Spirituality: A Symposium (New York, 1980),
17-27.
BMCR, Bryn Mawr College, 101 N. Merion Ave., Bryn Mawr, PA 19010

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What is the main focus of the essays in the collection?

How does the volume contribute to the literature on late antique art?

BMCR 2015.01.

35 on the BMCR blog

Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2015.01.35

Stine Birk, Troels Myrup Kristensen,

The three essays that follow engage portraiture in diverse fashions.

alike. Birte Poulsen considers the range of associations that could be

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