The death of myth on Roman sarcophagi : allegory and visual narrative in the Late Empire / Mont Allen.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Allen, Mont, author.

Series:

Greek culture in the Roman world.

Greek culture in the Roman world

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Sarcophagi, Roman--Themes, motives.

Sarcophagi, Roman.

Sarcophagi, Early Christian--Themes, motives.

Sarcophagi, Early Christian.

Relief (Sculpture)--Rome--Themes, motives.

Relief (Sculpture).

Mythology, Classical, in art.

Art and society--Rome.

Art and society.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xiii, 278 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2022.

Summary:

A strange thing happened to Roman sarcophagi in the third century: their Greek mythic imagery vanished. Since the beginning of their production a century earlier, these beautifully carved coffins had featured bold mythological scenes. How do we make sense of this imagery's own death on later sarcophagi, when mythological narratives were truncated, gods and heroes were excised, and genres featuring no mythic content whatsoever came to the fore? What is the significance of such a profound tectonic shift in the Roman funerary imagination for our understanding of Roman history and culture, for the development of its arts, for the passage from the High to the Late Empire and the coming of Christianity, but above all, for the individual Roman women and men who chose this imagery, and who took it with them to the grave? In this book, Mont Allen offers the clues that aid in resolving this mystery.

Contents:

Cover

Half-title

Series information

Title page

Copyright information

Contents

List of Figures

Acknowledgments

Note on the Text

Introduction: The Death of Myth on Roman Sarcophagi

Opening

A Pair of Sarcophagi: Moonstruck Lovers

Body Divine, Head All Too Human: Mythological Portraiture

Gods and Barnyard Animals: Shepherds Take the Stage

Hippolytus and Manly Hunters

Why Should We Care?

Production of Pagan Sarcophagi: An Overview

The Early (Hadrianic) Sarcophagi: Myth Present from the Beginning

Antonine Sarcophagi: A Burgeoning Mythological Repertoire

Severan and Pre-Gallienic Sarcophagi: Myth Begins to Contract

The Second Half of the Third Century: A Surge of Mythless Genres

The Fourth Century: Dissolution of Pagan Sarcophagi

Scope and Terms

Focus on Rome

Focus on Mythological Sarcophagi and Their Replacements

''Mythological'' as a Term: Gods and Heroes

Structure of the Book

One Myth a Casualty of Christianity

Christians, ''Neutral'' Sarcophagi, and the Question of Reuse

Christian Numbers and Purchasing Power

Why Choose Neutral Pieces When Christian Sarcophagi Were Available?

Christian Conclusions

Two Bucolic Sarcophagi and Elite Retreat

A Story of Elite Retreat

What of Equestrians and Commoners?

The Villa: Conceived in Agriculture

The Italian Countryside: Conceived in Cattle

Philosophers: The Face of Detachment?

Bucolic Rumination

Three Refuge from the Third-Century Crisis

Reaction to the Negative Experiences of the Age?

A Lack of Control

A Choice of Horrors

How Critical Was the Third-Century Crisis?

A Lack of Home Remedies

Why Not Develop Scenes of Mythic Tranquility?

Imitating the Soldier Emperors?

Four Culture, Status, and Rising Populism

Devaluation of Classical Culture?.

Mythological Imagery: Victim of a Rising Populism?

Monumentally Expensive Monuments

The Late Antonine Stilwandel: A Crisis of Elite Culture?

Strigillated Sarcophagi, Bucolic Imagery, and Popular Interest in Myth

Demythologization Limited to the Funerary Realm

Desire to Project Social Status?

Conclusion: No Unitary Demythologization?

Five Myth Abstracted: From Narrative to Symbol

Demythologization and Narrative Dissolution

From Narrative to Symbol: Is There a Direction?

Myth's Weakening Hold? The Evidence of Painting, Statuary, and Mosaics

The Question of Typological Assimilation

Truncated Compositions: Sculpture in the Round

The Lesson of Mosaics

Six Distinguishing the Mythological: Function and Form

''Scenes of Myth,'' ''Scenes of Life,'' and Realism

''Biographical'' Sarcophagi: Grounds for Scare Quotes

The Fantasy of the Bucolic

Biography and Mythology: Related Worlds

Chisel and Drill: Tools of Status

Separating Mythic from Mortal: Chisel versus Drill

Antonine Portraiture and Caracalla

Making the Deceased Distinct

The Technique Extended to ''Biographical'' Sarcophagi

Conclusion

Seven Conclusion: Myth, History, and the Desire for Proximity

The Problematic of the Past

Historical Figures on Sarcophagi

The Desire for Temporal Proximity

The Desire for Spatial Proximity

Myth's Continued Life at Home

The Imagines Leave the Stage

The Death of Mythological Portraiture

Eight Coda: Myth Revived: Temporality and the Afterlife

Myth Revived in Christian Guise

Jonah, Jesus, and Constantinian Pieces

From Panegyric to Proclamations of Faith and Communal Identity

Looking Backward, Looking Forward: Altered Temporality and the Afterlife

Herculean Labors Old and New: Christ's Miracles and Future Hopes.

The Theology of Tooling: Chisel and Drill Revisited

Fourth-Century Departure

Elevation and Communion

Works Cited

Index of Objects by City/Museum

General Index.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 13 Jan 2023).

Other Format:

Print version: Allen, Mont The Death of Myth on Roman Sarcophagi

ISBN:

1-009-04124-X

1-009-03903-2

1-009-04144-4