E-Book Overview
For centuries, statuary décor was a main characteristic of any city, sanctuary, or villa in the Roman world. However, from the third century CE onward, the prevalence of statues across the Roman Empire declined dramatically. By the end of the sixth century, statues were no longer a defining characteristic of the imperial landscape. Further, changing religious practices cast pagan sculpture in a threatening light. Statuary production ceased, and extant statuary was either harvested for use in construction or abandoned in place.
The Afterlife of Greek and Roman Sculpture is the first volume to approach systematically the antique destruction and reuse of statuary, investigating key responses to statuary across most regions of the Roman world. The volume opens with a discussion of the complexity of the archaeological record and a preliminary chronology of the fate of statues across both the eastern and western imperial landscape. Contributors to the volume address questions of definition, identification, and interpretation for particular treatments of statuary, including metal statuary and the systematic reuse of villa materials. They consider factors such as earthquake damage, late antique views on civic versus “private” uses of art, urban construction, and deeper causes underlying the end of the statuary habit, including a new explanation for the decline of imperial portraiture. The themes explored resonate with contemporary concerns related to urban decline, as evident in post-industrial cities, and the destruction of cultural heritage, such as in the Middle East.
E-Book Content
The Afterlife of Greek and Roman Sculpture
The Afterlife of Greek and Roman Sculpture Late Antique Responses and Practices
Troels Myrup Kristensen and Lea Stirling, editors
University of Michigan Press Ann Arbor
Copyright © by Troels Myrup Kristensen and Lea Stirling 2016 All rights reserved This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, including illustrations, in any form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public press), without written permission from the publisher. Published in the United States of America by the University of Michigan Press Manufactured in the United States of America c Printed on acid-free paper 2019 2018 2017 2016 4 3 2 1 A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Kristensen, Troels Myrup, editor. | Stirling, Lea Margaret, editor. Title: The afterlife of Greek and Roman sculpture : late antique responses and practices / Troels Myrup Kristensen and Lea Stirling, editors. Description: Ann Arbor : University of Michigan Press, 2016. | “This book developed out of two seminars held in the Department of History and Classical Studies at Aarhus University on 26 September 2008 and 25 March 2011.” | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2016012907| ISBN 9780472119691 (hardback) | ISBN 9780472121823 (e-book) Subjects: LCSH: Sculpture, Classical—Appreciation—History—To 1500—Congresses. | Altered sculptures—History—To 1500—Congresses. | Sculpture materials—Recycling— History—to 1500—Congresses. | Classical antiquities—Destruction and pillage— History—to 1500—Congresses. | BISAC: HISTORY / Ancient / Rome. | ART / History / Ancient & Classical. Classification: LCC NB85 .A39 2016 | DDC 735/.22—dc23 LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2016012907
Contents
Acknowledgmentsvii Introduction The Lives and Afterlives of Greek and Roman Sculpture: From Use to Refuse / Troels Myrup Kristensen and Lea Stirling1 Part I. Practices of Deposition and Reuse one: Metal Sculpture from Roman Britain: Scraps but Not Always Scrap / Ben Croxford27 two: Sculptural Deposition and Lime Kilns at Roman Vil