In this fresh, accessible, and beautifully illustrated book, his third to examine an aspect of Roman visual culture, John R. Clarke explores the question, "What made Romans laugh?" Looking at Laughter examines a heterogeneous corpus of visual material, from the crudely obscene to the exquisitely sophisticated and from the playful to the deadly serious—everything from street theater to erudite paintings parodying the emperor. Nine chapters, organized under the rubrics of Visual Humor, Social Humor, and Sexual Humor, analyze a wide range of visual art, including wall painting, sculpture, mosaics, and ceramics. Archaeological sites, as well as a range of ancient texts, inscriptions, and graffiti, provide the background for understanding the how and why of humorous imagery. This entertaining study offers fascinating insights into the mentality of Roman patrons and viewers who enjoyed laughing at the gods, the powers-that-be, and themselves.
eBook - PDF
Looking at Laughter
Humor, Power, and Transgression in Roman Visual Culture, 100 B.C.- A.D. 250
- 337 pages
- English
- PDF
- Available on iOS & Android
eBook - PDF
Looking at Laughter
Humor, Power, and Transgression in Roman Visual Culture, 100 B.C.- A.D. 250
About this book
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Information
Both
the
adultery
mime
and
the
nude
mimes
were
impermanent.
For
the
adul-
tery
mime
we
have
a
few
fragmentary
lines
and
songs;
for
the
nude
mimes,
only
the
tavern
paintings.
Both
forms
were
highly
visual,
and
actors
developed
them
by
combining
stereotype
with
improvisation.
The
actors’
success
in
making
the
audi-
ence
laugh
depended
on
elements
of
surprise
that
ran
the
whole
gamut
of
comic
ploys
from
wordplay
to
slapstick.
In
the
following
chapter
we
begin
by
looking
at
another
impermanent
form
of
humorous
visual
culture,
the
comic
theater.
Fortu-
nately,
we
have
a
much
greater
range
of
textual
and
visual
artifacts
documenting
stage
comedy;
for
this
reason
we
can
delve
more
deeply
into
how
humor
reveals
Roman
cultural
formation.
v
i
s
u
a
l
h
u
m
o
r
28
Figure
2.
Pompeii,
Inn
on
the
Street
of
Mercury
(VI,
10,
1),
woman
resisting
man.
Table of contents
- Cover
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part One VISUAL HUMOR
- Part Two SOCIAL HUMOR
- Part Three SEXUAL HUMOR
- Conclusion
- Notes
- Bibliography
- List of Illustrations
- Index
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Yes, you can access Looking at Laughter by John R. Clarke in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Art & History of Ancient Art. We have over 1.5 million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.