Reuse and Renovation in Roman Material Culture

Functions, Aesthetics, Interpretations

Diana Y. Ng, Molly Swetnam-Burland

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9781108473897
• eBook ISBN: 9781108644099
• Topic: Kunst
• Subtopic: Kunstgeschichte der Antike

This book explores the spoliation of architectural and sculptural materials during the Roman empire. Examining a wide range of materials, including imperial portraits, statues associated with master craftsmen, architectural moldings and fixtures, tombs and sarcophagi, arches and gateways, it demonstrates that secondary intervention was common well before Late Antiquity, in fact, centuries earlier than has been previously acknowledged. The essays in this volume, written by a team of international experts, collectively argue that reuse was a natural feature of human manipulation of the physical environment, rather than a sign of social pressure. Reuse often reflected appreciation for the function, form, and design of the material culture of earlier eras. Political, social, religious, and economic factors also contributed to the practice. A comprehensive overview of spoliation and reuse, this volume examines the phenomenon in Rome and throughout the Mediterranean world.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title
• Title page
• Copyright information
• Table of contents
• List of figures
• List of contributors
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction: Reuse, Renovation, Reiteration
• Chapter One The Reuse and Redisplay of Honorific Statues in Pompeii
• Chapter Two The Vigiles, Dynastic Succession, and Symbolic Reappropriation in the Caserma dei Vigili at Ostia
• Chapter Three Epigraphy of Appropriation: Retrospective Signatures of Greek Sculptors in the Roman World
• Chapter Four Gateways to the Past: The Hadrianic Architecture of Procession in Pisidian Antioch and Athens
• Chapter Five Visual Literacy and Reuse in the Architecture of Late Imperial Rome
• Chapter Six Urban Transformations at Aphrodisias in Late Antiquity: Destruction or Intentional Preservation?
• Chapter Seven Acquiring the Antique in Byzantine Rome: The Economics of Architectural Reuse at Santa Maria Antiqua
• Chapter Eight The Afterlife of the Amphitheater: Cultural Biography and Social Memory at Tarragona
• Notes
• Index