Geographies of provincialism in roman sculpture

RIHA Journal

Volumn 2010, Issue 1, 2010, Pages

  Stewart, Peter ^a  

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References (119)

1. This article was written for the first RIHA Lecture at The Courtauld Institute of Art on 16th February, 2010. Versions were delivered in seminars at the Freie Universität, Berlin (TOPOI Excellence Cluster) and the University of Southampton (Department of Archaeology), and I am grateful for the contributions of participants. I also thank the reviewers for their comments, even where suggestions have not been adopted. The maps were produced by Michele Massa, with the help of data compiled by Marion Ferrat. Their work as my research assistants was funded by The Courtauld Institute of Art. I am most grateful to Karin Kyburz for her skill in acquiring images.
2. Thomas DaCosta Kaufmann, Toward a Geography of Art, Chicago and London 2004, reviews the geographical study of art since antiquity and analyses its recent rejuvenation (esp. 10-11, 17-104).
3. Note esp. Enrico Castelnuovo and Carlo Ginzburg, "Centre and Periphery", in: Storia dell'Arte Italiana, History of Italian Art, vol. 1, Cambridge 1994, 29-112 (originally published as "Centro e periferia", in: Storia dell'arte italiana, pt. 1, materiali e problemi, vol. 1, Turin 1979, 283-352).
4. Kaufmann, Toward a Geography of Art
5. Cf. Warren Treadgold, A History of the Byzantine State and Society, Stanford 1997, 8 fig. 1 (that graph starting in late third century).
6. See e.g. David Mattingly, ed., Dialogues in Roman Imperialism. Power, Discourse, and Discrepant Experience in the Roman Empire (Journal of Roman Archaeology Supplement no. 23), Portsmouth, RI, 1995.
7. Richard Hingley, Globalizing Roman Culture. Unity, Diversity and Empire, London and New York 2005, 30-46 (inc. further references).
8. Greg Woolf, Becoming Roman. The Origins of Provincial Civilization in Gaul, Cambridge 1998.
9. For the use of the term "Romanism" cf. Miranda Aldhouse-Green, An Archaeology of Images. Iconology and Cosmology in Iron Age and Roman Europe, London and New York 2004, xvi.
10. Votive from Staunton-on-Arrow: Martin Henig's, Roman Sculpture from the Cotswolds Region with Devon and Cornwall (Corpus Signorum Imperii Romani, Great Britain, vol. 1, fasc. 7), Oxford 1993, 25-26 no. 75.
11. For Pan reliefs from Croatia, see esp. O. Hirschfeld and R. Schneider, "Bericht über einer Reise in Dalmatien", in: Archäologisch-Epigraphische Mitteilungen aus Österreich 9 (1885), 1-84, here 31-84.
12. Note especially the monumental volumes of Emile Espérandieu's Recueil général des bas-reliefs de la Gaule romaine and their successors, Paris 1907-, and the international Corpus Signorum Imperii Romani. The web image-bank www.ubi-erat-lupa.org has also made a significant contribution to recent literature.
13. Generally see Otto Brendel, Prolegomena to the Study of Roman Art, New Haven 1979
14. T. Hölscher, The Language of Images in Roman Art, trans. A. Snodgrass and A. Künzl-Snodgrass, with Foreword by J. Elsner, Cambridge 2004.
15. To use the title of Arthur Danto's book, After the End of Art. Contemporary Art and the Pale of History, Princeton 1997. A similar attitude to Hellenistic art used to prevail, encouraged by Pliny the Elder's claim in Naturalis Historia 34.52, that in the 290s BC the art of bronze sculpture "stopped" (cessavit deinde ars).
16. Elaine Gazda, "Beyond Copying. Artistic Originality and Tradition", in: eadem, ed., The Ancient Art of Emulation. Studies in Artistic Originality and Tradition from the Present to Classical Antiquity, Ann Arbor, MI, 2002, 1-24, here 1-15.
17. Elsner in Hölscher, The Language of Images, xviii, for postmodernism as an analogy for Roman eclecticism
18. Plotinus, Enneads 2.7.
19. Plato, Republic 597d-e
20. Cf. R. Bianchi Bandinelli's characterization of simplistic sculptures, which lack culturally specific traits, as outside history - "primitive art, and what we may call 'non-culture', are timeless": Rome. The Centre of Power. Roman Art to AD 200, London 1970. Provincialism is, of course, worse than primitivism.
21. For example, Diana Kleiner's authoritative volume on Roman Sculpture (New Haven and London 1992), is typical of many general discussions of Roman art (including my own): approximately 15% of the figures show works with a provenance outside Italy. The proportion in my own book Roman Art (Oxford 2004), which aims to survey the discipline, is the same. Kleiner herself notes p. 16 the "pressing need" for further studies of provincial sculpture.
22. Cf. the influential and eloquent account of provincialism in Kenneth Clark, Provincialism, London 1962 (Presidential address to The English Association), esp. 3-4: "In these instances it may be said that provincialism is simply a matter of distance from the centre, where standards of skill are higher and patrons more exacting [...] provincial art fails from its lack of style [...]."
23. Found Lemington, Gloucestershire; now at Chedworth Roman Villa, inv. 145.4. Henig, Roman Sculpture from the Cotswold Region, 32 no. 94.
24. Mainz, Landesmuseum, inv. S150.
25. London, British Museum, P&EE 1969.7-1.4.
26. R.G. Collingwood and R.P. Wright, The Roman Inscriptions of Britain (RIB), Oxford 1965, no. 932.
27. The inscription in this and many other cases is possibly the product of a different craftsman
28. Nicrinus, in Serbian Convent, Szentendre (www.ubi-erat-lupa.org ID no. 684).
29. Gian Carlo Susini, The Roman Stonecutter. An Introduction to Latin Epigraphy, Oxford 1973, 37-38, pls. IV-V.
30. Martin Millett, The Romanization of Britain
31. An Essay in Archaeological Interpretation, Cambridge 1990, 116-117, arguing that in Britain the choice of a tombstone was more important than its quality or degree of classicism
32. Tombstone of Aurelius, Museo Archeologica, Aquileia, inv. 16. Valnea Santa Maria Scrinari, Museo Archeologico di Aquileia. Catalogo delle sculture romane, Rome 1972, 120 no. 351. Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum V 900.
33. Ljubljana, National Museum, inv. L 100. Milan Lovenjak, Inscriptiones Latinae Sloveniae, vol. 1, Ljubljana 1998, no. 87.
34. Castelnuovo and Ginzburg, "Centre and Periphery"
35. Martin Millett, English Heritage Book of Roman Britain, London 1995, 99. We also need to be aware that the shape of the Roman empire was very different from that projected in modern maps, inasmuch as patterns of urbanism, or lines of communication by water or road, placed some areas "closer" to Rome and the Mediterranean, or further away, than they literally are.
36. See e.g. A.W. Epstein, "The Problem of Provincialism. Byzantine Monasteries in Cappadocia and Monks in South Italy", in: Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 42 (1979), 28-46.
37. To an extent Clark's lecture, Provincialism, attempts to re-evaluate provincialism from a connoisseurial perspective
38. R.G. Collingwood and J.N.L. Myres, Roman Britain and the English Settlements, Oxford 1937, 250.
39. See e.g. the Great Britain fascicules of the Corpus Signorum Imperii Romani, passim, and cf. Sally Price, Primitive Art in Civilized Places, Chicago and London, 1989.
40. For a more self-conscious aesthetic defence of Romano-British provincialism see Martin Henig, The Art of Roman Britain, London 1995, 11
41. Aldhouse-Green, An Archaeology of Images, 25-26
42. Her point is developed further in her article, "Alternative Iconographies. Metaphors of Resistance in Romano-British Cult Imagery", in: Peter Noelke, ed., Romanisation und Resistenz in Plastik, Architektur und Inschriften der Provinzen des Imperium Romanum (Acts of the 7th International Colloquium on Roman Provincial Art), Mainz am Rhein 2003, 39-48.
43. See Catherine Johns, "Romano-British Sculpture. Intention and Execution", in: Noelke, Romanisation und Resistenz, 27-38.
44. eadem, "Art, Romanisation, and Competence", in: Sarah Scott and Jane Webster, eds., Roman Imperialism and Provincial Art, Cambridge 2003, 9-23.
45. Henig, Roman Sculpture from the Cotswold Region, 45-46, no. 137; 46-47, no. 138.
46. Henig, The Art of Roman Britain, 107-108
47. See also Peter Stewart, "Totenmahl Reliefs in the Northern Provinces. A Case-Study in Imperial Sculpture", in: Journal of Roman Archaeology 22 (2009), 253-274, esp. 268, 272-273.
48. For a critical overview of the situation see Miranda Green, "God in Man's Image. Thoughts on the Genesis and Affiliations of Some Romano-British Cult-Imagery", in: Britannia 29 (1998), 17-30.
49. The fascicules of CSIR Great Britain, vol. 1 (1977-), have been used, except for the north-west of England (shaded area), which will be the subject of a future fascicule by L. Allason-Jones and J. Coulston. Data for this area are provisional, being derived less systematically from a variety of publications. The CSIR fascicules represent a thorough and generally consistent, but not altogether comprehensive or up-to-date, survey of identified material in their respective regions. I am most grateful to Francis Grew of the Museum of London for making available the list of entries in the forthcoming south-east England fascicule. The points plotted on the maps include works in metal and in imported marble, but comprise overwhelmingly British stones. They exclude clearly modern and dubious works.
50. On military sculpture and its styles see Natalie Kampen, "The Art of Soldiers on a Roman Frontier. Style and the Antonine Wall", in: Eve D'Ambra and Guy Métraux, eds., The Art of Citizens, Soldiers and Freedmen in the Roman World, Oxford 2006, 125-134.
51. She stresses the need to consider the communities of sculpture-users in the provinces, and criticises discussions of military provincial sculpture in terms of "lack" (134)
52. Suetonius, Titus 4.1.
53. On the lack of statues see Peter Stewart, Statues in Roman Society, Oxford 2003, 174-179
54. See E. Frézouls, "Evergétisme et construction urbaine dans les Trois Gaules et les Germains", in: Revue du Nord 64 (1984), 27-54.
55. T.F.C. Blagg, "Architectural Munificence in Britain. The Evidence of Inscriptions", in: Britannia 21 (1990), 13-31.
56. Millett, The Romanization of Britain, 78-85
57. On the nature of the army's Roman status and identity see Hingley, Globalizing Roman Culture, 93-94
58. With reference specifically to military art see Kampen, The Art of Soldiers, 132
59. See e.g. the German volumes of the Corpus Signorum Imperii Romani; for typology see Hanns Gabelmann, "Die Typen der römischen Grabstelen am Rhein", in: Bonner Jahrbucher 172 (1972), 65-140.
60. P. Noelke, "Grabreliefs mit Mahldarstellung in den germanisch-gallischen Provinzen. Soziale und religiöse Aspekte", in: P. Fasold et al., eds., Bestattungssitte und kulturelle Identitat: Grabanlagen und Grabbeigaben der fruhen rbmischen Kaiserzeit in Italien und den Nordwest-Provinzen, Cologne 1998, 399-418.
61. B. Galsterer and H. Galsterer, Die rb'mischen Steininschriften aus Kb'ln, Cologne 1975.
62. My figures are approximate because of the difficulty of interpreting fragmentary stones, and many stones cannot be identified adequately. Veterans are omitted. Impressionistically, one can make a similar observation about other military tombstone on the Rhine.
63. Note discussion of similar patterns elsewhere on the Rhine and Danube by Valerie Hope, Constructing Identity. The Roman Funerary Monuments of Aquileia, Mainz and Nîmes, Oxford 2001, 41-43.
64. Diana Kleiner, "Roman Funerary Art and Architecture. Observations on the Significance of Recent Studies", in: Journal of Roman Archaeology 1 (1988), 115-119.
65. For overview see Marion Mattern, "Die Reliefverzierten römischen Grabstelen der Provinz Britannia: Themen und Typen", in: Kolner Jahrbuch fur Vor- und Fruhgeschichte 22 (1989), 707-801, here 711-714
66. See Stewart, "Totenmahl Reliefs"
67. To use a near-neologism that is endemic in discussions of Romano-British culture
68. See no. 47 below.
69. R. MacMullen, "The Epigraphic Habit in the Roman Empire", in: American Journal of Philology 103 (1982), 233-46.
70. Stanislaw Mrozek, "À propos de la répartition chronologique des inscriptions latines dans le Haut-Empire", in: Epigraphica 35 (1973), 113-118
71. Woolf, Becoming Roman, 77-105, on Gaul and the geography of epigraphy
72. The figure excludes the mass grave on the site containing more than 90 other individuals' remains from the later second century
73. A. Simmonds et al., Life and Death in a Roman City. Excavations of a Roman Cemetery with a Mass Grave at 120-122 London Road, Gloucester, Oxford 2008, with 116-118 on the stelae.
74. I am aware of no clear cases of extant gesso or paint on Romano-British sculptures, though it is assumed to have been used and survives on Roman sculptures elsewhere in Europe (e.g. from Carnuntum in Austria).
75. See e.g. Brian Bailey, Stone Villages of England, London 1982.
76. See now the important study by Kevin M.J. Hayward, Roman Quarrying and Stone Supply on the Periphery - Southern England. A Geological Study of First-Century Funerary Monuments and Monumental Architecture, Oxford 2009.
77. Hayward's petrographic studies demonstrate some of the patterns of movement of British and Continental freestones in the south and south-east of England, where good monumental stone is lacking, and in the early period of the Roman province. They present sometimes surprising examples of stone movement, as well as the general attraction of proximate stone sources.
78. B.W. Cunliffe and M.G. Fulford, Corpus Signorum Imperii Romani, Great Britain, vol. 1, fasc. 2, Bath and the Rest of Wessex, Oxford 1982, 37 no. 135; 37 no. 136; 37-38 no. 137; 38 no. 138.
79. Cunliffe and Fulford CSIR I 2, 24 no. 91; 31 no. 113.
80. Cunliffe and Fulford CSIR I 2, 28 no. 103 (chalk); 37-38 no. 137 (ammonite); Henig, Roman Sculpture from the Cotswold Region, 22 no. 61 (schist).
81. Cunliffe and Fulford CSIR I 2, 34 no. 120; 27-28 no. 102.
82. Henig, Roman Sculpture from the Cotswold Region, 12-13 no. 28.
83. A. Brooks and S. Adcock, Dry Stone Walling, revised edn. Doncaster 1999, 37-39.
84. Henig, Roman Sculpture from the Cotswold Region, 12-13 no. 28.
85. The picture tends to be most complex where stone is not immediately available, or is transported from a variety of nearby sources. See e.g. Hayward, Roman Quarrying and Stone Supply; the forthcoming fascicule of the CSIR for south-east England (Francis Grew, pers. comm.).
86. Bojan Duric et al., "Stone Use in Roman Towns. Resources, Transport, Products and Clients", in: Starinar 56 (2006), 103-137, dealing with stone sources for Sirmium in modern Serbia.
87. E.g. Melanie Jonasch, pers. comm., relating to her research on Gallo-Roman portrait stelae in Burgundy.
88. M. McCarty, Votive Stelae, Religion and Cultural Change in Africa Proconsularis and Numidia, 200 BC - AD 300, unpublished PhD dissertation, Oxford 2010, 16-17.
89. Claudia Stribny, Die Herkunft der römischen Werksteine aus Mainz und Umgebung. Vergleichende petrographische und geochemische Untersuchungen an Skulptierten Kalksteinen (CSIR Deutschland II.8 Germania Superior), Mainz 1987.
90. Generally on this marble trade see Hazel Dodge and John Ward-Perkins, Marble in Antiquity. Collected Papers of J.B. Ward-Perkins, London 1992, esp. e.g. 13-22, 80-85.
91. For coloured marble in Britain see: D.P.S. Peacock and D.F. Williams, "Ornamental Coloured Marble in Roman Britain. An Interim Report", in: M. Schvoerer, ed., Archéomatériaux. Marbres et autres roches (ASMOSIA IV), Talence 1999, 353-357.
92. See e.g. the case of Sirmium cited above: Duric et al., "Stone Use in Roman Towns".
93. Kaufmann, Toward a Geography of Art
94. Andrew Oliver, "Honors to Romans. Bronze Portraits", in: Carol Mattusch et al., eds., The Fire of Hephaistos. Large Classical Bronzes from North American Collections, Cambridge, MA, 1996, 138-160.
95. For surviving portrait bronzes see G. Lahusen, Römische Bildnisse aus Bronze, Munich 2001.
96. See Jane Fejfer, Roman Portraits in Context, Berlin and New York 2008, 162
97. S. Deyts, Les bois sculptés des Sources de la Seine, Paris 1983.
98. On the religious significance of wooden sculpture in these regions see Aldhouse-Green, An Archaeology of Images, 88-102
99. Anne-Marie Romeuf, Les ex-voto gallo-romains de Chamalières (Puy-de-Dôme). Les bois sculptés de la source des Roches, Paris 2000.
100. Although the iconography was used in Rome and in other regions it appears to have had little direct influence on the spread of the imagery in the northern provinces
101. Johanna Fabricius, Die hellenistischen Totenmahlreliefs, Munich 1999
102. Katherine Dunbabin, The Roman Banquet. Images of Conviviality, Cambridge 2003, esp. 103-110.
103. Stewart, "Totenmahl Reliefs" (with further bibliography)
104. See Stewart, "Totenmahl Reliefs", 272-273
105. A.W. Busch, "Von der Provinz ins Zentrum - Bilder auf den Grabdenkmälern einer Elite-Einheit", in: Noelke, Romanisation und Resistenz, 679-694.
106. Examples from Sven Conrad, Die Grabstelen aus Moesia Superior. Untersuchungen zu Chronologie, Typologie und Ikonographie, Leipzig 2004, 132f, no. 22, pl. 25.3; 143 no. 62, pl. 42.3; 251 no. 470, pl. 60.
107. Conrad, Die Grabstelen aus Moesia Superior, with diagram as his pl. 19.
108. Uley altars: Henig, Roman Sculpture from the Cotswolds Region, 25 nos. 72-74.
109. A. Woodward and P. Leach, The Uley Shrines. Excavation of a Ritual Complex on West Hill, Uley, Gloucestershire, 1977-9, London 1993, 94f.
110. Statue: Henig, Roman Sculpture from the Cotswolds Region, 22 no. 62.
111. Woodward and Leach, The Uley Shrines, 89-94
112. Ranuccio Bianchi Bandinelli, "Arte plebea", in: Dialoghi di archeologia 1 (1967), 7-19
113. Bianchi Bandinelli believed that "plebeian" art in Italy influenced certain provincial traditions, notably sculpture in the German and Gallic provinces which he termed, rather obscurely, "European art of Rome". This strand he considered to be artistically superior to the kinds of provincialism examined in this article.
114. Ranuccio Bianchi Bandinelli, Rome. The Late Empire. Roman Art AD 200-400, London 1971, 105-171.
115. Note also Bianca Maria Falletti Maj, La tradizione italica nell'arte romana, Rome 1977
116. Forum Novum, built into a medieval building at Selci, 45km from Rome (Ray Laurence, The Roads of Roman Italy. Mobility and Cultural Change, London 1999, fig. 31).
117. See Antonio Frova, ed., Scavi di Luni II. Relazione delle campagne di scavo 1972-1973-1974, Rome 1977, 314-316 no. 5, pl. 168,1. The catalogue likens this relief to works in Gaul and Britain. Cf. a similar relief of Silvanus from Ostia, through which much marble was imported to Rome: Museo Archeologico Ostiense, Aldobrandini Collection no. 142.
118. Castelnuovo and Ginzburg, "Centre and Periphery", 49-51
119. Hingley, Globalizing Roman Culture