Art and the Roman Viewer presents a fresh analysis of a major intellectual problem in the history of art: why did the arts of Late Antiquity move away from classical naturalism towards spiritual abstraction? Arguing from a close examination of ancient art images and texts, Jas Elsner shows how an understanding of Roman viewing practices greatly deepens our insight into this fundamental transformation. The sophisticated arts of the early empire, such as Pompeian painting, sculpted reliefs and silverware, entertain the potential for irony, parody, and deconstruction. By contrast, the symbolic arts of the Christian empire, notably the mosaics of Ravenna, eschew irony, while complexity remains, indeed intensifies, as multiple meanings compete to enrich a fundamentally sacred truth. By addressing the subtleties inherent in ancient viewing, this study embarks on a quest to enrich our understanding of an era of profound artistic change.

The Severan dynasty is a lineage of Roman Emperors, reigning several decades from the late 2nd century to the early 3rd century. The text is concerned with the culture of the Greek and Roman world during that period.

Art and Text in Roman Culture is a collection of specially commissioned essays exploring the interface between words and images in the Roman world. The relationship of pictures and writing is complex and fascinating. Essays by ancient historians, literary critics and classical art historians examine a range of themes from ekphrasis to epigraphy, from the problems of modern to those of ancient reproduction, from mimesis to self-fashioning, from the cultural meanings of children and death in imperial Roman art to the significance of torture and images of women. The aim of this volume - a sequel to Art and Text in Ancient Greek Culture edited by Simon Goldhill and Robin Osborne (1994) - is to offer a series of commentaries and reflections on different kinds of interaction between images and writing in Rome, in order to enrich the critical debate within Classical art history.