Mit Mythen Leben: Die Bilderwelt der romischen Sarkophage

PAUL ZANKER AND BJORN CHRISTIAN EWALD

Mit Mythen Leben: Die Bilderwelt der romischen Sarkophage

Munich: Hirmer, 2004 389 pp; 78 color ills., 227 b/w [euro]7500

In the late nineteenth hundred when Roman art was first being defined as a distinct field of research separate from Greek art, the great series of ancient marble coffins known as sarcophagi, with their richly carved figural decoration, had lengthy been recognized as distinctive fruitss of the Roman period. As of the like kind they could take their place alongside Roman historical relief and Roman portraits as characteristic memorials of imperial culture. The sarcophagi were actually more abundant, and more varied in form, than either of the other sum of two units major categories of surviving Roman statuary and they had unquestionably played a more important character in the history of Western art. From the early Renaissance upon they had been admired and drawn by dint of painters and sculptors and carefully described and cataloged by the agency of art enthusiasts and antiquarians. by dint of the early twentieth century a large corpus of published examples had been assembled, and that corpus has since expanded dramatically. notwithstanding despite all the scholarly attention the sarcophagi have received above the years, a glance at any novel textbook of Roman art makes it abundantly clear that they remain single of the byways of Roman visual culture--the province of specialists, perennially upon the margins of the subdue never properly integrated with the investigation of the other major genre It is no exaggeration to say that "sarcophagus studies" forms a distinct subfield, with its have publications, its own finely hon terminology (for the greatest in quantity part German), and its have cherished aims and controversies--all somewhat remov from the major intellectual debates that have preoccupied and animated the ease of the field over the last half century

All this now strike one as beings set to change. Paul Zanker and Bjorn Christian Ewald's Mil Mythen Leben: Die Bilderwelt der romischen Sarkophage (Living with Myth: The World of Images upon Roman Sarcophagi) shifts this underappreciated genre to the real center of the cultural historian's attention, firmly establishing sarcophagus imagery as a historical source of crucial importance for understanding Roman society of the high empire. To many scholars this will without doubt come as a bolt without of the blue. But leafing from one side the beautiful photographs in this work one cannot but feel--with hindsight--that this jiffy is actually long overdue.

Although the authors explicitly place out to treat only "metropolitan sarcophagi" (the sarcophagi produc in Rome itself), and sarcophagi produc in other center are not generally discussed, this volume offers what amounts to a full reappraisal of Roman sarcophagi and their carved decoration. As the title would intimate however, the focus throughout is upon the "mythological sarcophagi"--those decorated primarily with sights of Greek myth.

The work consists of five substantial chapters written by the agency of Zanker, followed by a section of just below a hundred pages entitled "Documentation," written through Ewald. The need for the sum of two units separate sections is explained in the preface (p 6) Zanker's chapters basically form a continuous argument, steadily and patiently built up that engages the reader with just about each aspect of the dramatic change in funerary practice of which the sarcophagi are a part. The argument not absents a broad, historical analysis of imperial society and is a work of cultural history, fitly speaking. Zanker intended his essays to be accessible to a general audience, on the other hand he was evidently well aware that the sarcophagus reliefs are not easily "legible" for nonspecialists. There is a great quantity [i]or[/i] amount of about them that is strange and unfamiliar and that requires explanation. It was clearly without of the question for him to provide, as he went along, a filled discussion of each of the grecian myths in the repertory, of the specific episodes narrated upon the sarcophagi, and of the way these change above time. All this is what is here referr to as documentation. And Ewald, individual of Zanker's former students and a genuine sarcophagus specialist, (1) gives a succinct and useful account of the sixteen greatest in quantity important myths, listed alphabetically (Achilles to Theseus), comprising detailed descriptions of thirty-six sarcophagi of particular interest (the "documents"). The reader who wishes to have the frequently complex myths more fully narrated, the separate sights clearly identified and explained, and other important issues addressed--like chronology, diction relative popularity, and so on--can easily make go round to Ewald's section for further enlightenment (and an informative bibliography upon each piece). (2)

For more than half a hundred the big question in sarcophagus studies has been: What was the intended meaning of the elaborate carved mythological reliefs? Unfortunately, no consensus has at any time emerged on this question. more [i]or[/i] less have continued to believe, following Franz Cumont that the mythological reliefs are sophisticated allegories embodying reliances for an afterlife--hopes that otherwise went unexpress in contemporary literature or funerary inscriptions. Skeptics, upon the other hand, have guarded to regard the mythological reliefs solely as sumptuous ornament, an imagery that referr primarily to the owner's horizontal of education and culture and carried no deep religious message. (3) Despite the appearance, above the years, of a number of ambitious studies attempting to forge a certain number of sort of compromise position, the field has remained basically divided upon this question. (4) In this volume Paul Zanker quite explicitly places out to formulate a completely of recent origin approach to the evidence and to break the apparent deadlock. And in this he has succeeded--brilliantly. His novel approach to the sarcophagi is in like manner carefully crafted and so comprehensive that a simple summary risks sounding absurdly reductive. Nevertheless, Zanker himself has already published a helpful statement of the basic argument in a relatively short essay--which displays that it can be done. (5)