Artistic Reconfigurations Of Rome

In Artistic Reconfigurations of Rome Kaspar Thormod examines how visions of Rome manifest themselves in artworks produced by contemporary international artists who have stayed at the city’s foreign academies.

This study examines how visions of Rome manifest themselves in artworks produced by international artists during or after their stay at the city’s foreign academies. I treat the extensive body of aesthetic material as a "laboratory" for exploring the wealth of responsive, sometimes agitated, sometimes conflicting ideas which are not passively transmitted by Rome, but framed, activated and given form by the artists. The account is wide-ranging in so far as it combines a large number of artworks; and it is selective in the sense that it frames these artworks within specific thematically oriented chapters. The result is a dynamic visual history of how artists reconfigure Rome today - from critical evaluations of the institutional frameworks and legacies of the foreign academies to explorations of how artists negotiate the spectacle of Roman sites; from portraits of the people who inhabit both the centre and the periphery of the city to studies of how the notions of history and Roman artistic traditions are appropriated and reconfigured in the present. Historiographical issues are still central to the artistic reconfiguration, but the main emphasis has shifted towards how Rome as a place, an idea and a historical legacy responds to our present world. These artists create work that situates Rome in the entanglement of past and present as well as in local and global contexts. It is through the tensions and possibilities that this entanglement brings to the fore that the artworks challenge more traditional historical reflections on the city. When artists successfully reconfigure Rome, they provide us with visions that, being anchored in a present, undermine the connotations of permanence and immovability that cling to the 'Eternal City' epithet. Looking at this work, we are invited critically to engage with the question: what is Rome today? - or perhaps better: what can Rome be?

"Art in the Lives of Ordinary Romans is superbly out of the ordinary. John Clarke's significant and intriguing book takes stock of a half-century of lively discourse on the art and culture of Rome's non-elite patrons and viewers. Its compelling case studies on religion, work, spectacle, humor, and burial in the monuments of Pompeii and Ostia, which attempt to revise the theory of trickle-down Roman art, effectively refine our understanding of Rome's pluralistic society. Ordinary Romans-whether defined in imperialistic monuments or narrating their own stories through art in houses, shops, and tombs-come to life in this stimulating work."—Diana E. E. Kleiner, author of Roman Sculpture "John R. Clarke again addresses the neglected underside of Roman art in this original, perceptive analysis of ordinary people as spectators, consumers, and patrons of art in the public and private spheres of their lives. Clarke expands the boundaries of Roman art, stressing the defining power of context in establishing Roman ways of seeing art. And by challenging the dominance of the Roman elite in image-making, he demonstrates the constitutive importance of the ordinary viewing public in shaping Roman visual imagery as an instrument of self-realization."—Richard Brilliant, author of Commentaries on Roman Art, Visual Narratives, and Gesture and Rank in Roman Art "John Clarke reveals compelling details of the tastes, beliefs, and biases that shaped ordinary Romans' encounters with works of art-both public monuments and private art they themselves produced or commissioned. The author discusses an impressively wide range of material as he uses issues of patronage and archaeological context to reconstruct how workers, women, and slaves would have experienced works as diverse as the Ara Pacis of Augustus, funerary decoration, and tavern paintings at Pompeii. Clarke's new perspective yields countless valuable insights about even the most familiar material."—Anthony Corbeill, author of Nature Embodied: Gesture in Ancient Rome "How did ordinary Romans view official paintings glorifying emperors? What did they intend to convey about themselves when they commissioned art? And how did they use imagery in their own tombstones and houses? These are among the questions John R. Clarke answers in his fascinating new book. Charting a new approach to people's art, Clarke investigates individual images for their functional connections and contexts, broadening our understanding of the images themselves and of the life and culture of ordinary Romans. This original and vital book will appeal to everyone who is interested in the visual arts; moreover, specialists will find in it a wealth of stimulating ideas for further study."—Paul Zanker, author of The Mask of Socrates: The Image of the Intellectual in Antiquity

This volume covers the major artistic and architectural masterpieces produced in Rome from antiquity up to the present day. It particularly considers art in ancient Rome, the Early Christian period, the Middle Ages, and the Renaissance and Baroque periods, as well as more recent artistic productions. As such, it highlights the ongoing evolution of art in Rome. Its fifteen chapters are organized topographically with each corresponding to a specific area of Rome and exploring sites and monuments within that location. Whenever possible, the chapters are also arranged chronologically. Therefore, many of the ancient monuments are examined in the beginning chapters, and then subsequent section move chronologically through the Early Christian period, the Middle Ages, and the Renaissance, the Baroque, and modern periods. With its engaging and informative writing, the volume will enhance students’ knowledge of Rome, allowing them to get as much out of their study abroad experience as possible. In addition, Art in Rome will appeal to scholars and erudite travelers, who want to extensively explore the many artistic monuments of Rome.

Published to accompany exhibition of same name held at the Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery, 3/5 - 23/6 1996. This exhibition studied the ways in which 19th century British painters such as Alma-Tadema and Samuel Palmer were inspired by the remains of ancient Rome.

Accompanied by the masterpieces and memories of illustrious figures, we follow the arc of a city and a civilization from its beginnings to its height and fall, leafing through pages of history from the various eras. Rome was the final act of antiquity, and a dramatic conception of a new world."--BOOK JACKET.