Art in the Lives of Ordinary Romans (review)
Rent from DeepDyve- Art in the Lives of Ordinary Romans
This is a book not for antiquarians only. The ordinary Roman was "not like us"; yet reading this thoughtful, well-written, and well-illustrated account, the modern parallels so readily come to mind that one begins to suspect that, in the Roman society open to such study, the similarities may still be striking. It may be no part of our mission to help the past explain the present, but it may sharpen the perception of modern dilemmas. The "ordinary" here are not the numerous lowest strata, mainly illiterate, probably unseeing even of the decoration of their mass-produced decorated mold-made pottery. These remain invisible to the art historian and to many archaeologists. Most of Clarke's "non-elites" are a roughly literate middle class, mostly of the first century BC, rich enough often to commission art for themselves, their homes and tombs, and bright enough to appreciate seeing themselves represented in such art, at work or play or worship. They also were expected to notice themselves when represented in the major propaganda art supplied by the elites, where their presence, as soldiers or citizens, is to some degree acknowledged. Yet I imagine the ordinary Roman took as much notice of public art as does the ordinary Texan or Londoner. Nowadays it has to be thrust at us by magazines and TV to be noticed, and it is clear that over the last fifty years elite modes in advertising even the most expensive goods have been carefully eliminated, to the point of vulgarizing, in the worst sense. This generalization applies to both speech and image.
The Romans studied may never have reached the level of condescension in all arts of communication that we suffer—the Highest Common Factor of instant recognition of image and word—perhaps largely because there was no mass production of figurative art at that level. It is not easy to think of any other ancient society in which the middle class as patrons and subjects for art is so prominent; just possibly China and urban Egypt. The medieval era repeats the phenomenon in Europe. Some modern societies in Asia, where literacy is low yet images and even wordage are prominent, may also come to mind for comparisons. Similarities remain often more striking than differences in the record of Homo sapiens as a social animal and consumer of art.
Sir John Boardman, Lincoln Professor of Classical Art and Archaeology Emeritus at Oxford University, is editor of the Oxford History of Classical Art and the author of, most recently, The History of Greek Vases and The Diffusion of Classical Art in Antiquity. Currently based at the Ashmolean Museum, he is a fellow of the British Academy.
