Art in the Lives of Ordinary Romans: Visual Representation and Non-Elite Viewers in Italy, 100 B.C.-A.D. 315 (Joan Palevsky Book in Classical Literature) [Paperback]

John R. Clarke (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 2907052292 | ISBN-13: 978-2907052290 | Publication Date: April 17, 2006 | Edition: 1

This splendidly illustrated book brings to life the ancient Romans whom modern scholarship has largely ignored: slaves, ex-slaves, foreigners, and the freeborn working poor. Though they had no access to the upper echelons of society, ordinary Romans enlivened their world with all manner of artworks. Discussing a wide range of art in the late republic and early empire--from familiar monuments to the obscure Caupona of Salvius and little-studied tomb reliefs--John R. Clarke provides a tantalizing glimpse into the lives of ordinary Roman people. Writing for a wide audience, he illuminates the dynamics of a discerning and sophisticated population, overturning much accepted wisdom about them, and opening our eyes to their astounding cultural diversity.
Clarke begins by asking: How did emperors use monumental displays to communicate their policies to ordinary people? His innovative readings demonstrate how the Ara Pacis, the columns of Trajan and of Marcus Aurelius, and the Arch of Constantine announced each dynasty's program for handling the lower classes. Clarke then considers art commissioned by the non-elites themselves--the paintings, mosaics, and reliefs that decorated their homes, shops, taverns, and tombstones. In a series of paintings from taverns and houses, for instance, he uncovers wickedly funny combinations of text and image used by ordinary Romans to poke fun at elite pretensions in art, philosophy, and poetry.
In addition to providing perceptive readings of many works of Roman art, this original and entertaining book demonstrates why historians must recognize, rather than erase, complexity and contradiction and asks new questions about class, culture, and social regulation that are highly relevant in today's global culture.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

How did ordinary people living in Roman Italy understand and use visual art? That's the question that Clarke aims to answer in this dense but fascinating work of art history. A Regents professor at the University of Texas, Austin, Clarke has already written several books on ancient Rome (The Houses of Roman Italy; Roman Black-and-White Figural Mosaics; etc.), and the depth and breath of his knowledge shine in this latest work. Ninety-eight percent of Roman society was composed of slaves, ex-slaves, foreigners and freeborn workers, and in the book's first section, Clarke considers how imperial Romans portrayed these non-elites in their artwork. But the most interesting sections come later, in parts two and three, where the author analyzes the works that ordinary Romans made in public spaces (like taverns) and in their own homes. The book is packed with information about Roman customs, social structures and history. But for all its scholarship, Clarke's prose is impressively readable, mostly because the author deliberately eschews jargon and makes clear, reasonable connections between Roman habits and our own. Discussing the non-elite use of portraiture, for example, Clarke writes that "many of us have a place in our home....where we exhibit photographs of family; it's a way to tell guests, through pictures, something about ourselves." This is a fine and absorbing work; despite its high price, it deserves a wide audience of readers.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

"Fresh, improvised, and anything but standard...Clarke's [book] will constitute the best and maybe the only way of looking at much of Roman art. [This] thoughtful and humane book is a welcome reminder of how much more there is to art history than social status and political power. Lavishly and beautifully illustrated with original photography." - Greg Woolf, Times Literary Supplement (tls) "An enriched and more varied view of the complexity of Roman artistic production...Recommended." - R. Brilliant, Choice: Current Reviews For Academic Libraries "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." - Diana E. E. Kleiner, author of Roman Sculpture"

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Product Details

• Paperback: 396 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press; 1 edition (April 17, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 2907052292
• ISBN-13: 978-2907052290
• ASIN: 0520248155
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 6.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #451,571 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars How Important Art Was to Roman Non-Elites, May 28, 2004

By 

R. Hardy "Rob Hardy" (Columbus, Mississippi USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Art in the Lives of Ordinary Romans: Visual Representation and Non-Elite Viewers in Italy, 100 B.C.-A.D. 315 (Joan Palevsky Book in Classical Literature) (Hardcover)

"The glory that was Rome" has become proverbial. But John R. Clarke, a professor of the history of art, argues that the monuments of that glory, like the Arch of Constantine and the portraits of emperors, are not the full story. There was other Roman art, like wall paintings and mosaics, which, especially if they were decorations in ordinary houses in Pompeii, were not previously regarded as art within art history. When Clarke first began studying Roman art, these were objects of study in the everyday life of Romans. This has changed, and "everyday" art of the Romans has become a respected target for academic study, not only for itself but for what it can tell us about the majority of Romans. In _Art in the Lives of Ordinary Romans: Visual Representation and Non-Elite Viewers in Italy, 100 B.C. - A.D. 315_ (University of California Press), Clarke lays out the importance of art made or commissioned by such lowly ones as slaves, former slaves, and freeborn workers. Emperors and the wealthy represented themselves in artwork carrying out official and prestigious practices that would demonstrate their importance. Non-elites tended more to want to depict ordinary acts, working, drinking, even brawling. It isn't surprising that the "unofficial" art could tell us more about daily Roman life.

Clarke does begin by discussing how non-elites viewed the official art of the emperors, and then proceeds to the art that non-elites produced. There are many examples here of art in domestic shrines, business-advertising, status boasting, and humor-provoking. Clarke speculates, for example, that a painting from Pompeii previously thought to depict a man selling bread is actually a man giving out a bread dole. There is no evidence of commerce; the receivers of the bread are exultant and do not themselves give up money. The painting comes from a small house, not that of an elite citizen. Clarke says that most likely this is the house of a baker who was prosperous, decided that at some point he would give bread away, and wanted to be depicted in his act of charity. Viewers of his painting would have been reminded of the event, and the baker's prestige would have risen. A completely different commemoration of a particular event is the painting from another house of a riot in the Pompeian amphitheater. This depicted a real event arising somehow from hooliganism during games between the home and visiting teams, an event that caused Rome to forbid all gladiatorial shows in Pompeii for ten years. The owner of the house went to the trouble of having an event that might be thought of as shameful commemorated on his walls. Clarke gives evidence, from the placement of the picture and the subject, that the owner was a gladiatorial fan, who honored the gladiators by putting on display a commemoration of a riot held in their honor, perhaps a riot in which he himself took a glorious part. Unlike the citizen who wanted people to remember the honorable act of giving out bread, the fan (and his buddies) liked remembering how the Roman social order could be disrupted.

Clarke's book is a serious academic tome, complete with scads of footnotes and a huge bibliography. It is, however, written in an engaging style. Clarke is careful to state when he is speculating from incomplete evidence, but even when he does speculate, the evidence is good, and his argument is convincing that art commissioned by these commoners is not a trickled-down version of the works of their betters, but something vibrant and significant to be appreciated on its own. The book is beautifully produced, on glossy paper with, as is fitting, many illustrations. The wealth of the patron, and the skill of the artist, may have put limits upon these works, but they show enormous creative breadth and, in Clarke's interpretations, surprising utility.

4.0 out of 5 stars Totally fine, July 22, 2011

By 

Anne K - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Art in the Lives of Ordinary Romans: Visual Representation and Non-Elite Viewers in Italy, 100 B.C.-A.D. 315 (Joan Palevsky Book in Classical Literature) (Paperback)

This was obviously an expensive textbook for an upper level archaeology, art history or history class. It was in excellent condition and a fraction of the cost new.