Roman Portraits [Paperback]

Ludwig Goldscheider (Author), Ilse Schneider-Lengyel (Photographer)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2004

Facsimile reprint of a classic Phaidon title, written and designed by the co-founder of the company, and containing 120 beautiful full-page plates of the powerfully realistic marble portraits for which the Romans were renowned Among the greatest artistic achievements of the Roman Empire are portrait sculptures. Derived from an ancient tradition of making funerary effigies, these portraits are astonishing in their realism and expressive power, and their stern humanity speaks to us across the millennia with undiminished force and directness. Roman Portraits is a unchanged reprint in slightly reduced format of a classic Phaidon plate book first published in 1940. Its distinguished author, Ludwig Goldscheider, who was one of the founders of Phaidon Press, not only wrote the text, but made the selection of images and designed the book himself. The remarkable photographs were taken by the writer and photographer Ilse Schneider-Lengyel, who was commissioned by Phaidon in the 1930s to photograph antique and Renaissance sculpture in the great museums of Europe. Portraits are always fascinating, and the powerful, brooding faces in this book have a compelling and haunting quality that will ap

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Ludwig Goldscheider (1896-1973) was a distinguished art historian and book designer, and co-founder of Phaidon Press in Vienna in 1923. Ilse Schneider-Lengyel (1903-72) was a writer and photographer who specialized in sculpture. Her photographs are reproduced in two other classic works by Goldscheider, Rodin and Michelangelo, both also published by Phaidon.

Product Details

• Paperback: 140 pages
• Publisher: Phaidon Press (October 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0714844365
• ISBN-13: 978-0714844367
• Product Dimensions: 11.9 x 8.8 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,284,414 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Death masks., April 29, 2006

By 

John Colum Hughes (Spain and Eire) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Roman Portraits (Paperback)

Powerful portraits done in marble from Roman times.Very little literature but the photos are excellent and haunting.A nice book for any collection.The faces are so life-like.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic!, February 22, 2007

By 

Hillel Elkayam (Brooklyn, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Roman Portraits (Paperback)

The cover, showing a few profiles overlapping one another, really gives this book's idea: you can study human character by comparing one portrait to another.
Granted, human nature is truly revealed in choices and actions, which a bust portrait cannot depict. Yet - there is a lot to be said for the fact that certain life choices and habits carve this person's face... The emotions that are behind their choices make certain facial expressions, which over time create distinctive muscle-tendon-bone structures...
So, the face can be said to show not just certain inborn characteristic, but also the sum of this person's life choices, as traced by the emotional marks on their faces.
This book is truly remarkable not just for artistic study (and as someone else said, the photography is superb!) but also for the study of human character.
So happy to have this - truly valuable!

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Photo gallery of ancient Romans, February 11, 2005

By 

Kuru (Seattle) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Roman Portraits (Paperback)

This is a highly browsable, enjoyable collection of photos of faces from Roman sculpture. It is not a museum catalogue and provides little textual description. The 120 plate photos themselves are artistically done (as opposed to being intended simply to document the sculpture). In Roman times, sculptures served a purpose similar to photographs today. Relatively few of the portraits are of identifiable people, but Cicero and Augustus, among others, are included.