Description
Book SynopsisBrings to life the ancient Romans whom modern scholarship has largely ignored: slaves, ex-slaves, foreigners, and the freeborn working poor. Written for a wide audience, this book illuminates the dynamics of a discerning and sophisticated population, overturning much accepted wisdom about them, and opening our eyes to their cultural diversity.
Trade 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"
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction Part 1. Imperial Representation of Non-elites 1. Augustus's and Trajan's Messages to Commoners 2. The All-seeing Emperor and Ordinary Viewers: Marcus Aurelius and Constantine Part 2. Non-elites in the Public Sphere 3. Everyman, Everywoman, and the Gods 4. Everyman and Everywoman at Work 5. Spectacle: Entertainment, Social Control, Self-advertising, and Transgression 6. Laughter and Subversion in the Tavern: Image, Text, and Context 7. Commemoration of Life in the Domain of the Dead: Non-elite Tombs and Sarcophagi Part 3. Non-elites in the Domestic Sphere 8. Minding Your Manners: Banquets, Behavior, and Class 9. Putting Your Best Face Forward: Self-representation at Home Conclusions Notes Bibliography Illustration Credits Index
