The death of myth on Roman sarcophagi : allegory and visual narrative in the Late Empire / Mont Allen, [Associate Professor of Classics and Art History, Department of Languages and Cultures, 1000 Faner Drive, MC 4521, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL 62901, (618) 619-0961, montallen@siu.edu].
"A strange thing happens to Roman sarcophagi in the middle of the third century: their mythic imagery vanishes. These beautifully carved coffins had featured bold mythological scenes since the very beginning of their mainstream production early in the second century AD, when burial had replaced cremation as the favored means for disposing of the dead. Evocative testament to Rome's ongoing love affair with classical Greek culture, they derived emotional force from their resonance with an artistic tradition centuries old while providing catharsis and consolation to those still living. How then to make sense of this imagery's own death on later sarcophagi, as mythological narratives were truncated, gods and heroes were excised, and genres featuring no mythic content whatsoever - such as the late third century's endless procession of sarcophagi featuring bucolic shepherds and studious philosophers - came to the fore? What could such a profound tectonic shift in the Roman funerary imagination mean? - for our understanding of Roman history and culture, for the development of its arts, for the passage from the High to the Late Empire and the coming of Christianity, but above all, for the individual Roman women and men who chose this imagery as the lens through which they wanted to be remembered, and who took it with them to the grave? A concrete example or two will help to throw the matter into relief. Sometime around 230 or 240 AD, a married (we assume) couple, anticipating their eventual demise, commissioned a pair of lavish sarcophagi to receive their remains. Now, ordering a pair of them - one for each corpse - was indeed unusual. It was far more common for a couple to purchase a single sarcophagus for their joint use. But in this case, our couple clearly had money to spare, and so opted for separate coffins - coffins which, nonetheless, they commissioned to serve as pendants to each other, with dimensions that were almost identical, and carved with scenes that complemented each other, representing female and male variations on a theme"-- Provided by publisher.
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