Publisher's Synopsis
Art and Text in Roman Culture is a collection of specially commissioned essays exploring the interface between words and images in the Roman world. The relationship of pictures and writing is complex and fascinating. Essays by ancient historians, literary critics and classical art historians examine a range of themes from ekphrasis to epigraphy, from the problems of modern to those of ancient reproduction, from mimesis to self-fashioning, from the cultural meanings of children and death in imperial Roman art to the significance of torture and images of women. The aim of this volume - a sequel to Art and Text in Ancient Greek Culture edited by Simon Goldhill and Robin Osborne (1994) - is to offer a series of commentaries and reflections on different kinds of interaction between images and writing in Rome, in order to enrich the critical debate within Classical art history.