Download Augustus 07 Lecture XVI

The Rome of Augustus
Lecture XVI 5 April 2007
"From Gorgons to God-kings" (continued)
Conclude overview of periods of Greek art with focus on representation of named individuals
(portraiture)
Archaic and classical Greek art not concerned to represent individuals in recognizable terms. Also, in
classical Greek city-states political iconography–e.g., on coins–does not feature images of individual
leaders.
What are sometimes called Classical "portraits" either idealized figures (Pericles as soldier-statesman),
conventional types ("Homer" and some philosopher-portraits), or characters made to conform to the image
the persons in question convey through their work (e.g., poets like Sappho or Anacreon, or Cynic
philosophers like Diogenes). Socrates an exceptional case: posthumous portraits show him as a distinctive
person.
Proliferation of portrait-types each with its own characteristics points toward eventual representation of
individuals in Hellenistic period. Fine bust of comic writer Menander from MFA on borderline between
type and individual.
Alexander the Great (as depicted by his successors) marks a new development: carefully developed and
publicized image of ruler with clearly identifiable traits; not necessarily realistic, but consistent, specific,
and immediately recognizable.
–Dramatizing effect of parted lips, upturned head, abundant, upswept hair [= anastole], recalling
depictions of the Sun-god Helios; other heroic or divine associations, e.g., links to Hercules, ram's horns of
Zeus Ammon.
Hellenistic monarchs, successors of Alexander in 3rd-1st centuries BC, often portrayed in Alexander-style
magnifying/divinizing terms, but strong realistic strain in Hellenistic art also makes itself felt, creating
some curious hybrid portrayals.
–Contrasting depictions of Ptolemies
–Attalus I with upswept hair, intense expression
–Seleucus Nikator with "godlike" gaze
–Ptolemy III as Zeus, Poseidon, and Helios simultaneously
–Pyrrhus et al.
–"Terme Ruler," heroic nude with non-heroic facial features
Heroic nude has a long history in ruler-portrayal, but form is inherently problematic for non-heroes.
Native Roman approach to portraiture often called “veristic,” implying a "warts and all" realism; many
imagines of individuals made for commemorative purposes, therefore desirable to preserve distinctive
features of departed. But also typical of Romans to associate age with gravitas and auctoritas; possible
that some images exaggerate elderly features, showing Romans as they thought they should look.
“Verism” therefore should be treated as a style with its own conventions.
In time of Julius Caesar and Pompey, “veristic” and Hellenistic styles combine in various ways:
–Some Romans, perhaps especially those with contacts with the Greek world, adopt the "heroic
nude" style; e.g., businessman from Delos, general from Tivoli. Collision of styles sometimes jarring to
modern taste.
–Pompey's image on coins and statues borrows Alexander's anastole, but renders features in
traditional Roman non-idealized form.
–Caesar’s facial portraiture basically “veristic,” especially on coins, but statuary shows examples
of idealizing or dramatizing.
–Mark Antony another example of this mixture of styles: “veristic” coin images versus more
idealized sculptural portraits. Differences of intended audience/circulation?
Next time: the evolving image of Octavian/Caesar/Augustus.
Reading assignment for Lecture XVII: Zanker, Power of Images, pp. 53-59, 89-100, 183-195, 215-223,
230-238, 297-302.
REMINDER: Sign up for MFA tour on course website, and remember to bring your Harvard
student ID to the Museum.
Picasso, Stalin, and the problem of heroic nudity:
In 1953 Picasso produced a portrait of Josef Stalin that was harshly criticized by the Soviet authorities as
being unflattering. In a conversation shortly afterward, Picasso reflected ironically on the choices facing
an artist in depicting the aging leader.
"Can you imagine if I had done the real Stalin, such as he has become, with his wrinkles, his
pockets under the eyes, his warts. A portrait in the style of Cranach! Can you hear them scream? 'He has
disfigured Stalin! He has aged Stalin!'" He continued: "And then too, I said to myself, why not a Stalin in
heroic nudity?... Yes, but, Stalin nude, and what about his virility?... If you take the pecker of the classical
sculptor...* So small... But, come on, Stalin, he was a true male, a bull. So then, if you give him the phallus
of a bull, and you've got this little Stalin behind his big thing they'll cry: But you've made him into a sex
maniac! A satyr!
"Then if you are a true realist you take your tape measure and you measure it all properly. That's
worse, you made Stalin into an ordinary man. And then, as you are ready to sacrifice yourself, you make a
plaster cast of your own thing. Well, it's even worse. What, you dare take yourself for Stalin! After all,
Stalin, he must have had an erection all the time... Tell me, you who know: socialist realism, is that Stalin
with an erection or without an erection?"
(*Picasso is referring to the common Greek practice of showing male gods and heroes with
disproportionately small phalluses, sometimes interpreted as implying great self-control.)
From the London Guardian Saturday Review, 21 October 2000.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/saturday_review/story/
Further reading: Christopher Hallett, The Roman Nude: Heroic Portrait Statuary 200 BC—AD 300.
Oxford 2005.
Today’s prelude: more orchestral selections from Marin Marais’ opera Sémélé (details in Tuesday’s notes).