Roman Art

(4 Credits)

To acquire an awareness of and an appreciation of Rome and its civilization, the course will survey the art, archaeology and culture of Ancient Rome from the Republican period through the Early Christian period. Through our examination of Roman material culture, we will consider how the art and archaeological record reflect the religious, commemorative and political preoccupations of each culture as well as issues of identity and social construction. Topics will include the role of environmental history; the art and archaeology of religion and ritual; approaches to urbanism and architectural development; the visual arts in both public and private contexts; and the archaeology of empire. A central theoretical concern of the course will be how we read the material record of prehistoric cultures vis à vis the material record of historic ones and the influence of written sources on archaeological interpretation in general and Italian archaeology in particular.