Art History 290AR - Issues in Art History: 'Art and Experience in Ancient Rome'

To see and be seen -- it could be argued that this was the very definition of Roman culture. In this course, lectures on the art and architecture of ancient Rome (ca. 300 BCE - 400 CE) will provide the backdrop for an investigation of the central role that visual culture played in the lives of different social groups, including bondspeople and the formerly enslaved, women and children. Special topics will include the funeral as performance, the house as a site of memory, the dissemination of images on coins, the spectacle of agriculture and dining, art and audience in the racetrack and public baths, representations of work by non-elites, and the Roman street as a place for making art.