Panel 3.3 – (Re)Producing images of the divine between Late Republican times and Late Antiquity


Organiser/Chair:

  • Marlis Arnhold (Universität Bonn)

Panel abstract

Economic aspects concerning Roman religion cannot only be studied using the extant sanctuaries and under aspects such as consumption, but are essential to all forms of material articulations of cultic practices, such as objects and images. Moreover, they were embedded into the material culture of their respective period of time, even though they may have been reserved for very specific functional contexts. Seeing and perceiving religious imagery therefore cannot be discussed without the analysis of material forms and the production processes which contributed to their creation. Thus the rationalization and economization which affected the production of stone sculpture resulted among others in astonishingly consistent iconographies, motives, and modes of composition which enabled the creation of easily recognizable images of deities. As Marlis Arnhold underlines in her contribution on representations of the Mithras and other deities, these images could nevertheless articulate individual notions of the divine. Katharina Rieger's contribution reviews the prevailing explanations of low costs for standardized and repetitive dedicational objects, and looks for the significance of this economic process for the religious imaginary in Late Republican and Imperial times. Kristine Iara's contribution deals with the city of Rome in Late Antiquity and discusses evidence for the impact of 'budget cuts' on the creation, production and dissemination of these images, previously virtually ubiquitous in the city of Rome.

 

Paper abstracts

1. Anna-Katharina Rieger (University of Graz)

Multiplied gods: the significance of repetition and modular production of image-objects of Graeco-Roman deities
The idea of the paper is to look for the significance of the repetitive and little individualized types of imagery of gods dedicated in sanctuaries – mainly statuettes (terracotta or marble). The explanations oscillate between the cheap and easy way of production, but the levels of significance can be differentiated. The phase of their production is where the economic argument ties in. However, when applying a demand-driven approach, the (re-)production of always the same types is also regulated by the clients buying or commissioning the pieces. The clients again act against the background of their cultural and social environment, where individual decision, economic possibilities and religious purpose interact and/or compete. On the next level, the repetition and resemblances effect the communication with people and with the gods, and the appearance of the sacred places, where they are dedicated. The cultural imaginaire – in this case the idea of supranatural gods and the contact to them – could turn out in this perspective to be as much a driver for the repetitive production as are economic reasons.Examples will be drawn from the Late-Republic and Imperial sanctuaries at Ostia, Nemi and Corinth.

 

2. Antonino Crisà (University of Warwick)

Religion, micro-economies and divinities reproduction on small tesserae in Roman Sicily
Tokens are very common objects nowadays and can be used, for instance, to get a free drink at festivals or pubs. In the Roman world, these objects were produced on a vast scale and are still discovered by archaeologists, although they are often difficult to understand. ‘Token Communities in the Ancient Mediterranean’ is a new research project, founded by the ERC and carried out by the University of Warwick. It aims to understand the role and function of tesserae in ancient communities, focusing on the analysis of finds from European museums.
I am currently studying tokens from Hellenistic and Roman Sicily within this project. The paper aims to present two vital aspects of my research: the role of tokens as a means to activate and boost micro-economies on a local scale, and the reproduction of images to represent community or individual identities. First, I assess a set of unpublished finds from Marineo (Palermo), which testifies how terracotta tokens showing images of local deities could be linked to religious festivals. Moreover, standardization of divine images is crucially linked to the economization of local cults and sanctuaries economies. Second, I analyze some tesserae from Syracuse, which may be connected to tax payments and pastoralism. Such objects, including their iconographies and archaeological contexts, are therefore crucial to understanding how microeconomies and standardized dedicational objects worked in small Sicilian communities.

"Tokens and the Reproduction of Divinities in Hellenistic and Roman Sicily: Some Preliminary Case Studies" (Fulltext)

 

3. Regina Hanslmayr (Universität Zürich)

Herms: the Commercial Success of an Economic and Multifunctional Format of Antique Sculpture
This paper focuses on the widespread use of herms in the Roman world. Depending on context and iconography a herm could serve as an emblem for a lot of different levels of meanings. A copy of the famous Hermes Propylaios by Alkamens recalled the great Athenian past under the rule of Perikles in general. Depending on its specific location, a roman patron could either emphasize the religious connotation of Hermes as the god of boundaries in its typical pillarshaped idol, or rather refer to it as a piece of art by a well known sculptor. Countless small scale hermbusts depicting Dionysus, his entourage, Hermes and other mythological figures offered an even greater range of usability. Based on the evidence in the Vesuvian area those hermbusts embellished private gardens and were often used as a decorative element in marble tables (monopodia). But even when reduced to a small scale and produced in bulk, the original religious purpose of the archaic idol of Hermes still lives on in the Roman Imperial period. A hermbust of Dionysus found in a Lararium in Pompeii is only one of several find contexts that indicate, that despite the decorative function of many of those small scale herms, they still carried a religious message. This talk will also consider the question of specialized workshops and the rationalization that clearly occurred in the production of herms in general and more so in the category of the small scale herms.

 

4. Marlis Arnhold (Universität Bonn)

Economizing images of the divine
From the Hellenistic period onwards the growing interest of Rome and other urban centers in Greek art led to the development of a great variety of methods and techniques to produce and emulate images including also representations of deities. This also involved involved motives, iconographies, and modes of composition which reveal striking consistencies, as is particularly evident when motives were employed in very different functional contexts, as was the case in representations of the winds or seasons which appear in domestic, funerary, and cultic (i.e. images of the Mithras-tauroctony) contexts alike. This bricolage of image elements which can be found throughout the Roman Empire presupposes their general accessibility and availability for craftsmen and commissioners. Particularly in case of relief sculpture, as can be found in context of mithraea, for instance, motives of specific meaning were deliberately combined to underline the desired characteristics of the represented god. Starting from these consistent image elements of representations of divine agents, the contribution analyses the production modes of these images including the aspects of the availability and accessibility, as well as ways of distribution of motives, iconographies, and modes of composition. Thus asking for the conditions, the economization and rationalization processes affecting the production processes of art from late Republican/Hellenistic times onwards are being discussed.

 

5. Kristine Iara (American Academy in Rome)

Reproducing and disseminating signs: late antique Rome
The paper’s chronological and geographical focus is on the city of Rome in Late Antiquity, a period of profound transformations affecting both the physical appearance of the city and the civic and religious life of its inhabitants. The material under discussion are the images of gods as well as other objects that refer materially to divine presence (architecture, depictions, inscriptions, etc.). These objects were, in Imperial Rome, virtually ubiquitous. Their production and dissemination on the one hand, their perception on an everyday basis by Rome’s inhabitants on the other, were a matter of course. For an examination of the reciprocity of economic conditions and the material manifestation of religion the time span of inquiry is particularly appealing, as the bulk of investment and resources dedicated to the traditional religion lapsed, especially after the emperor’s interest turned to the new Christian religion. The paper sheds light on the interdependence of ‘budget cuts’ and the material expression of religion by addressing the following three questions: who were the (groups of) persons who had an ongoing interest in investing into religious imagery and other objects (as above), even with melting economic resources? How did this decrease of economic resources become manifest: In lesser quantities of objects, in a reduction in terms of varieties, or in a reduction of the narratives to the bare essential? How did this affect topography in terms of visibility?

"Budget Cuts and Material Expression of Religion" (Fulltext)