ART 382, Book Review ASSIGNMENT

The paper will consist of a critical book review of around three to five pages in length on a book approved by the instructor that you will use as a source for your research paper. You should read your chosen book carefully, noting the author's arguments, and comparing them to what you find in your texts. You likely will want to do some supplementary reading to check further on these, and to compare them to other scholarly opinion. In your book review, you should summarize the contents of the book, noting the author's arguments, and comment critically on them, noting also other points the author might have discussed. The review should be written in clear English, and must be typed. The review is due November 10. Books approved by the instructor are listed below. If you wish to review another book, it must be cleared with the instructor before October 13, when a prospectus listing the book to be reviewed and the supplementary reading you plan to do before writing the review is due.

The Book Review

A critical book review is an informed critique of a scholarly work. It should take something like the following form:

1. Bibliographical information about the work: author, title, place and date of publication. This is given as a heading.

2. A brief statement of the book's purpose or thesis (why it was written). This may be combined with an introduction to the material dealt with in the book.

3. A synopsis or overview of the order in which the author presents his or her information.

4. Critical evaluation of the success or failure of the book in meeting its thesis. This may include any errors in the book you find (including typos), any features which made the book difficult to read, and mention of additional material that the author failed to include.

5. A final evaluation of the book as a success or failure, including what readership it is suitable for.

SUGGESTED PAPER TOPICS: ART 382, ROMAN ART

Write a research paper of approximately seven or eight printed pages in length. A bibliography of works consulted should be appended to the paper. The bibliography must include at least three sources beyond your text books, and these three may include only one web source. Of, course, if you have over three sources beyond your text you may use as many web sources as you wish. The following topics are suggested. If you wish to do another topic you will need to clear that with the instructor:Due November 17.

1) Discuss the Roman podium temple from its origins as an Etruscan form through the first century CE. Include reference to the siting of these temples with relation to other architecture. Attention should also be paid to outside influence on architectural decoration and sculptural decoration. Book ro review: J. Stamper, The Architecture of Roman Temples : the republic to the middle empire (Cambridge 2005); Boethius, A., Etruscan and Roman architecture (Penguin 1978)

2) Discuss the development of Roman portraiture from the first century BCE to c. 100 CE, focusing on either images of women or men. What types of themes are presented in Roman portraits of this period and what role do different styles play in enhancing the appreciation of these themes? Books to review: Wood, Susan, Imperial women : a study in public images, 40 BC-AD 68 (Boston 2000); Bartman, E. Portraits of Livia : imaging the imperial woman in Augustan Rome (Cambridge 1999); Kleiner, D.E.E., Roman Sculpture (New Haven 1992); Hallett, C., The Roman nude : heroic portrait statuary 200 BC-AD 300(Cambridge 2006); J. Breckenridge, Likeness; a conceptual history of ancient portraiture (Evanston IL 1968)

3) Discuss the development of Roman portraiture in the third and the fourth centuries A.D. What themes are presented in portraiture in these two centuries and what do they indicate about the Romans of the Late Empire? What role does style(s) play in presenting these themes?

Book review: Wood, S., Roman Portrait Sculpture, 217-260 A.D. (Leiden 1986); Kleiner, D.E.E., Roman Sculpture (New Haven 1992); Hallett, C., The Roman nude : heroic portrait statuary 200 BC-AD 300(Cambridge 2006)

4) Discuss the use of domed spaces in Roman architecture. Book Review: MacDonald, W., The Architecture of the Roman Empire I (New Haven 1965); Ward-Perkins, J., Roman architecture (NY 1977); Ward-Perkins, J. Roman imperial architecture (Penguin 1981)

5) Discuss the debt of Early Christian art to Roman art. How did the Christians adapt Roman imagery to Christian themes? Books to review: Jensen, R., Understanding early Christian art (London and NY 2000); Milburn, R., Early Christian Art and Architecture (Berkeley 1988); Spier, J., Picturing the Bible : the earliest Christian art (Yale 2007)

6) Discuss the problem of Roman copies of Greek sculpture. How did the Romans select and use the Greek statues they copied? Books to review: Ridgway, B.S., Roman Copies of Greek Sculpture (Ann Arbor 1984); Hallett, C., The Roman nude : heroic portrait statuary 200 BC-AD 300(Cambridge 2006)

7) Discuss the growth and development of the Imperial forums (fora ) in Rome. How does the Forum of Trajan serve as a culmination of the administrative architecture of the center of Rome? Book Review: Packer, J., The ForumofTrajan in Rome : a study of the monuments in brief (Berkeley, CA, 2001); Ward-Perkins, J., Roman architecture (NY 1977); Ward-Perkins, J. Roman imperial architecture (Penguin 1981)

8) Discuss Roman wall painting in the first centuries BCE and CE with special attention to the range of images and their use within decorative schemes. Books to review: Ling, R., Roman Painting (Cambridge 1991), B. Bergmann, B. , Roman frescoes from Boscoreale : the Villa of Publius Fannius Synistor in reality and virtual reality (Yale 2010); Leach, E., The Social life of painting in ancient Rome and on the Bay of Naples (Cambridge 2004)

9) Discuss the painted mummy portraits found in the Faiyum in Egypt as examples of Roman painting. Books to Review: S. Walker, S., Ancient faces : mummy portraits from Roman Egypt (NY 2000); Doxiadis, E., TheMysterious Fayum portraits : faces from ancient Egypt (NY 1995)

10) Discuss Roman mosaics as decoration in homes. How does the imagery throughout the empire illustrate the common Classical culture of the upper classes? How does mosaic decoration vary across the empire? Books to review: Clarke, J., Roman Black and White Figural Mosaics (New York 1979).Dunbabin, K., Mosaics of the Greek and Roman world (Cambridge 1999); Ling, R. , Ancient Mosaics (Princeton 1998)

11) Imperial Relief sculpture in the late first and second centuries. What forms did it take, and what messages are presented? How does the style of sculpture expressing the values of the ruler vary iand/or change in this period. Book Review: Hannestad, N., Roman Art and Imperial Policy (Aarhus 1988); Torelli, M., Typology and Structure of Roman Historical Reliefs (Ann Arbor 1982); Kleiner, D.E.E., Roman Sculpture (New Haven 1992).

12) Sculpture in Late Antique art. How did this popular form of Roman art change stylistically after 200 CE? In what ways did it stay the same. Discuss some of the major monuments of the period 235-400 in Roman sculpture, including example of both relief sculpture and sculpture in the round. Book to Review: Bianchi Bandinelli, R., Rome: the Late Empire (New York 1971); J. Elsner, Art and the Roman viewer : the transformation of art from the Pagan world to Christianity (Cambridge 1995).

13) Discuss Pompeii as an example of a Roman town.

Book Review: P. Zanker, Pompeii : public and private life (CambridgeMA 1998),

L. Richardson, Pompeii : an architectural history (Baltimore 1988), M. Grant, Cities of Vesuvius : Pompeii and Herculaneum (HarmondsworthNY 1976).

14) Discuss the Roman private house types, architectural forms and decorations. This may include town houses (domi) and country houses (villas).

Book Review: C. Mattusch, Pompeii and the Roman villa : art and culture around the Bay of Naples (London 2008), J. Clarke, The houses of Roman Italy, 100 B.C.-A.D. 250 : ritual, space, and decoration (Berkeley 1991).

15. Discuss art and the ordinary Roman viewer.

Book Review: J. Clarke, Art in the lives of ordinary Romans : visual representation and non-elite viewers in Italy, 100 B.C.-A.D. 315 (Berkeley 2003); J. Elsner, Art and the Roman viewer : the transformation of art from the Pagan world to Christianity (Cambridge 1995)

16) Discuss the architectural and artistic revolution in Rome during the reign of Augustus.

Book Review: Zanker, P., The Power of Images in the Age of Augustus (Ann Arbor 1988)

17) Discuss Etruscan Art and how it influenced and looks forward to the art of the Romans.

Book Review: Brendel, O. Etruscan Art (Penguin 1978); Spivey, N., Etruscan Art (New York 1997).