This course will cover the art and archaeology of the Roman world, from its forerunners in Etruscan and western Greek art in the early Iron Age, ca. 1000 BC, to the end of the reign of Constantine in the fourth century AD. We will consider issues such as how one defines “Roman” in terms of period, territory, language, ethnicity, cultural institutions and the like; the achievements of the Roman state in terms of unifying and developing the Mediterranean world and imposing a uniform culture over a diverse cultures; the uses of Roman art and architecture to establish and communicate identity and power; the arts of emperors, including monumental architecture, sculptures and mosaics, and the more modest arts of private citizens, their houses, paintings and statues. We will look at the arts of the homeland, Rome and Italy, and at the arts of the provinces; and how the Romans used art to maintain ties among the elites from Spain to Syria and from Scotland to the Sahara. We will consider the dramatic changes that Roman art underwent in the later Empire, and the transition from the Roman world, the last and only unified European empire, to the Medieval period.

Undergraduates enroll in 304, Graduates enroll in 704.

Prerequisites: 304: So st & Art Hist 201 or cons inst. 704: Grad standing.