2015 Ancient Art

The concern of this paper is a statuette in Parian marble from the quarries of Lakkoi on Paros. The statuette was set up on a water basin in the Basilica of Saint Antony in Padua. It represents the Muse Calliope, holding a tabula cerata in her left hand. The date is Antonine, the craftsmanship looks Rhodian, probably it is a derivative work from the statue of Calliope in the group of Muses of the Hellenistic Rhodian sculptor Philiscus. In 1513, the Friars of the Basilica of Saint Antony in Padua commissioned a statuette of Saint Justine to be set up on a water basin in the Basilica from the sculptor Laskaris, a Greek who at the time lived in Venice. He gave this old statuette to the friars, changing the subject to Saint Justine. Since Saint Justine usually holds in her left hand the Gospel and in her right hand the palm of her martyrdom, the tabula cerata was reinterpreted as a book. The right arm of the statuette was missing but archival evidence reveals that it had been restored in 1571 by the Paduan sculptor Agostino Zoppo: probably this arm was endowed with the palm of martyrdom. In any case the arm fell down and has survived. The statuette was never studied in depth and only recently it has received the attention it deserves. Thus this contribution is an original one.

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Buildings specially intended for holding libraries start to appear in Asia Minor during the Hellenistic and Roman times. Depending on the period, the buildings differ in forms. Hellenistic libraries resemble Greek constructions with clear order structure and the usage of pediments, while those of Roman times demonstrate a combination of influences — the one inspired by the city of Rome and the other one originating from Oriental tradition.
Hellenistic libraries were usually both museums and scholarly institutions. This is the reason why it is difficult to consider separate buildings of the Hellenistic period to be just libraries. Of much greater interest is the possibility to consider groups of various buildings as holistic ensembles associated by their purpose. Libraries as separate buildings characterized by certain constructive and deco­rative features do not seem to appear in Asia Minor before Roman times.
During the Republican period, libraries used to be only in private possession. The most renowned example is the Villa Papyri at Herculaneum with about two thousand scrolls of manuscripts. The first public library was built in the early Imperial period. Gradually many public libraries appeared in Rome and across the Empire. They existed at various temples (like the Pantheon or the Temple of Apollo Palatinus), at thermae (Baths of Trajan and Baths of Caracalla) or at forums. Several cities possessed their own libraries. The largest among private libraries were those belonging to emperors hou­sed in their palaces and villas (Nero’s Domus Aurea, Domus Flavia in Rome, and Hadrian’s Villa at
Tivoli).
The author of the report is going to discuss the Library of Celsus at Ephesus. This building is a fascinating example of this type of ancient constructions that give an idea of the specificity in the development of architectural order in the Roman Asia Minor.
It is worth mentioning that architects of the Renaissance turned to the tradition of Classical Antiquity not only by rejecting Gothic forms and reviving the order system, but also by returning to Classical proportional harmony. An example of the Renaissance architecture recalling models of Classical Antiquity is the building of Biblioteca Marciana in Venice.

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The paper deals with study of floral motifs in the decor system of South Italian red-figured vases. They have got the richest and the most elaborate interpretation since the middle of the 4th century BC, with the adoption of Ornate style in the South Italian vase-painting. At the same time flower motifs have been little studied (only general information on a particular group of plants is represented). But given the fact that the studied material consists of more than 20 000 vases after a large-scale work accomplished by AD. Trendall with his colleagues in detecting South Italian basic vase-painting centers, leading masters, and also the main types of character scenes, it is necessary to go further. The following vectors can be indicated.
• Studies of iconography: a simultaneous comparison of separate antique floral images with descriptions of ancient Greek authors as well as certain forms of known flora (M. Meurer, P. Jacobsthal, H. Baumann). In Apulian interpretations of flower motifs roses, poppy and aracea can be revealed. The method of stylization can also be considered as a problem: Greek vase-painters were inclined to depict “hybrid” plants including elements of different forms. The combination of a lily, a reed and a palm tree is the most typical for the Aegean material — it has been convincingly revealed by L. Morgan. For the South Italian vase-painting we should distinguish combinations of palmettes, roses, aracea and acanthus — it comes from Attic practice, in addition ivy, hyacinth or lily can be observed as well as combinations of faces or busts with flowers. In the Ornate style a “hybrid” flower is inclu­ded into figurative compositions, in some cases pushing aside and replacing an anthropomorphic
figure.
• Semantic analysis: there are a lot of investigations dealing with cult practice (Sh. Joret, M. Nilsson, J. Murr, T. V. Tsivjan). Nowadays flower subjects are also mentioned. L. I. Akimova established their links with festive occasions, wedding rituals. In a 2007 paper, N. Kei considers scenes with flowers as a “signe de grâce” in Attic vase-painting; most of the author’s observations are applicable for the South Italian vase-painting as well. The analysis of such subjects as the finding of a flower, wedding scenes, depiction of a flower in a naiskos, Eros in the garden (possibly in the Orphic context) represent next research steps.

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The Severus forum was built in a north-African city called Leptis Magna in the beginning of 3rd century AD. The ancient roman forum architectural typology had gone a long way by that time, including the transition from republic image to imperial one. It reached its peak in the construction of Trajan’s forum. Its features included the generalization and reinterpretation of previous forums’ expressive achievements.
Aside from the major branch of typology evolution, there also were local ones, less complex and widescale. However, they still show influence of major forums. This becomes more evident with the construction of Trajan’s forum. As the most expressive of forums, it fully achieves the typology principal goal — glorification of the emperor. It is not surprising that Trajan’s forum became a role model.
Among local forum traditions, there was one of Northern Africa. Those forums are based on a formula close to the republic one. Complexes built prior to 3rd century AD show no connections to the development of imperial forum typology, although it is very active in the capital.
The situation changed with Septimus Severus’ rise to power. By that time, a tradition of paying respect to emperor’s native land, started by Trajan, had existed for a century. It included both political gestures and architectural projects. Septimus Severus, a known venerator of Trajan, began a vast reconstruction of his native town — Leptis Magna. Naturally, it included the construction of a forum, called the Severus forum.
The complex shows influence of several origins. The most important one is the local tradition. This leads to another source — the republican forums, which is quite distinguishable in the Severus forum. Finally, another goal was to either mimic some features of Trajan’s forum or make a reference to it.
Thus, one complex shows a certain array of influences: republican forums, local tradition and Trajan’s forum (which was influenced by the Imperial forums of 1st–2nd centuries AD).
Architectural variety of these origins, as well as the variety of their locations, historical periods, and socio-political realities of Ancient Rome determines the importance of formal and typological analysis of the Severus forum in Leptis Magna.

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The paper is devoted to several architectural principles and building types typical for the late Roman architecture, which could reflect the authoritative concepts and influenced the early Christian architecture. In the architectural theory mainly based on the conceptions of R. Krautheimer and J. Ward-Perkins, the idea that the early Christian architecture has but a few links with late Roman pagan buildings is still vivid. However, A. Grabar proved that many motifs of late Roman art which came from the culture of the ancient Near East had an influence on the early Christian iconography. It seems possible for architecture as well. It is necessary to pay attention to three main architectural features and their meanings.
The first one is the usage of halls with apsidal ends which were typical both for pagan and Christian religious architecture in the 3rd–4th centuries, as well as for luxurious palaces and villas of late Roman nobles. This tendency could develop due to the new religious and political concepts of tetrarchy. They were probably based on concepts of ancient Near Eastern kingship and the new hierarchical organization of ruling class mainly of former military officers.
The second architectural type chosen for study is the tetrastyle (four triumphal columns placed at the crossroads in a city or fortress). It had a wide usage during the first tetrarchy and probably was connected with the idea of concordia — harmony between four rulers. There was a later example of such monument built in the time of Justinian with figures of the evangelists on the columns. H. Bogdanovich supposed that this architectural form could be the probable prototype for the Christian ciborium. In the third place the origin of the latter architectural element is of peculiar interest. Due to the wide numismatic evidence it is known that the baldachin with four supports and flat roof, cylindrical vault or cupola was one of the attributes of God’s or divine ruler’s representation. This motif could come to the Roman culture from the architecture of ancient Egypt and the ancient Near East.
The examination of these three motifs which influenced some features of the early Christian architecture together with the authoritative and religious concepts which they expressed could be very fruitful and important for architectural theory.

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The problem of style development belongs to the mainstream of art research. Discussion on presuppositions and circumstances of the development of such an important phenomenon as an artistic style has been kept on for centuries. Volumes are devoted to major styles in European art. Yet, for the art of the Classical world, the collocation of “provincial art” up to now remains just a combination of words instead of getting the status of a term. At first glance, due to its ordinary sounding and common sense meaning, these widespread words need no additional theoretic comprehension. Still, it seems likely that it is worth working out an exact definition and strict criteria for this uncertain, but signi­ficant notion.
Discussion about art of the North Pontic area brings us to the idea that category of style in this remote province of the Classical world includes contradictory components like the Classical, basically Greek one, and the local — barbarian, which lies far from the Hellenic concepts of beauty, harmony and ideal.
In this context the word “provincial” by no means sounds negative, but we pose a question: where is the fine line beyond which art changes into craft? Is it possible to use the collocation “barbarian taste” as a scholarly term? Does a new artistic continuity originate from the interaction of diverse cultures like seen from the history of graeco-barbarian contacts in the North Pontic region?
In the author’s opinion, the analysis of some plaster-cast applique used to decorate Bosporan wooden sarcophagi during the early ages CE, helps us come to at least one of the ways to define the notion of “provincial style” as applied to the items dating back to Classical Antiquity.

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There are many publications about the iconography of images from Scythian scabbards and gorytoi. B. V. Farmakovsky, G. Richter, C. Meyer, K. Stahler, M. V. Rusyaeva wrote about iconographic prototypes of some of the pieces and in general context of art development. We examine the issue to find consistent patterns of prototypes choice.
Our investigation illustrates, that convention pervaded from monumental sculpture into the practice of goldsmiths of the 4th century BC. We find both 5th and 4th century BC. prototypes: friezes of the Parthenon, the temple of Athena Nike, the Erechtheum, the temple of Apollo at Bassae, the Heroon at Gjolbaschi, the Nereid monument, the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, the Tholos at Epidaurus and Attic gravestones. By means of comparison between scenes from the sculpture and the scabbard and gorytoi reliefs we can see that craftsman could use both just the same motive with loose rendering and pattern after familiar iconography pretty exactly. For instance, it’s noticeable that the author of the Vergina gorytos’ matrix closely replicates figure postures and drapery folds of the frieze from Bassae; whereas the author of the scabbard relief contents with only somewhat of a borrowing and displays more latitude in representation.

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Cuirasse esthétique (fr., literally “aesthetic cuirass”) is a schematic image of the male torso which can be traced back to the Canon (the Doryphoros) by Greek sculptor Polykleitos. Using K. Clark’s definition of the nude in fine art as an art form invented by the Greeks in the 5th century BC (i.e. during Polykleitos’ era) it is possible to treat Polykleitos’ torso as an ideal form of naked male body in art, direct or indirect one (as the muscle cuirass is designed to mimic an idealized human physique).
Clark believed that “it seems ungraceful in itself, and lacking in vitality” to the modern viewer, albeit in due time it was admired by many Renaissance artists — Mantegna’s images can serve as a striking example of such admiration and imitation. Thus, cuirasse esthétique, on the one hand, is in itself a mark of a certain aesthetic unity of antiquity and the Renaissance, while on the other, separates the specified eras from artistic culture of the Modern times, despite the fact it was popular, as we know, in the classicizing fine art in the 17th century and in Neoclassicism, and still exists in Academism.
In our opinion, the cuirasse esthétique in antiquity became a standard device of iconic rhetoric, and that may explain its wide circulation in art throughout long time. As such a device it can be described in terms and concepts of Aristotle’s Rhetoric that might specify its meaning in more detail. The ancient Greek philosopher distinguished “common topics (koinoi topoi), which may be applied alike to Law, Physics, Politics, and many other sciences that differ in kind”, from “specific topics or enthymemes (eide and gene)”, the latter dealing with particular subject matter and, at the time of writing of the treatise, “some [of them] already existing and others not yet established” (I, 2, 20–21). Cuirasse esthétique as a visual topic (eidos) in the best way corresponds to the epideictic (laudatory) kind of rhetorical speeches for which, according to Aristotle, a usual way of persuasion were comparison and amplification.

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Late attic vase painting seems extremely diverse, but it can be divided into two groups. On the one hand, there are expensive, rare, high-quality vessels, carefully made and painted with added color, added clay and gilding — the true masterpieces of the Kerch style vase painting. On the other hand, there are cheap, mass produced handicrafts with monotonous subjects of paintings, executed in haste. However, the gap between the “poles” is not as great as it might seem at first glance. A vivid example is the oeuvre of the Painter of Athens 1472.
This vase-painter was “discovered” by J. D. Beazley. He noticed that some of the figures resemble the works of the Marsyas Painter. S. A. Hoyt observed that the preliminary sketches of two vessels, painted on the same subject by these painters, were executed by a skillful draughtsman (perhaps by the Marsyas Painter himself), so both vase-painters worked at the same time and in the same workshop, and one depended on the other in terms of creative work, which explains J. D. Beazley’s observation.
According to S. A. Hoyt, the Marsyas Painter, probably being the leading vase-painter of the workshop, made only high-quality paintings and preliminary figures on vases, which after were used by his less experienced collegues in the workshop, including the Painter of Athens 1472. Moreover, the latter also painted small uniform pelikai with simple images of protomes and figures in mantles — a task, suitable for his skills and demanding no participation of the Marsyas Painter.
This was an efficient division of labor in the workshop, which satisfied the needs of not only the rich but also less wealthy buyers.
Pelikai inv. Pan.761, P.1870.136, P.1908.63, P.1851/52.21 and P.1859.2 from the State Hermitage museum collection complement our understanding of the works of the Painter of Athens 1472, who created both high-quality, though not quite independently made, paintings, and also mass produced paintings.

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The rock relief at Darabgird is one of the most controversial rock reliefs of Sasanian kings. It represents a victory scene of king Shapur I or Ardashir I over some enemy. The present paper deals with the problem of the king’s identity. It criticizes the identification of the king on the relief as Ardashir I, proposed by G. Herrmann and recently also by D. Levit-Tawil. The author supports the traditional interpretation of the triumphal relief as the scene of Shapur’s victory over the Roman emperors. In order to prove his point, the author discusses some stylistic details of rock reliefs at Darabgird, at Salmas and of the cameo, depicting Shapur I and emperor Valerianus. The author draws attention to the historical background of early Sasanian triumphal reliefs. The paper also discusses the theory, which proposes a representation of Uranius Antoninus on the relief.

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