This book explores the disappearance of Greek mythic imagery from the Roman sarcophagi in the 3rd Century.

"Provides a comprehensive introduction to this important genre, exploring such subjects as the role of the mythological images in everyday life of the time, the messages they convey about the Romans' view of themselves, and the reception of the sarcophagi in later European art and art history."--Publisher's website

The volume presents essays on different aspects of Roman sarcophagi. These varied approaches produce freshinsights into a subject which has received increased interest in English-language scholarship, with a new awareness of the important contribution that sarcophagi can make to the study of the social use and production of Roman art. Metropolitan sarcophagi are the main focus of the volume, which will cover a wide time range from the first century AD to post classical periods (including early Christian sarcophagi and post-classical reception). Other papers will look at aspects of viewing and representation, iconography, and marble analysis.

"Koortbojian makes bold, original, and well-grounded claims regarding the structure of narrative as it appears on a series of mythological sarcophagi. He achieves remarkable clarity and depth with economical description and analysis. The book will interest students not only of Roman art but also of all visual narrative and mythology."--Leonard Barkan, Samuel Rudin Professor of English, New York University "Koortbojian makes bold, original, and well-grounded claims regarding the structure of narrative as it appears on a series of mythological sarcophagi. He achieves remarkable clarity and depth with economical description and analysis. The book will interest students not only of Roman art but also of all visual narrative and mythology."--Leonard Barkan, Samuel Rudin Professor of English, New York University

The frames of classical art are often seen as marginal to the images that they surround. Traditional art history has tended to view framing devices as supplementary 'ornaments'. Likewise, classical archaeologists have often treated them as tools for taxonomic analysis. This book not only argues for the integral role of framing within Graeco-Roman art, but also explores the relationship between the frames of classical antiquity and those of more modern art and aesthetics. Contributors combine close formal analysis with more theoretical approaches: chapters examine framing devices across multiple media (including vase and fresco painting, relief and free-standing sculpture, mosaics, manuscripts and inscriptions), structuring analysis around the themes of 'framing pictorial space', 'framing bodies', 'framing the sacred' and 'framing texts'. The result is a new cultural history of framing - one that probes the sophisticated and playful ways in which frames could support, delimit, shape and even interrogate the images contained within.

A new reading of the portrayal of Greek myths in Roman art, revealing important shifts in Roman values and identities.

"A strange thing happens to Roman sarcophagi in the middle of the third century: their mythic imagery vanishes. These beautifully carved coffins had featured bold mythological scenes since the very beginning of their mainstream production early in the second century AD, when burial had replaced cremation as the favored means for disposing of the dead. Evocative testament to Rome's ongoing love affair with classical Greek culture, they derived emotional force from their resonance with an artistic tradition centuries old while providing catharsis and consolation to those still living. How then to make sense of this imagery's own death on later sarcophagi, as mythological narratives were truncated, gods and heroes were excised, and genres featuring no mythic content whatsoever - such as the late third century's endless procession of sarcophagi featuring bucolic shepherds and studious philosophers - came to the fore? What could such a profound tectonic shift in the Roman funerary imagination mean? - for our understanding of Roman history and culture, for the development of its arts, for the passage from the High to the Late Empire and the coming of Christianity, but above all, for the individual Roman women and men who chose this imagery as the lens through which they wanted to be remembered, and who took it with them to the grave? A concrete example or two will help to throw the matter into relief. Sometime around 230 or 240 AD, a married (we assume) couple, anticipating their eventual demise, commissioned a pair of lavish sarcophagi to receive their remains. Now, ordering a pair of them - one for each corpse - was indeed unusual. It was far more common for a couple to purchase a single sarcophagus for their joint use. But in this case, our couple clearly had money to spare, and so opted for separate coffins - coffins which, nonetheless, they commissioned to serve as pendants to each other, with dimensions that were almost identical, and carved with scenes that complemented each other, representing female and male variations on a theme"--