Hellenistic and Roman Art and Artifact

This course surveys the political, religious and domestic arts, patronage and display in Rome's Mediterranean, from the 2nd c.  BCE to Constantine's 4th-c. Christianized empire.  Our subjects are images and decorated objects in their cultural, political and socio-economic contexts (painting, mosaic, sculpture, luxury and mass-produced arts in many media).  We start with the Hellenistic cosmopolitan culture of the Greek kingdoms and their neighbors, and late Etruscan and Republican Italy; next we map Imperial Roman art as developed around the capital city Rome, as well as in the provinces of the vast empire.