3 ms·
Bret Devereaux wrote a good introduction to the scholarly debate between the "decline and fall" camp and the "change and continuity" camp. Christianity was at t
by skybrian 1y ago
Bret Devereaux wrote a good introduction to the scholarly debate between the "decline and fall" camp and the "change and continuity" camp. Christianity was at this point the Roman state religion and the survival of the Church as an institution is considered as a point in favor of change and continuity.
https://acoup.blog/2022/01/14/collections-rome-decline-and-fall-part-i-words/ https://acoup.blog/2022/01/14/collections-rome-decline-and-f...
- ginko 1y agoI've read this series before and I still don't buy part I saying this[0] is artistically just as skillful as this[1], only the artist intentionally idealized the depiction of the tetrarchs. To me this is clearly more primitive art. [0] https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/67/Venice_%E2%80%93_The_Tetrarchs_03.jpg/800px-Venice_%E2%80%93_The_Tetrarchs_03.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/67/Ve... [1] https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/eb/Statue-Augustus.jpg/800px-Statue-Augustus.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/eb/St...
- mitthrowaway2 1y agoI'm still blown away by Roman statues whenever I see them in museums. They have the presence of living, breathing people.
- codemonkey-zeta 1y agoI also had this thought, until I then saw the Greek statues in museums that the Romans were trying to emulate!
- FranzFerdiNaN 1y agoIt’s because we have been taught over and over and over that realism matters and that the Greeks and Romans were the zenith of art and civilisation. We’re basically still living with renaissance propaganda. They could have made statues more like the one of Augustus. But art is more than realism, and it had to represent other things at this point in time.