Image: Application deadline April 1st In the Second Summer Short Session Dr. Mark Abbe will teach “Approaches to Greek and Roman Visual Culture” (CLAS 4/6300). This course will offer a critical (re)introduction to the visual arts, particularly sculpture, painting, and architecture of the Greek and Roman worlds from the so-called “Homeric Age” (c. 1050 BC) to the beginnings of Late Antiquity (c. AD 330). A key intent is to improve the uses of images in Classics education. While images are central to the larger Classics project, how and when are they to be engaged most productively so as not merely to illustrate, but to expand, enrich, and complicate our understanding of ancient culture? In this course providing a solid chronological survey of the visual cultures of Classical antiquity, particular emphases will be paid to rethinking seemingly familiar, well-known if not iconic works of art and architecture, and the complex and often complementary relationships between images and textual sources (literary, epigraphic, etc.). The importance of context in the reception of ancient images, static and portable, will be explored. New archaeological discoveries and on-going debates will be highlighted. We will explore the experiential aspects of works of art through critical engagement with virtual computer-based reconstructions of Roman architecture and sculpture. Image: An inspiration to Virgil or an illustration of the Aeneid (2.199-233)? The Trojan priest Laocoön and his sons attacked at the altar by a great serpent. Marble sculpture carved by three Rhodian sculptors, 1st c. BC/AD. From Rome, Oppian Hill. Vatican Museum. Type of News/Audience: Alumni Faculty and Staff Students
