Week 1: Syllabus & Rules

S Y L L A B U S

Topics in Ancient Art and Architecture: Ancient Portraiture

This course analyzes the development of portraiture from Classical Greece through the later Roman Empire. It draws on recent scholarship to call into question the traditional definition of portraiture as "descriptive likeness" and aims to present a broader and more nuanced view of the ancient portrait as a genre.

The course will consider both canonical monuments such as the Primaporta Augustus and less familiar works such as painted mummies from Roman Egypt and the imaginary portraits of poets and philosophers of the Hellenistic era. In addition, we will make use of the Metropolitan Museum's newly-installed Greco-Roman galleries, among the best collections of ancient portraits in America. Major topics will include the royal image, class and gender representation, the categories of center and periphery as applied to portraiture, and the mutilation and destruction of images.

Course Requirements

• Class Participation, including regular attendance, completion of assigned readings, and one museum visit with instructon (9/13).
• One short (250-word) paper abstract.
• One fifteen-minute presentation on paper topic.
• One 10-12-page research paper (see term paper handout for details)
• One final (short answers and essay)

Grading

• Abstract (10%); due in class 9/30
• Presentation (15%); date TBA
• Paper (35%); due in class 12/2. Late papers will be penalized.
• Final exam (30%)
• Class participation, including attendance, museum visit, discussion (10%)

R U L E S

Each weekly post in this blog will contain:

1. The assigned texts for that week, as noted on the syllabus;
2. A brief, point-by-point summary of each reading;
3. Relevant images, either scanned from the assigned texts or from another source;
4. Any in-class notes taken when the texts are discussed.