From Face to Face : Recarving of Roman Portraits and the Late-Antique Portrait Arts. Second, Revised Edition

Recarved marble portraits of emperors and private citizens were common in the Roman empire, though recent scholarship has focused, perhaps overly so, on imperial portraits reused after the condemnation of the original subject’s memory, or damnatio memoriae. Prusac’s work notably diverges from this tendency to explore reuse in both imperial and private portraits through late antiquity, when recarving became a standard working practice among Roman sculptors. Prusac posits that by the third century CE, economic concerns had replaced memory sanctions as the primary motivation for reuse, and by the fourth century, recarved images were more common than new ones for both imperial and private portraits. No longer driven primarily by ideology, reuse emerged as a dominant practice in late antiquity due to practical concerns. Its ascendance had a direct impact on the appearance of portraits and Prusac argues that the techniques used to refashion a portrait produced characteristics typically associated with ‘late-antique style’ such as large eyes and uplifted gazes. Prusac’s work has significant repercussions for our understanding of both late-antique portraiture and the broader issue of Roman attitudes towards reuse in antiquity. This book is based on an investigation of more than 2000 portraits of which around 500 have proven to be recarved. It provides thorough analyses of the different recarving methods, some of which can be attributed to geographically localized workshops, establishing classifiable categories, and an analytical text with special regard to the cultural historical changes in Late Antiquity. The investigation underpins a hypothesis on the late antique portraits style as a consequence of the many recarved portraits at the time, which relied on a syncretism of politics, religion and ideology. The conclusion gives a new understanding of how broad-scoped, culturally and politically encoded and comprehensive the practice of recarving was. This book is based on an investigation of more than five hundred recarved portraits. It includes analyses of different recarving methods, some of which can be attributed to geographically localised workshops. The different recarving methods have made it possible to suggest classifiable categories, which together underpin a hypothesis that the late-antique portrait style is a consequence of the many recarved portraits at the time. The practice of portrait recarving emerged due to economic, political, religious and ideological factors, and was influenced by the cultural-historical changes of Lat This Book Provides Analyses Of Different Recarving Methods In Late Antiquity, And Argues On The Basis Of 500 Recarved Portraits That The Late Antique Portrait Style, Which Was Formerly Considered An Expression Of A New Era, Was Rather A Technical Consequence.