04-11-2007, 09:01 PM
Franklin wrote:
This happens a lot of the time Franklin. Either you ignore the sculptures totally because you think they are not accurate, accept them totally as accurate representations or do what most of us do and try and match archaeological finds with sculpture and literature and other forms of Roman Art.
Unfortunately for re-enactment purposes the latter course would still leave us with huge gaps in our knowledge and it would therefore not be possible to recreate the appearance of many types of Roman soldier. In most cases sculptural evidence is all we have and this is why we have endless debates about tunic colour, shield shapes and leather armour.
As Aitor rightly observed many examples of Roman sculpture show incredibly accurate details which can only have come from personal experience by the artist and yet in the same sculpture there is something else which just makes you think "what on earth is that"! In most cases the simple option is to dismiss it as an artistic error assuming therefore the artists are all Leonardo's one minute and Sumner's the next! Alternatively there is a possibility the artist is actually correct and showing us something we either do not understand yet or something which perhaps has not even been found.
So do not be too hard on poor Aitor, like all of us he is just trying to find answers to the many complex and often unsolvable questions.
Graham.
Quote:You've picked the one detail out of the entire relief that supports one of your theories and used it as evidence while dismissing all the others.
This happens a lot of the time Franklin. Either you ignore the sculptures totally because you think they are not accurate, accept them totally as accurate representations or do what most of us do and try and match archaeological finds with sculpture and literature and other forms of Roman Art.
Unfortunately for re-enactment purposes the latter course would still leave us with huge gaps in our knowledge and it would therefore not be possible to recreate the appearance of many types of Roman soldier. In most cases sculptural evidence is all we have and this is why we have endless debates about tunic colour, shield shapes and leather armour.
As Aitor rightly observed many examples of Roman sculpture show incredibly accurate details which can only have come from personal experience by the artist and yet in the same sculpture there is something else which just makes you think "what on earth is that"! In most cases the simple option is to dismiss it as an artistic error assuming therefore the artists are all Leonardo's one minute and Sumner's the next! Alternatively there is a possibility the artist is actually correct and showing us something we either do not understand yet or something which perhaps has not even been found.
So do not be too hard on poor Aitor, like all of us he is just trying to find answers to the many complex and often unsolvable questions.
Graham.
"Is all that we see or seem but a dream within a dream" Edgar Allan Poe.
"Every brush-stroke is torn from my body" The Rebel, Tony Hancock.
"..I sweated in that damn dirty armor....TWENTY YEARS!', Charlton Heston, The Warlord.
"Every brush-stroke is torn from my body" The Rebel, Tony Hancock.
"..I sweated in that damn dirty armor....TWENTY YEARS!', Charlton Heston, The Warlord.
