08-09-2009, 06:51 PM
Quote:It reminds me of our Praetorian friend here
I did wonder whether the diagonal lines might be intended to represent the pleats or folds in a tunic, and the Louvre relief does have some similarities, but it's just too different a carving to compare really. The Seville relief isn't as 'artistic' - it's provincial, maybe vernacular. Some similarities with the Adamklissi reliefs perhaps? The Mainz column bases also, IIRC, show a soldier in a tunic, but that too looks very different. The carving of the right-hand figure here is very specific, with parallel lines that do not follow the folds of a tunic. The armour of the left-hand figure is a sort of sculptural shorthand - regular square marks to represent mail. I'd say the chiselled lines on the other man's garment are also intended to represent something specific - the sculptor wouldn't have gone to the trouble of cutting those regular lines - in the wrong direction to the 'hang' of a belted tunic - without intending them to be read in a particular way.
'Spongia' - interesting idea, but let's hope the name doesn't catch on!
- Nathan
Nathan Ross
