Trajan\'s Column V Adamklissi

[tlclark]

As per Geofreddo's request. I think that we should discuss the Antonine Column base, which is germane to the question.

I have posted my pictures from the Vatican here.

http://astro.temple.edu/~tlclark/pictures/ant_pius

The column base is now in the Vatican courtyard, but originally sat on the site in the Campus Martius that was believed to mark the site of Antoninus Pius' Apotheosis.

The column was removed but the base is in excellent condition. It has four sides, two of which are decorated with decursio scenes, or depictions of the calvary and signifiers. The other side is an allegorical depiction of the apotheosis of Antoninus Pius and Faustina, complete with an allegorical figure of the Goddess Roma, and a personification of what is most likely the Campus Martius itself. The obelisk held by the semi-nude youth is probably a reference to the horologium of Augustus, also on the Campus Martius, near his mausoleum.

The fourth side is the inscription.

The most intriguing aspect of this is the wide variance in style between the decursio and the apotheosis scene. The latter is an example of classic idealism with classical proportions, figures and motifs. The former is a piece of Roman genre, showing a real event, the decursio in a caricatured style, violating all rules of scale, proportion and perspective.

Although we see elements of primitivism and genre in the column of Trajan, there was a very strong attempt to create a unified style. There's some awkwardness at times, such as legionnaires making buildings smaller than they are, but you can see the attempts at maintaining a classical style.

Here the decursio is presented with no such self-consciousness. The heads and hands are overly large, like what we have become accustomed to see on reliefs like that of the circus magistrate or the genre reliefs of the Flavian period. The scale is not proportional, but heirarchal, so the horses are, appropriately, far smaller than they should be.

Of course that's easy to do with two separate scenes as on the column base, unlike the column which has a continuous narrative.

But the most important thing is that it demonstrates a fundamental shift in Roman art, away from classicism and realism, or even a unified style, and towards narrative and story telling. This trend had been coming for a long time and it can be seen in both works from the Flavian and Trajanic period, but I think this is the most obvious example.

It also shows how unpreoccupied with stylistic purity the Romans were. Stylisitc purity is largely a modern preoccupation. They were above all, stylistic pragmatists. Whatever style conveyed the message best was acceptable, even if it mixed styles on the same monument.

Bringing this back to Adamklissi and TC, we can see this clearly. Local or provincial styles were more than acceptable at Adamklissi, even for an official monument. Local style at Adamklissi may not have been just 'acceptable' - as in that was all they could muster - but actually preferable, as a demonstration of dominion over the locals.

It demonstrates exactly why dependence on art as a source text is SOOOO difficult.

Anyway, the pictures are mine, feel free to use them as you wish.

Travis.