02-01-2006, 09:24 PM
Travis wrote:
Well...
There are several points to argue about this, of course - which era is Vegetius writing about, are these craftsmen soldiers or supernumaries, and what exactly is meant by 'pictores' anyway. I could be wrong, but I'd hazard a guess that these men are what is called, by the lovely modern expression, 'monumental masons' - i.e the sculptors of grave stelae, plus all manner of other reliefs, metopes &c. We can at least surmise that a properly-equipped legion would have access to these sort of skilled men.
As for the Marine artist - I believe the guy is actually an artist employed by the Marines rather than a Marine trained to paint! Official war artists have a long pedigree - all those Vorticists and so on sent to the trenches in WWI, for instance... Not to mention, of course, the the nameless artists whose 'sketchbooks' so inspired Trajan's Column! :twisted:
Quote:As far as sculptors in the military, this is a hard one to answer. A lot of things that we would think of as unnecessary to the military do show up.
Well...
Quote:Habet praeterea legio fabros tignarios structores carpentarios ferrarios, pictores reliquosque artifices ad hibernorum aedificia fabricanda... (etc)
Vegetius, II.XI
There are several points to argue about this, of course - which era is Vegetius writing about, are these craftsmen soldiers or supernumaries, and what exactly is meant by 'pictores' anyway. I could be wrong, but I'd hazard a guess that these men are what is called, by the lovely modern expression, 'monumental masons' - i.e the sculptors of grave stelae, plus all manner of other reliefs, metopes &c. We can at least surmise that a properly-equipped legion would have access to these sort of skilled men.
As for the Marine artist - I believe the guy is actually an artist employed by the Marines rather than a Marine trained to paint! Official war artists have a long pedigree - all those Vorticists and so on sent to the trenches in WWI, for instance... Not to mention, of course, the the nameless artists whose 'sketchbooks' so inspired Trajan's Column! :twisted:
Nathan Ross
