ART 382, Book Review ASSIGNMENT
The paper will consist of a critical book review of around three to five pages in length on a book
approved by the instructor that you will use as a source for your research paper. You should read
your chosen book carefully, noting the author's arguments, and comparing them to what you find
in your texts. You likely will want to do some supplementary reading to check further on these,
and to compare them to other scholarly opinion. In your book review, you should summarize the
contents of the book, noting the author's arguments, and comment critically on them, noting also
other points the author might have discussed. The review should be written in clear English, and
must be typed. The review is due November 10. Books approved by the instructor are listed
below. If you wish to review another book, it must be cleared with the instructor before October
13, when a prospectus listing the book to be reviewed and the supplementary reading you plan to
do before writing the review is due.
The Book Review
A critical book review is an informed critique of a scholarly work. It should take something like
the following form:
1. Bibliographical information about the work: author, title, place and date of publication. This is
given as a heading.
2. A brief statement of the book's purpose or thesis (why it was written). This may be combined
with an introduction to the material dealt with in the book.
3. A synopsis or overview of the order in which the author presents his or her information.
4. Critical evaluation of the success or failure of the book in meeting its thesis. This may include
any errors in the book you find (including typos), any features which made the book difficult to
read, and mention of additional material that the author failed to include.
5. A final evaluation of the book as a success or failure, including what readership it is suitable
for.
SUGGESTED PAPER TOPICS: ART 382, ROMAN ART
Write a research paper of approximately seven or eight printed pages in length. A bibliography
of works consulted should be appended to the paper. The bibliography must include at least
three sources beyond your text books, and these three may include only one web source. Of,
course, if you have over three sources beyond your text you may use as many web sources as
you wish. The following topics are suggested. If you wish to do another topic you will need to
clear that with the instructor: Due November 17.
1) Discuss the Roman podium temple from its origins as an Etruscan form through the first
century CE. Include reference to the siting of these temples with relation to other architecture.
Attention should also be paid to outside influence on architectural decoration and sculptural
decoration. Book ro review: J. Stamper, The Architecture of Roman Temples : the republic to
the middle empire (Cambridge 2005); Boethius, A., Etruscan and Roman architecture
(Penguin 1978)
2) Discuss the development of Roman portraiture from the first century BCE to c. 100 CE,
focusing on either images of women or men. What types of themes are presented in Roman
portraits of this period and what role do different styles play in enhancing the appreciation of
these themes? Books to review: Wood, Susan, Imperial women : a study in public images, 40
BC-AD 68 (Boston 2000); Bartman, E. Portraits of Livia : imaging the imperial woman in
Augustan Rome (Cambridge 1999); Kleiner, D.E.E., Roman Sculpture (New Haven 1992);
Hallett, C., The Roman nude : heroic portrait statuary 200 BC-AD 300 (Cambridge 2006); J.
Breckenridge, Likeness; a conceptual history of ancient portraiture (Evanston IL 1968)
3) Discuss the development of Roman portraiture in the third and the fourth centuries A.D.
What themes are presented in portraiture in these two centuries and what do they indicate
about the Romans of the Late Empire? What role does style(s) play in presenting these themes?
Book review: Wood, S., Roman Portrait Sculpture, 217-260 A.D. (Leiden 1986); Kleiner,
D.E.E., Roman Sculpture (New Haven 1992); Hallett, C., The Roman nude : heroic portrait
statuary 200 BC-AD 300 (Cambridge 2006)
4) Discuss the use of domed spaces in Roman architecture. Book Review: MacDonald, W., The
Architecture of the Roman Empire I (New Haven 1965); Ward-Perkins, J., Roman architecture
(NY 1977); Ward-Perkins, J. Roman imperial architecture (Penguin 1981)
5) Discuss the debt of Early Christian art to Roman art. How did the Christians adapt Roman
imagery to Christian themes? Books to review: Jensen, R., Understanding early Christian art
(London and NY 2000); Milburn, R., Early Christian Art and Architecture (Berkeley 1988);
Spier, J., Picturing the Bible : the earliest Christian art (Yale 2007)
6) Discuss the problem of Roman copies of Greek sculpture. How did the Romans select and
use the Greek statues they copied? Books to review: Ridgway, B.S., Roman Copies of Greek
Sculpture (Ann Arbor 1984); Hallett, C., The Roman nude : heroic portrait statuary 200 BCAD 300 (Cambridge 2006)
7) Discuss the growth and development of the Imperial forums (fora ) in Rome. How does the
Forum of Trajan serve as a culmination of the administrative architecture of the center of
Rome? Book Review: Packer, J., The Forum of Trajan in Rome : a study of the monuments in
brief (Berkeley, CA, 2001); Ward-Perkins, J., Roman architecture (NY 1977); Ward-Perkins,
J. Roman imperial architecture (Penguin 1981)
8) Discuss Roman wall painting in the first centuries BCE and CE with special attention to the
range of images and their use within decorative schemes. Books to review: Ling, R., Roman
Painting (Cambridge 1991), B. Bergmann, B. , Roman frescoes from Boscoreale : the Villa of
Publius Fannius Synistor in reality and virtual reality (Yale 2010); Leach, E., The Social life
of painting in ancient Rome and on the Bay of Naples (Cambridge 2004)
9) Discuss the painted mummy portraits found in the Faiyum in Egypt as examples of Roman
painting. Books to Review: S. Walker, S., Ancient faces : mummy portraits from Roman Egypt
(NY 2000); Doxiadis, E., The Mysterious Fayum portraits : faces from ancient Egypt (NY
1995)
10) Discuss Roman mosaics as decoration in homes. How does the imagery throughout the
empire illustrate the common Classical culture of the upper classes? How does mosaic
decoration vary across the empire? Books to review: Clarke, J., Roman Black and White
Figural Mosaics (New York 1979).Dunbabin, K., Mosaics of the Greek and Roman world
(Cambridge 1999); Ling, R. , Ancient Mosaics (Princeton 1998)
11) Imperial Relief sculpture in the late first and second centuries. What forms did it take, and
what messages are presented? How does the style of sculpture expressing the values of the
ruler vary iand/or change in this period. Book Review: Hannestad, N., Roman Art and Imperial
Policy (Aarhus 1988); Torelli, M., Typology and Structure of Roman Historical Reliefs (Ann
Arbor 1982); Kleiner, D.E.E., Roman Sculpture (New Haven 1992).
12) Sculpture in Late Antique art. How did this popular form of Roman art change stylistically
after 200 CE? In what ways did it stay the same. Discuss some of the major monuments of the
period 235-400 in Roman sculpture, including example of both relief sculpture and sculpture in
the round. Book to Review: Bianchi Bandinelli, R., Rome: the Late Empire (New York 1971);
J. Elsner, Art and the Roman viewer : the transformation of art from the Pagan world to
Christianity (Cambridge 1995).
13) Discuss Pompeii as an example of a Roman town.
Book Review: P. Zanker, Pompeii : public and private life (Cambridge MA 1998),
L. Richardson, Pompeii : an architectural history (Baltimore 1988), M. Grant, Cities of
Vesuvius : Pompeii and Herculaneum (Harmondsworth NY 1976).
14) Discuss the Roman private house types, architectural forms and decorations. This may
include town houses (domi) and country houses (villas).
Book Review: C. Mattusch, Pompeii and the Roman villa : art and culture around the Bay of
Naples (London 2008), J. Clarke, The houses of Roman Italy, 100 B.C.-A.D. 250 : ritual,
space, and decoration (Berkeley 1991).
15. Discuss art and the ordinary Roman viewer.
Book Review: J. Clarke, Art in the lives of ordinary Romans : visual representation and nonelite viewers in Italy, 100 B.C.-A.D. 315 (Berkeley 2003); J. Elsner, Art and the Roman viewer
: the transformation of art from the Pagan world to Christianity (Cambridge 1995)
16) Discuss the architectural and artistic revolution in Rome during the reign of Augustus.
Book Review: Zanker, P., The Power of Images in the Age of Augustus (Ann Arbor 1988)
17) Discuss Etruscan Art and how it influenced and looks forward to the art of the Romans.
Book Review: Brendel, O. Etruscan Art (Penguin 1978); Spivey, N., Etruscan Art (New York
1997).