Oxford Handbook of Roman Sculpture

The study of Roman sculpture has been an essential part of the disciplines of Art History and Classics since the eighteenth century. Famous works like the Laocooen, the Arch of Titus, and the colossal portrait of Constantine are familiar to millions. Again and again, scholars have returned to sculpture to answer questions about Roman art, society, and history. Indeed, the field of Roman sculptural studies encompasses not only the full chronological range of the Roman world but also its expansive geography, and a variety of artistic media, formats, sizes, and functions. Exciting new theories, methods, and approaches have transformed the specialized literature on the subject in recent decades. Rather than creating another chronological catalogue of representative examples from various periods, genres, and settings, The Oxford Handbook of Roman Sculpture synthesizes current best practices for studying this central medium of Roman art, situating it within the larger fields of Art History, Classical Archaeology, and Roman Studies. This comprehensive volume fills the gap between introductory textbooks and highly focused professional literature. The Oxford Handbook of Roman Sculpture conveniently presents new technical, scientific, literary, and theoretical approaches to the study of Roman sculpture in one reference volume while simultaneously complementing textbooks and other publications that present well-known works in the corpus. The contributors to this volume address metropolitan and provincial material from the early republican period through late antiquity in an engaging and fresh style. Authoritative, innovative, and up-to-date, The Oxford Handbook of Roman Sculpture will remain an invaluable resource for years to come.

Review: [The Oxford Handbook of Roman Sculpture] is an essential resource for any scholar of antiquity. ... Its cutting-edge approach and content, along with its breadth of material, makes this a monograph that any scholar of Roman art should have on their shelves. * Bryn Mawr Classical Review *
The handbook's editors and contributors...examine sculpture of the early Roman Republic to late antiquity (c. 500 BC to AD 500) in the capital city and throughout the empire. Chapters outline stylistic, iconographic, and technical analyses, explain how those methodologies are changing, and lay the groundwork on which students and scholars can build their own research. ... [W]ell-written.... Recommended. * CHOICE *
...[T]his book is a welcome contribution to English language scholarship on Roman art. The editors have brought together an interesting mix of American and European scholars, both junior and senior, in a volume whose scope-chronologically, geographically, thematically, and methodologically-is very wide-ranging. ... [A] well produced, clearly written, and interestingly organized volume. * Bryn Mawr Classical Review *