Guides: ARTH 425 Roman Art & Archaeology (Lausanne): Home

Welcome

Muse sarcophagus (detail), Rome, 240-260 CE. Marble. Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO.

ARTstor Images for Your Presentation

Portrait Bust of Hadrian as General. c.130-138 A.D. Bronze. Musée du Louvre. Available from ARTstor.

Find images for your presentation or paper in the database, ARTstor. Log on to ARTstor, create a personal account and create an image group. Then view information on how to Export to Power Point

You can search ARTstor by the name of an art work, by geography, by classification (for example, architecture), or by collection (for example, Beyond the Taj). Use the Advanced Search to limit by date.

Helpful videos on using ARTstor can be found on YouTube

Rome Reborn

This video, by Prof. Bernard Frischer, presents a fly-through of the latest version of Rome Reborn (2.2). The new version incorporates some new content (including the Pantheon) and for the first time includes animations.

The video is also available on Vimeo

A narrated tour is also available through Khan Academy's SmartHistory: "A Tour Through Ancient Rome in 320 C.E.",

Digital Roman Forum

From 1997 to 2003 the Cultural Virtual Reality Laboratory (CVRLab) created a digital model of the Roman Forum as it appeared in late antiquity. The notional date of the model is June 21, 400 A.D.

The purpose of the modeling project was to spatialize information and theories about how the Forum looked at this moment in time, which was more or less the height of its development as Rome's civic and cultural center. The digital model includes over twenty features (buildings and major monuments) filling up the western zone of the Roman Forum from the Temple of Vesta and Temple of Antoninus and Faustina on the east to the Tabularium facing the western slope of the Capitoline Hill.

Getting Started

For background information, start with an exhaustive reference work such as Grove Art Online or its predecessor in print, the Encyclopedia of World Art (N.Y.: McGraw-Hill, 1959-1983. Ref. N 32 .E4833) - half of each volume consists of illustrative plates. Both the 'Guided Tour' and 'Tips for Users' (available from the Home page) provide useful information on searching Grove/Oxford Art Online.

Bibliographies located in books or at the end of journal articles can be very helpful. To learn if Pepperdine has access to a particular journal, search for the name of the journal in the library catalog, or use the 'Journals & Periodicals' search feature on the Library's Web site.

Specialized Online Encyclopedias

A Companion to Roman Art by Barbara E. Borg (Editor)
ISBN: 9781405192880
Publication Date: 2015-12-21
A Companion to Roman Art encompasses various artistic genres, ancient contexts, and modern approaches for a comprehensive guide to Roman art. Focuses on the socio-historical aspects of Roman art Includes both close readings of individual art works and general discussions Provides an overview of main aspects of the subject and an introduction to current debates in the field
The Grove Encyclopedia of Classical Art and Architecture by Gordon Campbell
ISBN: 0195300823
Publication Date: 2007-06-18
Encompassing over four thousand years of artistry and innovation, this resource spans every art form, medium and civilization from Cycladic, Minoan, Helladic, and Etruscan art to the fall of the Roman Empire.

Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome
Overview of the major cultures of the classical Mediterranean world from the Bronze Age to the fifth century CE, plus the legacy of the classical world and its interpretation and influence in subsequentical world centuries.

A Companion to the Etruscans by Sinclair Bell; Alexandra A. Carpino
ISBN: 9781118354957
Publication Date: 2015-12-10
This new collection presents a rich selection of innovative scholarship on the Etruscans, a vibrant, independent people whose distinct civilization flourished in central Italy for most of the first millennium BCE and whose artistic, social and cultural traditions helped shape the ancient Mediterranean, European, and Classical worlds. Offers fresh perspectives on Etruscan art and culture, including analysis of the most up-to-date research and archaeological discoveriescreativity

Grove Encyclopedia of Decorative Arts This link opens in a new window
Contains over 3,000 entries covering thousands of years of decorative arts production throughout western and non-western cultures including hundreds of entries on the qualities and historical uses of materials, concise definitions on art forms and styles, and in-depth articles discussing the history of armor, jewelry, furniture, textiles, and ceramics.
Grove Encyclopedia of Materials and Techniques This link opens in a new window
Historical and current uses of materials and techniques in a wide range of areas from painting and sculpture to non-traditional media such as digital and video art.
Coverage includes materials in art practice (e.g. ink, enamel, digital materials); materials in conservation (e.g. adhesives); classes of artifacts (e.g. wallpaper, mosaic, ceramic); techniques and methods (e.g. book binding, gilding, printing, weaving), terms (e.g. rustication), tools (e.g. easel, laser), theory (e.g. technical examination, conservation controversies), fakes & forgeries, and conservation theorists and practitioners.

Finding Articles

Search these online databases to find articles on your topic/artist:

Art Full Text This link opens in a new window
Featuring full-text articles (from more than 300 journals), indexing and abstracting of an international array of publications, Art Full Text™ is a comprehensive resource covering fine, decorative and commercial art, as well as photography, folk art, film, architecture and much more.
Full-text articles from more than 300 periodicals dating back to 1995
High-quality indexing and abstracting of over 600 periodicals dating as far back as 1984, including 280 peer-reviewed journals
Indexing and abstracting of over 13,000 art dissertations
Indexing of nearly 200,000 art reproductions
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
JSTOR is an extensive archive of interdisciplinary journals and books, covering subject disciplines in Arts, Business & Economics, History, Humanities, Law, Science & Mathematics, Social Sciences, and Religion. Access Arts & Sciences I-IV, VI, and VII archives and over 40,000 ebooks on the JSTOR platform.
Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
Provides full text coverage to nearly 9,100 journals, including over 7,900 peer-reviewed titles in the social sciences, humanities, general science, multi-cultural studies, education and more. Full-text coverage dates back to 1985 and is updated daily.

Bibliography of the History of Art (BHA)
The Getty Research Institute provides access to the BHA and to the Repertoire de la litterature de l'art (RILA) for no charge on its Web site. The databases, searchable together, cover material published between 1975 and 2007.

Dissertations & Theses Global (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
Access to nearly 3 million searchable citations, the most comprehensive collection of doctoral dissertations and master's theses in the world. Full text for most dissertations since 1997 with 1.2 million full text dissertations available for download in PDF format. Approximately 70,000 new dissertations and theses are added each year. Coverage from 1743 to the present.

Online Books

A History of Roman Art by Steven L. Tuck
ISBN: 9781444330267
Publication Date: 2015-01-27
A wide-ranging survey of the subject from the founding of Rome to the rule of Rome's first Christian emperor, Constantine. Focuses throughout on the overarching themes of Rome's cultural inclusiveness and art's important role in promoting Roman values. Discusses a wide range of Roman painting, mosaic, sculpture, and decorative arts, as well as architecture and associated sculptures within the cultural contexts they were created and developed
Art and Rhetoric in Roman Culture by Jaś Elsner (Editor); Michel Meyer (Editor)
ISBN: 9781107000711
Publication Date: 2014-10-02
Ancient rhetorical theory is obsessed with examples and discussions drawn from visual material. This book mines this rich seam of theoretical analysis from within Roman culture to present an internalist model for some aspects of how the Romans understood, made and appreciated their art. The understanding of public monuments like the Arch of Titus or Trajan's Column or of imperial statuary, domestic wall painting, funerary altars and sarcophagi, as well as of intimate items like children's dolls, is greatly enriched by being placed in relevant rhetorical contexts created by the Roman world.
From Republic to Empire: rhetoric, religion, and power in the visual culture of ancient Rome by John Pollini
Call Number: Oversize N72.P6 P655 2012
ISBN: 9780806142586
Publication Date: 2012-12-31
Political image-making is the focus of this masterful study of Roman culture. Art historian and classical archaeologist John Pollini explores how various artistic and ideological symbols of religion and power, based on Roman Republican values and traditions, were taken over or refashioned to convey new ideological content in the constantly changing political world of imperial Rome.
The Art of the Roman Empire by Jas Elsner
ISBN: 9780198768630
Publication Date: 2018-07-10
Jas' Elsner's ground-breaking account discusses both Roman and early Christian art in relation to such issues as power, death, society, acculturation, and religion. By examining questions of reception, viewing, and the culture of spectacle alongside the more traditional art-historical themes of imperial patronage and stylistic change, he presents a fresh and challenging interpretation of an extraordinarily rich cultural crucible in which many fundamental developments of later European art had their origins.