Discuss the Significance of the ‘Veristic’ Tradition in Roman Portraiture

In this assignment I shall look at; what Veristic art is; a brief history of veristic art, the materials used and the strengths and limitation of these. I shall be looking specific examples throughout roman art and the common traits in them that show a progression towards and maintenance of veristic values and the socio-cultural connotations of these. I shall look at the arguments for why verism came about, was it a political mechanism or simply a product of the ideology of the time? To further this possibility I shall look at the changes in the art form from the republican era into the imperial era to examine whether this was in fact a reflection of the social dynamic, through this means I shall also examine whether the changes were a decline or an evolution of the style fit the new social dynamic.

Verism is defined in the Collins dictionary as extreme realism in art or literature, Paul Zanker also describes it as physiognomic meaning that it is a style used to portray the human characteristics from facial features . Strong also describes verism as ‘a slice of life – a sculptured biography’ though he then says that it is a true representation which would suggest that it only shows what is visible rather than the characteristics of the individual though Strong is supported in this argument by Tanner who states that verism is a type of cartographic realism suggesting that is maps out the features of the sitter faithfully.

Verism is primarily known from the 1st century BC in Republican Rome although Tanner argues that it should be dated from the 2nd century BC though there appears to be little evidence to support this.

Most statues found in Rome from before the 1st Century BC were made from bronze and although they were realis...

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...ft with. I have looked at specific examples throughout roman art and the common traits in them that show a progression towards and maintenance of veristic values and the socio-cultural connotations of these. I have looked at the arguments for why verism came about and whether it was a political mechanism or simply a product of the ideology of the time. To elaborate on this possibility I have looked at the changes in the art form from the republican era into the imperial era and have shown that it was most likely an evolution of verism to reflect the changes in the socio-cultural dynamic than a decline in the style.

Works Cited

Strong, D., Roman Art, (1976) Chaucer Press

Tanner, J., Portraits, Power and Patronage in the Late Roman Republic, Journal of Roman Studies 90, pp.18-50

Zanker, P., The power of images in the age of Augustus, (1988) University of Michigan