Mit Mythen Leben: Die Bilderwelt der romischen Sarkophage

PAUL ZANKER AND BJORN CHRISTIAN EWALD

Mit Mythen Leben: Die Bilderwelt der romischen Sarkophage

Munich: Hirmer, 2004. 389 pp.; 78 color ills., 227 b/w. [euro]75.00

In the late nineteenth century, when Roman art was first being defined as a distinct field of study, separate from Greek art, the great series of ancient marble coffins known as sarcophagi, with their richly carved figural decoration, had long been recognized as distinctive products of the Roman period. As such, they could take their place alongside Roman historical relief and Roman portraits as characteristic monuments of imperial culture. The sarcophagi were actually more abundant, and more varied in form, than either of the other two major categories of surviving Roman sculpture, and they had unquestionably played a more important role in the history of Western art. From the early Renaissance on, they had been admired and drawn by painters and sculptors and carefully described and cataloged by art enthusiasts and antiquarians. By the early twentieth century a large corpus of published examples had been assembled, and that corpus has since expanded dramatically. Yet despite all the scholarly attention the sarcophagi have received over the years, a glance at any modern textbook of Roman art makes it abundantly clear that they remain one of the byways of Roman visual culture--the province of specialists, perennially on the margins of the subject, never properly integrated with the study of the other major genres. It is no exaggeration to say that "sarcophagus studies" forms a distinct subfield, with its own publications, its own finely honed terminology (for the most part German), and its own cherished aims and controversies--all somewhat removed from the major intellectual debates that have preoccupied and animated the rest of the field over the last half century.

All this now seems set to change. Paul Zanker and Bjorn Christian Ewald's Mil Mythen Leben: Die Bilderwelt der romischen Sarkophage (Living with Myth: The World of Images on Roman Sarcophagi) shifts this underappreciated genre to the very center of the cultural historian's attention, firmly establishing sarcophagus imagery as a historical source of crucial importance for understanding Roman society of the high empire. To many scholars this will surely come as a bolt out of the blue. But leafing through the beautiful photographs in this book, one cannot but feel--with hindsight--that this moment is actually long overdue.

Although the authors explicitly set out to treat only "metropolitan sarcophagi" (the sarcophagi produced in Rome itself), and sarcophagi produced in other centers are not generally discussed, this book offers what amounts to a complete reappraisal of Roman sarcophagi and their carved decoration. As the title would suggest, however, the focus throughout is on the "mythological sarcophagi"--those decorated primarily with scenes of Greek myth.

The book consists of five substantial chapters written by Zanker, followed by a section of just under a hundred pages entitled "Documentation," written by Ewald. The need for the two separate sections is explained in the preface (p. 6). Zanker's chapters basically form a continuous argument, steadily and patiently built up, that engages the reader with just about every aspect of the dramatic change in funerary practice of which the sarcophagi are a part. The argument presents a broad, historical analysis of imperial society and is a work of cultural history, properly speaking. Zanker intended his essays to be accessible to a general audience, but he was evidently well aware that the sarcophagus reliefs are not easily "legible" for nonspecialists. There is much about them that is strange and unfamiliar and that requires explanation. It was clearly out of the question for him to provide, as he went along, a full discussion of each of the Greek myths in the repertory, of the specific episodes narrated on the sarcophagi, and of the way these change over time. All this is what is here referred to as documentation. And Ewald, one of Zanker's former students and a true sarcophagus specialist, (1) gives a succinct and useful account of the sixteen most important myths, listed alphabetically (Achilles to Theseus), comprising detailed descriptions of thirty-six sarcophagi of particular interest (the "documents"). The reader who wishes to have the often complex myths more fully narrated, the separate scenes clearly identified and explained, and other important issues addressed--like chronology, style, relative popularity, and so on--can easily turn to Ewald's section for further enlightenment (and an informative bibliography on each piece). (2)

For more than half a century the big question in sarcophagus studies has been: What was the intended meaning of the elaborate carved mythological reliefs? Unfortunately, no consensus has ever emerged on this question. Some have continued to believe, following Franz Cumont, that the mythological reliefs are sophisticated allegories embodying hopes for an afterlife--hopes that otherwise went unexpressed in contemporary literature or funerary inscriptions. Skeptics, on the other hand, have tended to regard the mythological reliefs merely as sumptuous ornament, an imagery that referred primarily to the owner's level of education and culture and carried no profound religious message. (3) Despite the appearance, over the years, of a number of ambitious studies attempting to forge some sort of compromise position, the field has remained basically divided on this question. (4) In this book Paul Zanker quite explicitly sets out to formulate a completely new approach to the evidence and to break the apparent deadlock. And in this he has succeeded--brilliantly. His new approach to the sarcophagi is so carefully crafted and so comprehensive that a simple summary risks sounding absurdly reductive. Nevertheless, Zanker himself has already published a helpful statement of the basic argument in a relatively short essay--which shows that it can be done. (5)