Maria Radnoti-Alföldi, Bild und Bildersprache der römischen Kaiser, Mainz 1999
Images of the Roman Empire showed a great variety on objects of all kinds, such as coins, reliefs, or round sculptures. In the Roman Empire, it was the emperor himself who knew how to use images as a medium for representative and self-portrayal purposes in his favor.
In the publication “Bild und Bildersprache der römischen Kaiser”, which was published in 1999 at the Philipp von Zabern-Verlag in Mainz, Maria Radnoti-Alföldi examines the images and image language of the Roman Empire using concrete examples of objects. Maria R.-Alföldi is a provincial Roman archaeologist and numismatist. From 1972 to 1991 she taught as a professor at the Department of Greek and Roman History, Department II (today: Department II of the Institute for Archaeological Studies) at the University of Frankfurt am Main. She is particularly known as a specialist in the field of ancient numismatics.
In the first chapter of her book (Zwei Grundbegriffe: ‘Bild und Bildersprache’, pp. 9-15) the terms “image” and “imagery” are explained and differentiated in the meaning she uses them. This is followed by two chapters about “Die Bildauffassung der römischen Kaiserzeit” (p.16-22) and a short chapter on the inter-media relationship between image and writing (“Bild geht vor Schrift”, p.23-27), which is particularly dealing with numismatic Objects. This is followed by an introduction to the genesis of the imperial imagery (“Die kaiserliche Bildsprache wird aufgebaut”, p. 28-41), which is illustrated with concrete examples from the Roman Republic.
The following four chapters are devoted to different picture topics. In “Der Auserwählte und Schützling der Götter” (p.42-82) the author examines the importance of gods and their depictions for the representation of the emperor and the imperial family. In the chapter “Der Sieg” (p.83-116) the depictions of victory and peace, as well as everything related to it (war, military, enemies, etc.), are discussed in particular. This is followed by an explanation of depicitons of the emperor himself that are related to public, such as saecularia or circus games (“Des Kaisers Wirken für die res publica”, p.117-155). In conclusion to this thematic block, the author discusses the importance of members of the imperial family in the representative world of images (“Die Inszenierung kaiserlicher Personen”, p.156-171).
The two following chapters are devoted to the image and imagery of the Roman emperors in late antiquity (p.172-189). Here R.-Alföldi not only works out art-historical differences to the earlier imagery from the imperial era but also in terms of content. These are also discussed again in the following chapter about the christianization of image and image language of the roman emperors (p.190-205). It examines the influence of Christianity on the Roman world of images. In a final chapter (“Die Resultate der Analysen”, pp.206-214), various aspects of Roman images, such as their expressiveness, are summarized and finally discussed.
Maria R.-Alfödi’s work offers an outstanding and differentiated introduction to the world of roman images. The chapter on the representation of the victory is interesting for further research on the Roman war culture which gives a good overview to those researchers who are not so practiced in Roman images and their language.