EUR €168.80EUR €160.00 excl. VAT
Itinerant Greek Sculpture in Roman Italy and Greece and the Temple of Apollo Sosianus on the Campus Martius in Rome
Series:
In Roman Italy there were many sculptures and architectural elements from the Greek world, sometimes already centuries old. These objects had been transferred to the Italic peninsula where they became an integrated part of Roman society and culture. The Greek statues that were made part of the decoration of the temple of Apollo Sosianus in Rome, one of the main subjects of this volume, are exemplary of this process of transfer, appropriation, impact and change. Such reuse of (ancient) Greek statuary is also visible in Greece itself during the Roman period. This volume brings together international specialists on this fascinating phenomenon. Critically questioning older paradigms that understood Greek statues on the move as representations of ‘Greek culture’ in the first place, this book explores new interpretative frameworks to analyse these impactful objects in their own right.
Gianfranco Adornato is Professor of Greek and Roman Art and Archaeology at the Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa and scientific director of the archaeological excavations at Agrigento. His main fields of interest are Greek and Roman sculpture; the western Greek world and the issue of ‘colonization’; the reception of Greek Art in Roman contexts; and aesthetics. Publications include the dited volumes Beyond “Art Collections”. Owning and Accumulating Objects from Greek and Roman Antiquity to the Early Modern Period (2020), and the exhibition catalogue Il Catalogo del Mondo: Plinio il Vecchio e la storia della Natura (2024).
Suzan van de Velde holds a PhD from Leiden University (2023) and is curator Mediterranean collections at the National Museum of Antiquities (RMO) in Leiden since 2025. Her research interests include Greek and Roman sculpture, object biographies, cultural dynamics in the Ancient Mediterranean and reception. Her dissertation, entitled Moving Statues, investigated the agency and impact of Greek statues in the city of Rome and was written in the framework of the Gravity Grant programme Anchoring Innovation. Recent publications include ‘Les inventaires et le rôle de la statuaire grecque dans la Rome antique’, Perspective (2022) 95-108.
Miguel John Versluys is Professor of Classical and Mediterranean Archaeology at Leiden University and one of the PI’s of the Gravity Grant programme Anchoring Innovation. His research focuses on the cultural dynamics that characterise the global ancient world. Recent publications include Visual Style and Constructing Identity in the Hellenistic World. Nemrud Dağ and Commagene under Antiochos I (2017) as well as the edited volumes Canonisation as Innovation. Anchoring Cultural Formation in the First Millennium BCE (2022) and Reading Greek and Hellenistic-Roman Spolia. Objects, Appropriation and Cultural Change (2023), both part of the Euhormos series.
Contributors are: Gianfranco Adornato; Gabriella Cirucci; Francesca D’Andrea; Jane Fejfer; Hans Rupprecht Goette; Natsuko Himino; Pavlina Karanastasi; Eric M. Moormann; Olga Palagia; Marina Sabatini; Suzan van de Velde; Miguel John Versluys; Caroline Vout
Suzan van de Velde holds a PhD from Leiden University (2023) and is curator Mediterranean collections at the National Museum of Antiquities (RMO) in Leiden since 2025. Her research interests include Greek and Roman sculpture, object biographies, cultural dynamics in the Ancient Mediterranean and reception. Her dissertation, entitled Moving Statues, investigated the agency and impact of Greek statues in the city of Rome and was written in the framework of the Gravity Grant programme Anchoring Innovation. Recent publications include ‘Les inventaires et le rôle de la statuaire grecque dans la Rome antique’, Perspective (2022) 95-108.
Miguel John Versluys is Professor of Classical and Mediterranean Archaeology at Leiden University and one of the PI’s of the Gravity Grant programme Anchoring Innovation. His research focuses on the cultural dynamics that characterise the global ancient world. Recent publications include Visual Style and Constructing Identity in the Hellenistic World. Nemrud Dağ and Commagene under Antiochos I (2017) as well as the edited volumes Canonisation as Innovation. Anchoring Cultural Formation in the First Millennium BCE (2022) and Reading Greek and Hellenistic-Roman Spolia. Objects, Appropriation and Cultural Change (2023), both part of the Euhormos series.
Contributors are: Gianfranco Adornato; Gabriella Cirucci; Francesca D’Andrea; Jane Fejfer; Hans Rupprecht Goette; Natsuko Himino; Pavlina Karanastasi; Eric M. Moormann; Olga Palagia; Marina Sabatini; Suzan van de Velde; Miguel John Versluys; Caroline Vout
Foreword
Preface
List of Illustrations and Tables
Notes on ContributorsIi
Part 1 Theoretical Introductions
1 Assemblage: Expanding Perspectives on the Temple of Apollo Sosianus in Rome and Greek (Material) Culture within the Roman World
Suzan van de Velde and Miguel John Versluys
2 From ‘Greek Originals’ to Itinerant Sculptures: Antique Funerary and Votive Reliefs from Greece in Roman Times
Gabriella Cirucci
Part 2 The Temple of Apollo Sosianus and Its Sculptures
3 Piecing Together? Observations on the Pediment Sculptures of the Temple of Apollo in Circo (Sosianus) in Rome
Eric M. Moormann
4 The Statues of the Apollo Sosianus Temple: Technical and Stylistic Reassessment of a Conundrum
Gianfranco Adornato
5 Amazzonomachia, 1985–2023: Museum Display and Communication
Marina Sabatini
6 Fragments, Absences, Collections: Or ‘the Whole is the Untrue’
Jane Fejfer
Part 3 Itinerant Sculptures in Roman Italy and Greece
7 From Pietas to Enforcement: Augustus’s Interventions in the Religious and Artistic Life of Athens and of Other Regions in Greece
Pavlina Karanastasi
8 Disiecta Membra of Pediments of Greek Classical Temples in Roman Italy
Hans Rupprecht Goette
9 Three Classical Niobids from the Horti Sallustiani: an Augustan Pedimental Group or Hadrianic Ensemble?
Natsuko Himino
10 ‘Old’ and ‘New’ Sculptures for the Romans: Case Studies from Aristocratic Residences on the Esquiline
Francesca D’Andrea
Part 4 Concluding Remarks
11 The Pediment of the Temple of Apollo Sosianus: an Alternative View
Olga Palagia
12 Plus ça Change?
Caroline Vout
Plates
Index
Preface
List of Illustrations and Tables
Notes on ContributorsIi
Part 1 Theoretical Introductions
1 Assemblage: Expanding Perspectives on the Temple of Apollo Sosianus in Rome and Greek (Material) Culture within the Roman World
Suzan van de Velde and Miguel John Versluys
2 From ‘Greek Originals’ to Itinerant Sculptures: Antique Funerary and Votive Reliefs from Greece in Roman Times
Gabriella Cirucci
Part 2 The Temple of Apollo Sosianus and Its Sculptures
3 Piecing Together? Observations on the Pediment Sculptures of the Temple of Apollo in Circo (Sosianus) in Rome
Eric M. Moormann
4 The Statues of the Apollo Sosianus Temple: Technical and Stylistic Reassessment of a Conundrum
Gianfranco Adornato
5 Amazzonomachia, 1985–2023: Museum Display and Communication
Marina Sabatini
6 Fragments, Absences, Collections: Or ‘the Whole is the Untrue’
Jane Fejfer
Part 3 Itinerant Sculptures in Roman Italy and Greece
7 From Pietas to Enforcement: Augustus’s Interventions in the Religious and Artistic Life of Athens and of Other Regions in Greece
Pavlina Karanastasi
8 Disiecta Membra of Pediments of Greek Classical Temples in Roman Italy
Hans Rupprecht Goette
9 Three Classical Niobids from the Horti Sallustiani: an Augustan Pedimental Group or Hadrianic Ensemble?
Natsuko Himino
10 ‘Old’ and ‘New’ Sculptures for the Romans: Case Studies from Aristocratic Residences on the Esquiline
Francesca D’Andrea
Part 4 Concluding Remarks
11 The Pediment of the Temple of Apollo Sosianus: an Alternative View
Olga Palagia
12 Plus ça Change?
Caroline Vout
Plates
Index
Classicists, ancient historians, archaeologists and art-historians but also scholars and students interested in cultural transfer and object agency.