The President and Fellows of Harvard College
Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology
Retaining the Function: Sacred Copies in Greek and Roman Art
Author(s): Anna Anguissola
Source: RES: Anthropology and Aesthetics, No. 51 (Spring, 2007), pp. 98-107
Published by: The President and Fellows of Harvard College acting through the Peabody Museum of
Archaeology and Ethnology
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98
RES 51 SPRING 2007
Figure 2. Copy of the Athenian group of the Tyrant-Slayers, Hadrianic
Antonine period. Marble, h. 195 and 203 cm. Naples: Museo
Archeologico Nazionale, 6009, 6010. Photo: Courtesy of Deutsches
Institut, Rome.
Arch?ologisches
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Retaining the function
Sacred copies
in Greek and Roman art
ANNA ANGUISSOLA
in a
Exploring which works of art were replicated
insight
given period, why, and how, allows a privileged
it throws light on the
into the dynamics of reception;
interest in specific works
range of causes that generated
of art and in the retention of their artistic and idealizing
features through copying. The study of the replication of
figurative art has in recent years aligned classical
by highlighting
archaeology with other disciplines
of
shared problems. There has been a reconsideration
of changing
and a discussion
old and new assumptions
as artistic creation, originality,
concepts?such
test the suitability of
repetition, and copying?to
for
from other disciplines
categories borrowed
attitudes and practices current inGreek and
describing
have distinguished
Roman antiquity.1 Archaeologists
exact copying from the retention of semantic values of
at Corpus Christi College,
Oxford,
during a
further research
2005;
Scholarship,
January-March
Exchange
in
at the American
has been made possible
Academy
by a fellowship
in 2006.
I am greatly
indebted to Jas Eisner, who went
Rome
through
on several drafts of this paper;
I am also
commented
and extensively
This article was written
Fraenkel
comments
and
readers of RES, whose
grateful to the anonymous
criticisms were very helpful. Greek and Latin names and literary
in accordance
sources are quoted
with The Oxford Classical
and A. Spawforth
ed. S. Hornblower
(Oxford: Oxford
Kritios instead of
Press, 1996), with a single adaptation:
University
are taken from the
Critius. Greek and Latin texts and their translations
Dictionary
and forms; recent
of art, iconographies,
the role of technical
has underlined
scholarship
concerns
in the copying and diffusion of images
throughout the Greek and Roman world.
works
because
Nevertheless,
scholarly research has been
focused mainly on the aesthetic or technical grounds
its religious and civic implications have
copying,
But a study of antiquity's
scarcely been considered.
reasons
for replicating
images or
religious and civic
for
architecture can explain several complex cases with
or written sources.2
In
from archaeological
evidence
in the framework of a visual culture
antiquity,
factors of reception, an
characterized
by multiple
of art coexisted
side
oriented appreciation
aesthetically
by side and on an equal basis with religious and civic
some cases of replication,
concerns: By examining
this
some
paper aims to outline
problems of sacred and civic
attached to art objects. Rather than attempting
meaning
use of replication
in
to account for every documented
this article will instead choose a set of
sacred contexts,
and chronological
from a wide geographical
examples
range. The following pages investigate some examples of
in the
the replication of sacred objects and buildings
Greek and Roman worlds, and try in particular to
of sanctity that
describe the attitudes and perceptions
could lead to the choice of copying
images or
architecture.
Loeb Classical
Library.
1. A series of exhibitions,
have
and scholarly
publications
colloquia,
to the contemporary
from the Classical
replication
Bild
exhibition
the 1970s. See the following
catalogues:
addressed
world
since
und Vorbild:
Pasticcio,
Fassung, Variation,
Kopie, Replik, Variante,
ed. K. L?cher (Stuttgart: Staatsgalerie,
1971); Vrai ou faux?
des
Cabinet
Nationale,
imiter, falsifier (Paris: Biblioth?que
Copier,
et Antiques,
M?dailles
1988); Kopior, F?rfalskningar,
Parafraser, Plagiat,
F?lschung,
Pastischen,
ed. H. Wettre
Reproduktionen,
Original,
Conference
1988).
Kunstmuseum,
proceedings:
G?teborgs
and Reproductions,
the Original.
Copies
Multiple
Originals,
Repliker,
(G?teborg:
Retaining
ed. K. Preciado,
in the History of Art 20 (Washington,
D.C:
as Repetition:
National
of Art, 1989); R. E. Krauss, "Originality
Gallery
37 (1986):35-40;
The Ancient Art of Emulation.
October
Introduction/'
to
and Tradition from the Present
Originality
E.
K.
Memoirs
American
ed.
of
the
Gazda.
Antiquity
in Rome, suppl. vol. 1 (Ann Arbor: University
of Michigan
in Artistic
Studies
Classical
Academy
Press,
Studies
2002);
Philological
Archaeological
Association,
Institute of America
"Translating
from the
and American
'Original':
Reproductions
Archaeology
and Beyond,
the writing
art was held
Journal of
Literature," American
Art and Replication:
Rome
Greece,
29.2 (2006). During
ed. J.Trimble,
J. Eisner, in Art History
on copies
in Greek and Roman
of this paper, a roundtable
in Classical
105
Art and
(2001 ):284-286;
in Berlin in honor of Adolf Heinrich
Borbein: Original
in der antiken Kunst,
und Kopie. Form und Konzepte
der Nachahmung
include: Probleme
17-19
der Kopie
publications
February 2005. Other
von der Antike bis zum
19. Jahrhundert:
vier Vortr?ge, ed. C Lenz
(Munich: Bayerische
1992);W.
Davis,
Staatsgem?ldesammlungen,
Art History, Psychoanalysis
Park,
(University
Archaeology,
Replications.
and its
Pa.: Pennsylvania
State University
Press, 1996); Sculpture
ed. A. Huges and E. Ranfft (London: Reaktion,
1997);
Reproductions,
E. E. Perry, The Aesthetics
of Emulation
Rome
in the Visual Arts of Ancient
Press, 2005).
University
(Cambridge: Cambridge
in ancient
of art,
2. For the role of religious sensitivity
reception
on the Religious
see J. Eisner, "Image and Ritual: Reflections
46 (1996):515-531.
of Classical
Art," Classical
Quarterly
Appreciation
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100
RES 51 SPRING 2007
Asymmetrical
perceptions:
Forgeries
the Palladium and brought
it to Lavinium, from
it ultimately
to the
reached Rome; according
and Diomedes
carried it away under
other, Odysseus
cover of darkness, and thus made possible
the sack of
and twins
rescued
where
Forgery or the attempt to acquire prestige through the
to a famous name could derive from an
attachment
art
to
that is completely
different from the
attitude
or
such strategies
aesthetic
connoisseurial:
Sometimes,
InDionysius's
the
account, while
Troy by the Greeks.
inTroy, a copy
authentic Palladium remained hidden
was made, exactly
in every respect, and
like the original
was exposed
to public view in order to deceive a
and
potential thief; itwas this replica that Odysseus
Literary
by religious or civic motivations.3
for instance, attest to "impossible"
inscriptions
in order to
evidently attached to particular objects
on them: Herodotus
and
confer a sacred meaning
Pausanias refer to epigraphs
that ascribe an illustrious
past in the world of myth to sacred tripods and a
were
caused
sources,
to
is designed
stole. In these cases, deception
a
to
in
sacred object
order
preserve
protect the whole
in other words,
civic community;
the center of attention
is not the object
in itself, on account of any excellence
Diomedes
to Herodotus,
in
tripods placed
According
to Ismenian Apollo are said by
and dedicated
of the
inscriptions to have been in the possession
human
father
hero
of
mythical
Amphitryon?the
thalamus.
Thebes
of craftsmanship,
beauty, or antiquity,
concern
related to sacral imagination,
and public safety.5
therefore to be related to his glorious
In the same city of Thebes, Pausanias
deeds (Hdt. 5.59).
the ruins of a building, which housed a
describes
Heracles?and
to a story
During the third century b.c., according
II
related by Libanius in a speech of a.D. 356, Antiochus
in Cyprus so
of Syria had the cult images of the temples
faithfully replicated that he could substitute the fakes for
statues and carry the originals away
the authentic
linked by an inscription
and his wife Alcmene
Amphitryon
nor Pausanias
Neither Herodotus
to the story of
(Paus. 9.11.1 ).4
regards the objects as
construction
of
value
did not necessarily
The
forgeries:
on
a
traceable
(or
credible)
lineage, but on a
depend
the
object.
conveyed
by
religious meaning
In some situations, a fake serves to protect a sacred
thalamus
without
any of the inhabitants of the island becoming
aware of the swap (Lib. 11.112).6 The men sent to
Cyprus by the king could neither remove the sacred
statues openly nor escape detection
if they tried to steal
Then,
their place, and put the originals aboard their vessels
under the eyes of the Cypriots, pretending
they were
bringing home the newly made replicas. They set sail
from the island, and the Cypriots, unaware of the theft,
went on worshipping
the copies as their ancestral and
most sacred images of the gods. For Antiochus
II, itwas
to have access to the aura of original divine
essential
according
reproduce
like the original
in shape, dimension,
and features
The
shield had a
and
(schema, megethos,
morphe).
for
the
inhabitants of
sacred and protective
significance
to
it
the
since
believed
Rome,
guarantee
city's
they
Its protection was thus necessary
safety and prosperity.
inmany
for the community's
future, and its replication
exact copies was a ruse to deceive potential thieves and
13.3).
prevent them from stealing the original (Plut. Num.
In the first book of his Antiquitates
Romanae,
of Halicarnassus
tells the story of the
Dionysius
the sacred statue of the armed goddess
Palladium,
images when he introduced the ancient Cypriot cults
into the recently founded royal city of Antioch.7
in its historical truth, the
However
questionable
out
in setting up and legitimizing
that
anecdote
points
new sacred contexts
in a new city such as Antioch, mere
the safety of Troy depended
(Dion.
Athena, on which
Hal. Ant. Rom. 1.69.3). Dionysius
relates Arctinus's
its two most
reconciles
version of the myth, which
one
to
Aeneas
of
variants.
these,
According
popular
in the
statues and civic talismans
For the meaning
of guardian
see C. A. Faraone, Talismans
and Trojan Horses.
world,
in Greek Myth
Statues
and Ritual (Oxford: Oxford
Guardian
University
5.
Greek
Press,
3. On
pour
une
de Fart romaine
sociologie
4. M.-C. Hellmann,
"Les fausses
(see note
1), pp. 23-26,
p. 23
(Paris: Colin,
inscriptions/'
in particular.
1991 ), pp. 126-127.
in Vrai ou faux?
so they asked permission
to make exact copies.
set the copies
in
they took down the originals,
them,
legendary second king of Rome, Numa,
a skilled artist to
to Plutarch, commissioned
a heaven-sent
shield in eleven copies, exactly
talisman. The
in Greek and Roman art, see M. Fuchs, "In hoc
forgeries
der
nihil cedamus":
Studien zur Romanisierung
etiam genere Graeciae
Kunst im 1. Jhr. v. Chr. (Mainz: von Zabern,
1999),
sp?thellenistischen
et le faussaire:
R. Chevallier,
L'artiste, le collectionneur
pp. 44-52.
but a religious
ritual practice,
*
1992).
6. H.-U.
Cain,
Pr?sentation
museale
Stadtbild
und B?rgerbild
(Munich: Beck,
7. Antioch
Orontes
years
der G?tter
Pr?senz
und
Religi?se
und beim Fest," in
and P. Zanker
ed. M. W?rrle
Kultbilder.
"Hellenistische
im Heiligtum
im Hellenismus,
1995), pp. 115-130,
was founded on the
grandfather,
by Antiochus's
before the reign of Antiochus
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in particular
pp. 120-121.
left bank of the Syrian river
Seleucus
II (261-247
I, in 300
B.c., about
J. D.
b.c.). See
forty
Anguissola:
insufficient:
reproductions of ancient cult images were
the status of the old images (palaia)
The gap between
and the new ones (neourga) could not be bridged and
the function of the authentic
sacred statues was
at the same time, copies of
irreplaceable.8 Nevertheless,
the images were made by a team of craftsmen so skilled
the legitimate owners. Of course, the
that they deceived
likely difficulty of viewing sacred images (which may
in Cyprus)
well have been covered up in the sanctuary
the
plans and prevented
victims of his robbery from closely examining
the
replicas that replaced their original
images.
here, do not share a function peculiar
Reproductions,
would
have favored Antiochus's
to the prototype, as in the creation of true copies of cult
in
images. Cult images, in fact, were often replicated
or
a
contexts
to
in order
introduce
public
spread
in a different place
particular cult or to allow worship
through a link with the authority attached to a sacred
and venerable
image.9 These passages from Plutarch,
of Halicarnassus,
and Libanius reveal a
Dionysius
Retaining the function
101
Cypriots deceived by Antiochus keptworshipping the
copies exactly as before, with no loss of their own sense
or presumably of divine protection.
From
of meaning
no
on
their perspective,
there is
the other
difference;
of the counterfeiter,
the
hand, from the perspective
are bowing to inferior
of counterfeits
worshippers
manifestations
of the gods. Yet the success of Antiochus's
(at least in Libanius's telling), or of Numa's
deception
replication, or even of the possible
of the Palladium, demonstrates
that what
duplication
was most meaningful
about an object could not be
replicated. The original object clearly retains some kind
of power or authority that cannot be transmitted to its
replica, no matter how faithful the reproduction. What
seems to have mattered
in all these cases was the
protective
untransferable
authenticity
rather different discourses
circulated
was
around
objects
of the original, as well as
of power and authority that
inwhich
special meaning
vested.
could replace an original, even in
in
itwas not
just two cases: When
qualities,
to be a copy?for
in
the
example
Cypriots'
itwas meant to be an
when
ignorance?or
twin of the original. According
to the
indistinguishable
Historia Augusta?a
of biographies
of
collection
emperors probably written between a.D. 390 and 420?
An exact duplicate
of forgery: Counterfeiting
is aimed
central characteristic
at shifting to the surrogate the link between
signifier and
new
for
viewers.
The
prospective
meaning
signifier is
intended to induce victims of the forgery to transfer to
the fake the entire set of ideal values once associated
the original. As a matter of fact, nothing really
changes for viewers who don't know that the original
has been replaced by a counterfeit or decoy, and the
with
itsmagical
understood
in a.D. 211
his deathbed
the Emperor Septimius Severus,
inYork, disposed of his sacred
lying sick on
statue
simulacrum) of Fortuna regia (SHA Sev.
23.5-7).
Fortuna, the goddess of chance or luck,
him,
protected the sovereign and always accompanied
even in his bedroom. He ordered that a duplicate copy
of the statue be made, an indistinguishable
twin, so that
sons
his
Antoninus
(Caracalla) and Geta could each be
(sacratissimum
The Cities
Grainger,
of Seleukid
Some
carried
out on a much
established
foundation
city with
foremost
(Oxford: Clarendon
Syria
Press,
1990),
56-57.
pp. 48,
8.
decades
before
was
time, a similar operation
in his newly
by Constantine
In the years between
the
Constantinople:
the Emperor and his planners
furnished
the
Libanius's
larger scale
imperial capital,
and dedication,
a remarkable
collection
of public
sculpture.
Assembled
in the
the Forum of
public gathering
places?the
Augusteion,
to
the baths of Zeuxippos?this
Constantine,
display was designed
articulate
and legitimize
the claim for imperial status. See S. Bassett,
The Urban
Image of Late Antique Constantinople
(Cambridge:
Press, 2004), pp. 37-78.
University
Cambridge
that around 600 b.c. the Phocaeans
says, for example,
a copy of the cult
them to the new foundation
of Massilia
subcolonies
founded
from
image of Artemis
Ephesia; thereafter
Artemis
"in the same form" (Strabo 4.1.4-5).
Massilia
also worshipped
9.
brought
Strabo
with
See A. Anguissola,
"Note on Aphidruma
56 (2006)-.641-643;
1 : Statues
and their Function,"
"Note on
Quarterly
2: Strabo on the Transfer
56.2
Aphidruma
Quarterly
I.Malkin,
"What is an aphidruma?'
Classical
(2006):643-646;
10 (1991 ):77-97.
For the diffusion
of the cult of Artemis
Antiquity
Classical
A. Anguissola,
of Cults," Classical
the Roman Empire, see J. Eisner, "The Origins
of
Ephesia throughout
Icon: Pilgrimage,
in the Roman
and Visual Culture
East as
Religion
to the Centre,"
Resistance
in The Early Roman Empire in the East, ed.
S. E. Alcock
in particular
(Oxford: Oxbow,
1997), pp. 178-197,
pp.
180-189.
simulacrum.
provided with an identically protective
Feeling close to death and afraid that the copy would
not be ready in time, the Emperor had the original
to the other for
transferred from one son's bedroom
one night.
Other passages
in the Historia Augusta
(SHA Ant. Pius
12.5 and M. Ant. 7.3) imply that for the period between
the second half of the second century A.D. and the first
decades of the third century, the practice of transferring
the statue of Fortuna from the residence of a dying
emperor
to his appointed
successor
was
frequent.10
10. D. A. Arya, The Goddess
Fortuna in Imperial Rome: Cult, Art,
Text (Ph.D. diss., The University
of Texas at Austin,
2002), p. 366; J.
"La fortune du prince,"
in Hommages
? Marcel
Renard,
Hellegouarch,
ed.
J. Bibauw
(Brussels: Latomus,
J.
1969), vol. 1, pp. 421-430;
La religion
romaine a l'apog?e de l'empire
(Paris: Belles
note 7.
Lettres, 1955), vol. 1, pp. 325-326,
Beaujeu,
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102
RES 51 SPRING 2007
From this point of view, Severus's duplication
of the
goddess's
image can be easily understood: The creation
of a second simulacrum,
like the original,
exactly
sanctions a joint succession?two
brothers destined
to rule together and enjoy equal rights in the
administration
of the empire.11 Nevertheless,
Caracalla
never
his
father's
instructions
had
and
the statue
ignored
reader of the
replicated for his brother. A fifth-century
Historia Augusta would already know that Severus's
other son Geta would die in a few months,
stabbed to
an
at
awareness
must
death
his brother's order. Such
a dark twist to the tale, for Geta's
destiny seems to be foreshadowed
have added
unfortunate
by his
lack of an image of Fortuna.
Septimius Severus intended to have two statues
identical to each other, neither being invested
perfectly
with a formal or ideal priority. This implies that the aura
as
of the original were perceived
to
not
to
it
and
transferable
indissolubly
statue
of
The
the
subsidiary objects.
duplication
resulting
in a pair of indistinguishable
twins seemed to be the
and authority
attached
to create
two originals,
identical vessels with
only way
the same sacred and political meaning.
Reproduction
here assumes that the copy could retain both the
in order not
and the function of the prototype,
meaning
to substitute for but to coexist with the original, sharing
its features and ideal significance.
Successful
replications:
Restoration
and substitution
As shown by the example
taken from the Historia
the function of an image is
Augusta, maintaining
sometimes made possible by replication. Other
literary
cases where
the production
and visual sources witness
of a copy is not aimed at transferring meaning
but at
it. Restoration often involved operations
of
conserving
in a state of
this kind, when a statue or painting
degradation was replaced by a faithful replica. In these
itwas necessary
to produce a copy as true to the
no difference
as
so
could be
that
possible,
original
a state of
aura
the
of
The
prototype?in
perceived.12
cases,
11. According
to Cassius Dio
(Dio Cass. 76.15.2),
said to his sons before dying: "Do not disagree
Severus
advice
that went
unheeded,
yourselves,"
was killed on Caracal
la's instructions.
12. B. S. Ridgway,
"Defining
the Original
(see note
Retaining
e
Mel uceo Vaccaro,
Archeologia
(Milan: II Saggiatore,
1989), pp.
124-126.
since
later Geta
Issue: the Greek
1 ), pp.
13-44;
This type of attention
is evidently
focused on issues of
a semantic
In
the Greek and Roman worlds,
function.
the replica and the original object was
identity between
for this
implicit in the case of restorations. An example
by what the literary sources say
Hut of Romulus, on the Cermalus
is described
slope of the Palatine Hill, which
by
as a primitive hut built of
of Halicarnassus
Dionysius
wattle and daub, with a thatched roof. Whenever
"either by storms or by the lapse of time," it
damaged
was repaired in a form as close as possible
to the
attitude
about
Chevallier
(see note
3), pp.
is provided
the so-called
In this case,
(Dion. Hal. Ant Rom. 1.79.11).13
a
as
it
in the
substantial
did
role,
played
in Rome, the oldest of
restorations of the pons Sublicius
the bridges spanning the Tiber. Like the house of
this bridge was repeatedly
rebuilt after itwas
Romulus,
or
causes
natural
such as floods; its
destroyed by fire
original
material
and preservation were considered matters
of religion and there was a strict rule that it should
the use of any
always be made entirely of wood, without
on using metal of any sort
metal. The prohibition
construction
derived from religious
presumably
from the desire to have a structure
concerns,
that could
rather than
be easily
danger arose.14
most buildings did change, often
Nevertheless,
rebuilt. The temple of Jupiter
radically, when
they were
on the Capitoline
Hill, for instance,
Optimus Maximus
dismantled
when
s.v. "Casa Romuli
13. F. Coarelli,
in Lexicon
(Cermalus)/'
urbis Romae,
ed. E. M. Steinby
1993
(Rome: Quasar,
topographicum
L. Richardson,
A New Topographical
1998), vol. 1, pp. 241-242;
of Ancient
Rome
(Baltimore and London:
John Hopkins
Dictionary
Coarelli,
A.
for authenticity,
and we can guess
both as authentic.
On
accepted
competed
simply
in
Period,"
13-26,
p. 17 in particular;
e attualit?
restauro. Tradizione
the
like its prototype but also homo-semantic?indeed
it can
come to replace the prototype altogether;
the meanings
of the prototype are entirely transferred to the copy, and
the two images are in principle
indistinguishable.
the one on
Besides
Press, 1992), p. 74, s.v. "Casa Romuli."
University
the Palatine Hill, there was another
hut of Romulus
in Rome, on the
sources
mentioned
(Vitr. De arch. 2.1.5,
Capitoline,
by ancient written
Val. Max. 4.4.11
; Sen. Controv.
2.1.5). The two huts seem not to have
Septimius
between
a few months
not be lost but rather retained
significant decay?would
by an analogous
object that could bear the whole
and share its status. A copy of
weight of itsmeanings
this type, as in the case of the two statues of Fortuna
to Caracalla and Geta,
is not only perfectly
bequeathed
have
s.v. "Casa Romuli
(Area Capitol
1, p. 241.
Sic. 3.45.2,
Diod.
36.100;
s.v. "Pons Sublicius,"
in Lexicon
vol.
topographicum,
14. See Plin. HN
9.3;
vol.4,
F. Coarelli,
pp.
that the Romans
the Capitoline
ina)," in Lexicon
112-113.
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All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
5.24.1-3;
may
see F.
hut,
Plut. Num.
topographicum
(ibid.),
Anguissola:
over time, even though
its profile modified
restorations were aimed at preserving what was
considered
the most distinctive
legacy of the ancient
by the
building.15 The original temple was considered
had
as a typical example of a
De arch. 3.3.5
lists it in
(Vitruvius
temple
with
Tuscanic
those
aerostylis, among
temples
wider than necessary).
intercolumniations
Preparation of
its site was begun in the 580s B.c., but the temple's
actual construction was carried out at the end of the
sixth century B.c. It stood for more than four hundred
ancients
themselves
"Tuscanic"
years before being demolished
by fire in 83 B.c.; the loss
was total, even the cult statue and the Sibylline books
kept in a stone chest underground were destroyed.16
A second temple was reconstructed
by the dictator
Lutatius Catulus.
Sulla and his successor, Quintus
to Dionysius
itwas built on
of Halicamassus,
According
its
and followed
the foundations of the predecessor
plan, differing from it "in nothing but the costliness of
(Dion. Hal. Ant Rom. 4.61.4).
Significant
were
in this phase: Not
introduced
however,
changes,
imported
capitals
only did Sulla use marble Corinthian
in part transformed
from Athens, but the temple was
from the Tuscan Doric to a quasi-Hellenistic
style. In
the materials"
a.D. 69 the building was burned again during the
storming of the Capitol by the adherents of the brief
reigning Emperor Vitellius and was then restored by
and after the
Vespasian,
again on the old foundations
its height raised (Tac. Hist. 4.53).
original plan, but with
on late republican and imperial coins
Depictions
show that both the general appearance
and the
decoration
underwent alteration during the
pedimental
restorations.17 Thus, the height of the Temple of Jupiter
and its architectural decoration
could change, but the
In the
general outline of its plan had to be preserved:
of form
history of the Capitoline
temple, the duplication
15.
S. De Angeli,
aedes
s.v. "luppiter Optimus
Maximus
Capitolinus,
e di et? imp?riale)/'
in Lexicon
(fasi tardo-repubblicane
(ibid.), vol.
topographicum
pp. 221-224,
W. Stamper,
Richardson
(see note 13),
148-153;
s.v. "luppiter Optimus
Maximus
J.
Aedes";
(Capitolinus).
The Architecture
of Roman Temples
(Cambridge:
no. 793.
materials
could
vary
in order
to
embellish the building.
The Romans seem to have drawn the conclusion
that
in no way inauthentic, and after
the new buildings were
every restoration these were still, in their eyes, the Hut
of Romulus, the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus,
seen as a ritual
and the pons Sublicius
Restoration,
an
is
of
practice,
important aspect
replication and
in
these
and
continuity
examples. Here, recognizability
formal homogeneity
the object reproduced and
between
its reproduction constitute a form of identity; as a
in every respect,
the two entities coincide
consequence,
both
and
formal
ideal
characteristics
sharing
meaning.
An example drawn from a radically different cultural,
and geographic
sphere throws some
on
this issue. The Shinto shrines at Ise,
comparative
light
in the adjacent towns of Uji Yamada and Ise City inMie
Prefecture, embody some of the most treasured
in Japan. Today there are two major
traditional values
artistic,
cult complexes
located at Ise, with eighty-one
subsidiary
shrines scattered among their precincts.
Following a
sacred injunction, the principal shrine structures are
rebuilt approximately
every twenty years, and have been
since the end of the seventh century a.D. The basic
belief is the idea that, by replacing the buildings of a
shrine and transferring the cult to these new structures,
the gods and the protection
they afford, too, will gain
is thus in a state
renewed strength.19 The shrine, which
two
of perennial
renewal, maintains
adjacent sites and
them with each rebuilding. The newly built
a discrete entity with respect to the
structure constitutes
like its
temple it replaces, but it looks perfectly
predecessor,
being its exact copy. Each time, the same
are used, and a
instruments, and techniques
materials,
is followed
in the minutest details
ritual procedure
during the building operation. The shrine is always
and the replacement of its elements
is not
recognizable
to itsmeaning:
detrimental
Sameness of forms and
artisanal practice ensures perfect homogeneity
between
alternates
the new
temple
18.
and
its demolished
predecessor.20
See also
19. The
Maximus
topographicum
17. M. H. Crawford,
Roman Republican
Coinage
(Cambridge:
Press, 1974), p. 399 no. 385.1,
University
Cambridge
pi. 49.3 and p.
497 nos. 487.1-2,
H. Mattingly
and E. A. Sydenham,
pi. 58.6-7;
Roman
(London: Spink & Son, 1926), vol. 2, p. 74,
Imperial Coinage
no. 496; p. 82, no. 577; p 84, no. 591; p. 95, no. 689; p. 105, no.
p. 108,
important, whereas
3, pp.
Press, 2005), pp. 6-18.
Cambridge
University
s.v. "luppiter Optimus
16. See G. Tagliamonte,
aedes
(fino all'a. 83 a.C.)," in Lexicon
Capitolinus,
(ibid.), vol. 3, pp. 144-148.
765;
was
103
Retaining the function
Perry (note 1), pp. 28-29.
last rebuilding of the Ise shrine
took place
inOctober
1996.
20.
Japanese
Kawazoe,
"Ise Shrine and a Modernist
Construction
of
Reynolds,
; K. Tange, N.
Tradition," Art Bulletin 83 (2001 ):316-341
and Y.Watanabe,
Ise. Prototype
of Japanese Architecture
J.M.
"The Origins
of
(Cambridge, Mass.: M.I.T. Press, 1965); W. Atsumu,
69 (1995):63-83.
See also H. Mansfield,
The
Shrine," Acta Asi?tica
Same Ax, Twice: Restoration
in a Throwaway Age
and Renewal
(Hanover
3-4.
and
London:
University
Press of New
This content downloaded from 128.148.252.35 on Thu, 2 Oct 2014 11:49:49 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
England,
2000),
pp.
Ise
RES 51 SPRING 2007
104
Figure 1.Metope from the temple C inThermos, turn of the third and second centuries b.c. Clay, h.
55 cm. Athens: National Archaeological Museum, 13407. Photo: Courtesy of National Archaeological
Museum,
Athens.
restoration
When
antiquity,
returning to Classical
involved not only buildings but
through substitution
and sacred
also architectural
decoration,
paintings,
statues. A clay metope
from the archaic temple of
inAetolia, depicts three enthroned
Apollo at Thermos,
as belonging
to the
divinities
and has been recognized
A passage from Pausan ias's Description
In book eight,
attests to the same practice.
Arcadia, Pausanias refers to the casting of
statue of Demeter
for the sanctuary of the
B.c. The artist Onatos
in 470-460
Phigalia
image by replicating a copy (mimema) of
restoration of the building at the turn of the third and
b.c. (fig. 1). The metope
is a
centuries
probably
b.c.
a
and
close replica of
prototype dating to the 620s
was molded
and painted from its archaic model as a
wooden
second
ruined decoration.
The
for the ancient
replacement
restoration of the sacred complex
through the
of its damaged
substitution
components
required the
to be
of faithful replicas of the elements
production
real clones made to act as the originals.21
replaced,
of Greece
dedicated
a bronze
to
in
goddess
made the
the ancient
had
cult image (xoanon) of Demeter, which
in a fire (Paus. 8.42.7).22 The evidence
of xoana
perished
around the Greek world
shows that these rough wooden
images evoked the primordial continuity of age-old cults
and were often painstakingly
reproduced when they
suffered loss or damage; they were
intentionally
portable, and they had to remain the same in form and
In the story narrated by Pausanias,
material.23
restoring
22.
21.
R. A. Stucky, "DieTonmetopen
ein Dokument
hellenistischer
Thermos:
mit drei
sitzende
Frauen von
Antike Kunst
Denkmalpflege,"
in Igreci.
H.-U. Cain, "Copie dai mirabilia
(1988):71-78;
greci,"
ed. S. Settis (Turin: Einaudi,
Storia cultura arte societ?,
1998), vol. 2.3,
pp. 1221-1244,
p. 1223 in particular.
31
of Aegina
(Leiden: Brill, 1977), pp. 8-9.
J. D?rig, Onatas
see J. Rapadopoulos,
23. On the concept
of xoanon,
and definition
Xoana e sphyrelata.
Testimonianza
delle fonti scritte (Rome: L'Erma di
Bretschneider,
Untersuchungen
Politik, Zetemata
und
1980); T. S. Scheer, Die Gottheit
zur Funktion griechischer
Kultbilder
105
(Munich:
Beck,
This content downloaded from 128.148.252.35 on Thu, 2 Oct 2014 11:49:49 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
2000),
ihr Bild.
pp. 8-18;
in Religion
und
S. De Angel?,
Anguissola:
by Pausanias suggests that the copy was a
for the missing original, the aesthetic
replacement
on values
importance of which was dependent
indubitably attached to the hand of a specific and
even if the
canonical master-sculptor.
Nevertheless,
were
statue
of
the
and
relevance
consequences
celebrity
devotion
required the erection of a new statue in place
of the irremediably destroyed
image. In this case, there
the old wooden
is an acknowledged
distinction between
new
the
bronze
latter is said
and
the
statue,
yet
image
to have been molded on a replica of the former. The
features of the original had to be reproduced as visible
of the same divine power, and, as a
expressions
provided
of its status as a masterpiece
by one of the best-known
cannot be ascribed purely
Greek artists, its replacement
to an aesthetic concern, but to a genuine need to restore
the sacred and ritual functions of that image.
Pliny the Elder refers to a parallel situation when
a reproduction of a painting of Aphrodite
describing
the ancient
of this, the link between
consequence
new
statue
is
and
the
and
underlined
wooden
image
explicit.
in reception:
Shifts
Function
and aesthetics
The religious reception of art could intersect inmany
ways with aesthetic concerns: A work made for a sacred
in
context could,
in the classicizing mentalit?
developed
the Hellenistic
and Roman worlds, become precious as
a rare survival from the hand of itsmaker. Without
in depth the well-examined
topic of the
exploring
artistic
and their
of
famous
Greek
copies
paradeigmata
Roman
Hellenistic
the
and
distribution
throughout
world, a few instances that outline the shift from a
religious to an aesthetic attitude towards art can help
arcaica,"
e xoanon:
f?r Jale
considerazioni
sulla
?nan, ed. N. Ba?gelen
statua
The best example of different kinds of attention and
reception for the same work of art is perhaps the
statue group of the Tyrant-Slayers, Harmodios
Athenian
and Aristogiton
(fig. 2). A first group, made by the artist
di Xenia
10 (Roma: De Luca, 1988), vol. 1, pp. 27, 68; D. Knoepfler,
Ule propter quem Thespiae
visuntur. Une m?saventure
de l'Eros de Praxit?le et l'institution du concours
des
insoup?onn?e
"Cupido
(Istanbul:
K. W. Arafat,
of
the Domus,
Villa,
and
in the Private
on
Perspectives
E. Gazda
?nsula, ed.
pp. 71-88.
Realm,"
the Architecture
in Roman
(Ann Arbor:
University
Press, 1991),
Michigan
25. The uncertainty
over the reliability of Pausanias's
statue of Eros might have reached Rome under different
does
Corso,
not alter
Prassitele:
latines
latinum. M?langes
de langue, de
au professeur
Andr? Schneider,
Droz,
1997), pp. 17-39.
aedes,"
p. 117
in Lexicon
in particular;
ed. D.
topographicum
Richardson
s.v. "Iulius Divus, Aedes."
(see note 13), pp. 213-214,
27. Jex-Blake and Sellers
interpret the verbal form "to substitute"
the relevant passage
from Pliny in a broad sense,
referring to a mere
in
of Apelles'
instead of to its replacement
with a new
picture
on the
K. Jex-Blake and E. Sellers, The Elder Pliny's Chapters
of Art (Chicago: Argonaut,
1968, and Chicago:
Ares,
1982), p.
History
on a hint in
is unlikely,
it is grounded
since
128, note 3. This reading
restoration
painting:
Art
and Decor
of
account
Suetonius's
is cursorily
Emperor
"Coan Venus," which
of the
life of Vespasian
(Suet. Vesp. 18). There,
taken care of the restoration of a
goddess
HN 36.27).
(the
circumstances)
in the present paper. See A.
for the argument
e letterarie. Vita e opere. Quadern
fonti epigrafiche
constitutes
its value
i
the
said to have
is just as
likely to have been the statue of the
in Rome,
in the Temple of Peace
(Plin.
by Vespasian
the mention
in Suetonius
of a "Coan Venus"
Moreover,
an emendation
at the end of the seventeenth
proposed
dedicated
account
et de
litt?rature
offerts
(Geneva:
Knoepfler
s.v. "Iulius, Divus,
26. P. Gros,
(see note 13), vol. 3, pp. 116-119,
di divinit?
(Atlanta: Scholars
Press, 1988).
Sculpture
24. On the extent to which
copies of famous statues became
see Perry
in the Roman art market,
and commodified
aestheticized
(note 1), and E. Bartman,
(note 1); The Ancient Art of Emulation
and Display
in Nomen
Er?tideia,"
civilisation
Greek
New
to
task and the damaged original continued
to do a
the painter Dorotheus
in order to replace it (Plin. HN
fade, Nero commissioned
faithful copy of the work
35.91 ).27
ve Sanat Yayinlari,
1989), pp. 397-418;
Arkeoloji
to Antiquities,"
at
"Pausanias' Attitude
of the British School
Annual
A. A. Donohue,
Athens 87 (1992)387-409;
Xoana and the Origins
of
"Sculptural Collecting
in the Private Sphere.
inhabitants of the island (Strabo 14.2.19). Augustus
in the
the painting to the deified Caesar
in Rome (in delubro patris
temple of Julius Caesar
dedicated
ambitious
carved by the
replica of Praxiteles' masterpiece,
Athenian artist Menodorus.25
The detailed account
sphyrelaton
in Festschrift
rising from the sea and wringing out her
anadyomene,
hair, by Apelles. The picture was carried away from its
in exchange
for the
original setting in Cos by Augustus
remission of a tribute of a hundred talents granted to the
Caesaris).26
Later, when the picture showed clear signs
of decay, a painter was sought to restore it. Since itwas
to take on this
impossible to find anyone willing
in a broader historical context.24
situate this discourse
in
In book nine, Pausanias remarks that atThespiae,
was
a
statue
of
the
there
central-southern
Boeotia,
copy
of Eros carved in Pentelic marble by Praxiteles
(Paus.
9.27.4). The Praxitelian original was carried away by
returned to the Thespians and its original
Caligula,
and brought back to Rome by
placement
by Claudius,
itwas destroyed by fire. The image of Eros
Nero, where
in the Thespian temple at the time of
displayed
Pausanias's visit, during the second century a.D., was a
"Agalma,
105
Retaining the function
(Johann Georg
century by Graevius
down by the manuscripts.
Grave)
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All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
to the
lections
handed
106
RES 51 SPRING 2007
in the Agora in 510-509
and placed
b.c., had
civic
for the
and
strong political
particularly
significance
citizens of Athens. This was the first truly political
monument
in
in Greece, without
any religious function
or
was
set up in the
it
votive practice;
the sense of cult
Antenor
in the center of political
life to commemorate
Agora,
founders of the new
the ideological
and celebrate
at Athens.28 When
the Persian
democratic
dispensation
b.c.
in
Attica
480
and
Xerxes
invaded
plundered
king
the city, the statues were carried away as spoils of war
In 477-476
b.c., a second bronze
same
the
group depicting
subject was cast by Kritios and
in the Agora (Paus.
Nesiotes
and subsequently
displayed
to
Luc.
18).
1.8.5;
literary sources
Philops.
According
(Plin. HN
34.70).
the group by Antenor was later returned to Athens either
the Great (Plin. HN 34.70; Arr. Anab.
by Alexander
or
Iof Syria (Val. Max. 2.10 ext.
3.16.7-8),
by Seleucus
I (Raus. 1.8.5).
1), or by his son Antiochus
of the
The precise degree of formal dependence
second Tyrant-Slayers group on its illustrious
it aimed at
is hard to judge. Nevertheless,
the missing original and restoring its civic and
In
to the Athenians.
political function, so meaningful
the group by Kritios and Nesiotes was
later centuries,
predecessor
replacing
of
included among the most celebrated masterpieces
to furnish public spaces
Greek art and was reproduced
collectors. The sculptural
and the homes of wealthy
throughout the Roman
of
celebrated masterpieces
copies
is
in real galleries. Such a display
of Greek art, placed
in Lucian's Philopseudes
described
(written in the mid
second century a.D.) as furnishing the house of Eucrates:
a
In Lucian's satirical (and probably fictional) account,
was
Eucrates'
of
collection
of
the
copy
part
Tyrant-Slayers
in a prominent
of renowned statues, placed
spot next to
of wealthy
decoration
featured
often
Empire
the entrance
homes
themes for the discerning
the casts
eye. Among
in the Bath of Sosandra, fragments from a
discovered
cast of the famous Athenian
group of the Tyrant-Slayers
have been recognized,
further demonstrating
the
in the Roman world.29 As
popularity of the composition
this example
shows, multiple
types of attention could be
in different periods and
focused on the same object
contexts. Thus, in considering
the issues related to
copying and imitating in ancient art, attention must
paid to the artistic object at every level; aesthetic,
political, and religious interests must be considered
the remains of a series of plaster casts, evidently part of
which
of a Roman sculptor's workshop,
the equipment
some of the most
important
faithfully reproduced
of Greek
art dating
from the Severe
Style of
-inherited
by the Middle Ages, and find
in the Byzantine world. The
particularly cogent parallels
on
view
cult images was succinctly
stated in
Orthodox
the ninth century a.D. by Saint Theodore
the Studite: By
one and the same
virtue of mimesis,
the icon becomes
as an art
itsmodel and thus virtually disappears
with
had to be accurately and laboriously copied from other
icons (fig. 3).32 Itwas an important axiom of icon theory
iconic
that the power and sanctity of worshipped
in all
and
resided
individually
collectively
archetypes
or
aesthetic
of
merit.33
medium,
style,
copies,
regardless
C. von Hees-Landwehr,
Griechische
Der Fund von Baiae:
Abg?ssen.
29.
r?mischen
Harvard
particular.
University
Press,
1998),
pp.
153-183,
pp.
158-163
in
in
Meisterwerke
zur Technik
antiker
Museum
alter Plastik,
exhib. cat. (Frankfurt: Liebieghaus
Die antiken Gipsabg?sse
C. von Hees-Landwehr,
1982), pp. 24-26;
aus Baiae. Griechische
in Abg?ssen
Zeit
R?mischer
Bronzestatuen
nos. 1-8.
(Berlin: Gebr. Mann,
1985), pp. 27-39,
Kopisten,
30.
312-1453:
Hall,
The Art of the Byzantine
PG 99, 500-501.
C. Mango,
Sources
and Documents
(Englewood
Cliffs,
N.J.:
Empire
Prentice
1972), p. 173.
H. Maguire,
The
Saints and Their Images
Icons of their Bodies.
in Byzantium
Princeton
Press, 1996), p. 11.
(Princeton:
University
Parisinus
of the Sacra Parallela.
The Miniatures
32. K.Weitzmann,
31.
Princeton
T. H?lscher,
Identity: The Case of
"Images and Political
in Democracy,
Athens,
Athens,"
Empire and the Arts in Fifth-century
and London:
and K. A. Raaflaub
ed. D. A. Baedeker
(Cambridge, Mass,
from antiquity
object.30 The images of Christ, His Mother, and His
Saints were considered
authentic portraits of the persons
however
portrayed,
long ago they had lived.31 As a
new icons were not new inventions, but
consequence,
Graecus
28.
be
in a
and with a ductile approach.
broad perspective
and in particular the
This range of considerations,
were
shifts between aesthetic and functional viewpoints,
to the main
hall (Luc. Philops.
18).
at
in
1950s
the
excavations
Baiae, near
Large-scale
an
to
thermal
bath, the
impressive
light
Naples, brought
a
in
cache
of
Bath
of
Sosandra.
so-called
1954,
There,
was
in a
discovered
430 fragments of plaster sculptures
room underneath one of the terraces. The fragments are
masterpieces
the fifth century b.c. to the fourth century a.D. The
could presumably
deliver a production
line of
as
as
on
variations
well
select
classical
greatest hits,
business
923.
Studies
University
inManuscripts
Press,
1979),
Illumination
p. 213
8 (Princeton
no. 569
and pi. CXXVI,
(fol.
328v).
on Edible Icons: Originals
and Copies
"Rumination
33. G. Vikan,
in Retaining
in the Art of Byzantium,"
the Original
(see note 1), pp.
e la replica
"Il modello
in particular; G. Babic,
47-59,
pp. 50-51
76 (1988):61-78.
delle
nell'arte bizantina
icone," Arte Cristiana
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Anguissola:
107
Retaining the function
skilled painter to paint a replica of the ?con, and when
the Edessenes
returned the gold and asked him for the
he
gave them the copy and kept the original.34
portrait,
The Narratio de imagine Edessena describes
another
time
the
this
counterfeit
aimed at
Edessenes,
involving
to
the
revered
this
story, the
protecting
image. According
a copy of the holy ?mage of
Edessenes manufactured
Christ in an attempt to keep the original out of the hands
Persian general Chosroes.35
of the sixth-century
In imitating works of art in antiquity, religion must be
reasons for
taken into account as one of the principal
A similar concern?connected
the phenomenon.
with a
be also seen in the
sacred and civic meaning?can
such as political
replication of other objects,
inscriptions, votives, and honorary statues. In the Greek
identical inscriptions attesting to a treaty between
world,
two cities or recording donations
to a sanctuary were
or in different
set
in
cities
both
concerned
up
normally
the same urban
and relevant public places within
in one of the main panhellenic
setting. Dedications
or Delphi, could be replicated
in
sanctuaries, Olympia
it.
the other or in the city of the community
that offered
is constituted
Another striking example
the
many
by
statues set up to commemorate
athletic victors both in
their home towns, often in highly visible public spaces,
and in the places where
the games had been held, as
at length in book six of Pausanias's travel
documented
considered
above outline the
writings.36 The examples
main questions
of
that arise in a study of the duplication
a
turn
in
?s
that
linked
with
practice
religious ?mages,
the larger issue of surrogacy and the power of the
their
constructed
object to stand in for gods and embody
sources
the
and
When
presence.
investigating
literary
on this subject, one must
evidence
archaeological
Figure 3. Miniature with an artist copying a sacred icon, ninth
century
a.D.
Paris:
Biblioth?que
Nationale
de
France,
ms.
923, fol. 328v. Photo: Courtesy of Biblioth?que Nationale
France,
clich?
gr.
de
BNF.
In some cases, at any rate, particular
icons were
as
to
and irreplaceable originals,
archetypical
regarded
to
ancient
in
talismanic
the
be hoarded
ways similar
statues described
Chronicle
above. The twelfth-century
the Syrian reports that the Edessenes had
of Michael
offered their divinely created
image to a nobleman
as
collateral for a loan to pay their
named Athanasius
taxes. Athanasius
tried to play on them the very trick
II is said to have used many
that King Antiochus
a
centuries before with the Cypriots: He commissioned
consider to what extent form and materials are relevant
a ritual continuity?that
inmaintaining
is,what role is
of
elements
that
constitute
the sacred
each
the
played by
or
is the
work
of
the
of
and
which
these
art,
building
essential feature that confers a unique meaning
upon the
cannot
altered.
be
object, and therefore
34.
jacobite
476-477.
J.-B. Chabot,
d'Antioche,
Chronique
1166-1199
de Michel
le Syrien, patriarche
1901 ), vol. 2, pp.
(Paris: Leroux,
the Invisible by
113, 444. H. L. Kessler, "Configuring
the Holy Face," in The Holy Face and the Paradox of
ed. H. L. Kessler and G. Wolf
Representation,
(Bologna: Nuova Alfa,
1998), pp. 129-151,
p. 137 in particular.
35.
PG
Copying
36. On
Roman
this wide
Empire
topic,
(Cambridge:
see
J. K?nig,
Cambridge
158-204.
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All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Athletics
University
and
Literature
Press,
2005),
in the
pp.