Late Roman Iconography and Style

Abstract

Discussions of late Roman style and iconography sometimes tend to emphasize the liminality of visual culture in late antiquity; monuments representative of the period such as the Arch of Constantine are neither fully “classical” nor “medieval” in their form and content; hence, the instinct to compare its style and iconography with that of the past or future monuments is hard to resist. The result of this lure to dichotomize is often a focus on what a late Roman work of art is not, rather than what it is (i.e., how an artwork or monument functions in its contemporary moment). This chapter therefore presents the wall paintings from the late third- to early fourth-century domus underneath the Church of Ss. Giovanni e Paolo on the Caelian Hill in Rome as a case study of a particular moment in late Roman visuality so as to better understand how engagements with iconography and style in the context of the late Roman home activate “modern” meanings and experiences.