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CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, NORTHRIDGE the Role of Women CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, NORTHRIDGE The Role of Women in Artistic Expression in the Roman Empire, First Through Third Century, A.D. A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements For the degree of Master of Arts in Art, Art History by Gloria Blume December, 2019 The thesis of Gloria Blume is approved: ________________________________________ ___________________________ Edie Pistolesi, Ph.D Date _______________________________________ ___________________________ Mario Ontiveros, Ph.D. Date _______________________________________ ___________________________ Owen P. Doonan, Ph.D., Chair Date California State University, Northridge II Acknowledgements I would like to thank the California State University, Northridge Art Department for making this thesis a reality for me, especially, Professor Edward Alfano, Chair of the Art Department, as well as Professor Lesley Krane Coordinator for their guidance and support. I would also like to thank Dr. Owen Doonan, Chair, as well as Dr. Mario Ontiveros, Dr. Edie Pistolesi, Dr. Peri Klemm and Dr. Meiqin Wang for sharing their expertise and knowledge with me. I would like to thank my family and friends for their love and support through this journey. III TABLE OF CONTENTS SIGNATURE PAGE…………………………………………………………………..ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS…………………………………………………………..... iii ABSTRACT …………………………………………………………………………...vI CHAPTER I. Introduction ……………………………………………………………..1 CHAPTER II. Roman Gender ……………………………………………………….. 9 CHAPTER III. Case Studies …………………………………………………………. 15 CHAPTER IV. Conclusion ……………………………………………………………28 BIBLIOGRAPHY….……………………………………………….………………….30 APPENDIX………………..……………………………………………………..….....33 IV LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Map of Roman Empire………………………………………………..……………....33 Sarcophagus 1………………………………...............................................................34 Roman Sarcophagus 1a……………………………………………………………….35 Edgar Degas, The Young Spartans, 1860 ….………………………………………...36 Edgar Degas, The Young Spartans, 1860-80 …………….…………………………..37 Portrait of Eumachia, Pompeii.……………..…………...……………………………38 Portrait of Plancia Magna, Perge, ..…………………...……………………………...39 Portrait of Claudia Tatiana, Aphrodisias, …………………………………………... 40 Portrait of a Woman as Venus, Rome………………………..………..….………….41 Portrait of Vegetable Vendor, Ostia…..….…………………………………………. 42 V ABSTRACT The Role of Women in Artistic Expression in the Roman Empire, First Through Third Centuries, A.D. By Gloria Blume Master of Arts in Art, Art History During the Roman Empire elite patrona, middle-class freedwomen and working-class women were honored by art images reflecting a range of statues with the same social ambition as Roman men. These women commissioned architecture, monuments and public and private portraits. During this period of Roman history, the public culture was structured around conventions of gendered representations making sure that women fit into their natural role. I will argue that some women were able to transcend the conventions of culture and ideology of their perceived gendered role. To this end, I will apply a theoretical model established by art historian and social theorist, Whitney Davis. In his article, ‘Gender,’ he demonstrates a method of analysis based on a formal structure of grammar in visual representation that can be applied to systems of Roman culture and society.1 Furthermore, he argues that when the differences between the sexes are established in visual representation as well as in linguistics, they tend to generate wide 1 Davis, Whitney, ‘Gender,’ “Critical Terms for Art History,” Chicago University Press, (1996-2003):330-344. VI acceptance when they serve the particular interests of the elite.2 Natalie Boymel Kampen, a leading scholar on Roman women, defines gender as social transformation of biological sex into cultural categories; mostly, this transformation is one based on the justification of power relationships and the relation and maintenance of the established hierarchies.3 This definition can also apply to our understanding of Roman culture during the period of this project when it comes to gender. The portraits considered in this thesis interjected the female subjects into traditionally male social spaces while taking advantage of a more gender fluid atmosphere than commonly expected. It is essential to understand these art works in their tangled, problematic social, political and interpersonal context. Three of the elite women I will discuss had their public honorific portraits paid for by civic or communal agents. In contrast, a relief/shop sign, depicting a working-class woman, was commissioned and paid from her own earnings. I have selected five case studies to demonstrate a range of women’s agency in differing social contexts during the first through the third centuries CE to support my argument. They are; 1) Eumachia, an elite woman from Pompeii in Italy, 2) Plancia Magna from Perge, a city in the province of Asia, 3) Claudia Tatiana from Aphrodisias in Asia, 4) a female vegetable vendor from Ostia, the port city of Rome and 5) a Portrait of a Woman as Venus at the Capitoline Museum in Rome. These case studies illustrate a wide range of social conditions that offered women diverse opportunities to express themselves in a manner consistent with their stations in their communities. There were working-class women who worked as midwives, women venders who made makeshift 2 Ibid.:337-343. 3 Kampen, Natalie Boymel, ‘Gender Theory in Roman Art,’ ”I Claudia Women in Ancient Rome.” Diana E.E. Kleiner and Susan B. Matheson, eds., Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven (1996). University Texas Press, AUstin:14. VII stands to sell food on market days. And, interestingly, a woman who owned a shop, directed and paid for a family funerary relief/shop-sign. I chose to focus on the vegetable vender because her relief is so dynamic and uplifting. It is also an interesting example of how art and mercantile spaces interact. VIII Chapter I Introduction Roman women commissioned monuments, architecture as well as public and private portraits contrary to popular assumptions. Whether in Italy or in the provinces during the Greek expansion along the Mediterranean, art reflected and adopted subtle local traditions in their art. Greek Classical and Hellenistic styles which featured dramatic twisting body language, in closed poses with a focus on realism. These influences were carried on into the Roman Imperial period. Roman ideology aimed at creating order and stability in their society and culture with the help of binary gendered artistic images to stress that women as well as men had certain roles and behavior to play in their culture. Many examples of the sculpture depicting elite women were presented in line with the Greek and Hellenistic ideals which emphasized youth, beauty and fertility. A second century, CE, Roman sarcophagus in the Los Angeles County Museum, provides insights into the Roman attitudes about gender relations.4 (map: fig. 1) A Roman general’s life story is presented in a symbolic formulaic narrative in three marble panels from left to right. The large front panel depicts his life in three scenes; the first is an image of a horseman and fallen warriors; the second scene is of a ‘barbarian,’ or ‘other,’ pleading for clemency before a Roman officer; then continues with the sacrifice of a steer before a tetrastyle temple. On the far right, there is a scene of the childbirth of a male child with the mother and two servants with the Three Fates on the left side of the image. Between them is a globe and they are, 4 Kleiner, Diana E.E., ‘Family Ties: Mothers and Sons in Elite and None Elite Roman Art,’ “I Claudia II, Women in Roman Art and Society, ”Diana E.E. Kleiner and Susan B. Matheson, Yale University Art Gallery,” (2000), Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The William Randolph Hearst Collection, 47.8.9.: 57. 1 ostensibly, looking for signs of the future of the figures in the panel. As Diana Kleiner describes in her essay “I Claudia II,” the mother is seated and veiled and looking like a forlorn vessel, ‘once she has produced the child, she reticently fades away’5 The role of the Three Fates portends the future of the figures; Clotho, who spins the thread of human destiny, facing her is Lachesis, who dispenses it, and Atropos, who cuts the thread determining the moment of death. The iconography demonstrates a visual language of the qualities and attributes attained by a warrior general with such manly excellence and status of a hero. This is demonstrated with movement in active poses of the man, while women are presented in static and somber expressions. In contrast, the iconography of the Fates’ presence also emphasizes the importance of the wife and mother to be, who is giving birth to a possible future general, runs in parallel scenes on the far side of the sarcophagus. This establishes the importance of the relationship between the male and female. It demonstrates the attributes and characteristics of the roles they play in their culture and class; he is a man who is a model of what a good aristocratic Romans ought to be and she is the crucial bearer of future male leaders who can carry on the lineage of the Roman man and stability of the culture. A fatalistic outlook that might be interpreted as a form of biological determinism, set in stone which does not leave much room for a propensity for easy change. This is not only a visual picture, but a narrative of roles for women and men of that period and culture, but also combined with a more conceptual motif as to the future of the figures in its message. There are contrasting sculptural images of older women in this culture which did not only emphasize youth and beauty by sculpting images of softly feminine figures. The culture also valued age and experience of older women. An example of a woman’s portrait sculpture that did 5 Ibid.:56-7. 2 not fit the Roman ideal of constructed gender types, is the “Portrait of a Women as Venus,” in the Capitoline Museum.6 While the nude body suggests youth and beauty of a classical Venus, the head and expression of the matrona is sculpted with a firm mouth and jaw, with a serious facial expression that signifies that virtue associated with dignity and gravity of age.
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