Representations of Barbarians in Classical Roman Sculpture.
This paper will examine the representation of barbarians in Roman art, and particularly sculpture. It will be argued that the primary mode of representation of barbarians in Roman art occurred within the iconography of empire, where the barbarians represented the Roman "other" whose existence as defeated figures reflects on the power and grandeur of Rome. However, it will be seen that there exists significant variations in the depiction of barbarians even within this iconographic code. The primary variation, it will be argued, occurs between the sculpture of the imperial center and that of the periphery. While in Rome the obsession with realism governed the artistic representation of barbarians for centuries, on the frontiers of the empire barbarians were often represented by "barbarian" artists, with significant departures from the dominant mode of realism. 12 pgs. 16 f/c. 9b.
