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Bryn Mawr
Classical Review 2009.10.52
Ellen Swift, Style and Function in Roman Decoration:
Living with Objects and Interiors. Burlington, VT:
Ashgate, 2009. Pp. xii, 231. ISBN 9780754665632.
$99.95.
Reviewed by Sarah Levin-Richardson,
University of Washington
(sarahlr@uw.edu)
Word count: 1863
words
Table
of Contents
"I view art as a system of action, intended
to change the world. . . " --Alfred Gell 1
A growing trend in Classical scholarship has
been to investigate art and architecture as active participants in
the "lived space" of antiquity. In her new book, Ellen Swift applies
this view of material culture to non-figurative mosaics, dining and
toilet vessels, and dress accessories, building in the last two
cases on her previous studies in those areas.2 Through this methodology, Swift aims to illuminate
the active roles of these categories of decoration in conveying and
creating social relationships.
This well-produced volume3 is divided into an introductory chapter, a chapter
each on non-figurative mosaics, vessels, and dress accessories, and
a conclusion. In the Introduction, Swift describes both the
scholarly milieu in which she locates her work and also the ancient
evidence for how Romans defined and viewed decoration. Swift
positions herself at the intersection of art-historical,
anthropological, and archaeological scholarship, noting that her
main influences are Alois Riegl's study of style in Roman art and
Alfred Gell's theory of the social agency of art. Her succinct and
clearly worded synopsis of the relevant scholarship could be a
stand-alone introduction for any student of material culture. In
short, Swift views Roman art as an active agent that can affect
social relationships, and inspired by Gell and E. H. Gombrich, she
introduces readers to the ways in which visual effects within
patterns could act upon on viewers. Swift's analysis of Roman
viewing owes much to the work of Jas Elsner, and as such, she uses
the tantalizing texts of Philostratus and others to evaluate Roman
ways of seeing. Finally, Swift demarcates her focus as the Imperial
period through the transition into Late Antiquity in Italy and the
Western provinces.
The first main chapter investigates the
various motifs found in non-figurative mosaics, especially in the
mid-to-late Imperial period, and at 78 pages comprises nearly half
the book. Swift builds on small-scale observations concerning motifs
to make larger arguments about Romanization and the stylistic
changes of Late Antique art. She begins by observing that certain
patterns seem to indicate a space's marginality and relative
dynamism. She then presents several case studies to show how
patterns and color in mosaics link various parts of the house
together, and how mosaics can indicate a hierarchy of spaces, with
the most ornate and complex mosaic indicating the most important
room. Finally, she notes that decorative designs become increasingly
complex over time.
Swift interprets regional differences the
location of "marginal" patterns as an indication that the provinces
did not import Roman culture wholesale, while suggesting that
similarities in the placement of these patterns might mark a desire
to be seen as integrated into Roman culture. Her coup de grâce is
explaining the shift from perspectival main floor designs to
complex, grid-based main floors with multiple unique motifs. These
complicated patterns, she argues, not only are visually impressive,
but they "induce a feeling of incomprehension and even powerlessness
in the viewer, who abandons any attempt at understanding" (101),
thereby subordinating the viewer to the owner of the house. The
primary function of these floors was not to delight guests, she
asserts, but to express the dominance and status of the owner over
the guest. The emphasis on "acted-out" (102) power relationships
corresponds with current scholarship suggesting an increasing
hierarchization of social structure in the late Roman empire. Swift
continues that this may explain the growing popularity of purely
geometric main viewing floors in the later Roman empire: "Figurative
motifs offer the possibility of inclusion: if you can interpret the
scene, you can belong, becoming a member of an exclusive, elite
culture; and such an interpretation may be learned. But the
bewildering geometric designs of the late Roman empire offer much
less possibility of comprehension, and therefore small chance of
belonging. . . " (102-103). Her attention to the visual effects of
mosaic motifs is particularly innovative and can lead to fascinating
results.
In the next chapter, Swift examines motifs
on dining and toilet items, focusing especially, but not
exclusively, on third- and fourth-century items found in hoards.
Decorative motifs, she argues, could 1) accentuate the form of the
vessel, 2) help indicate where the item was to be placed, 3) mark
social status, and 4) refer to the contents or intended function of
the vessel. As for the first point, she explains, "Decoration that
emphasizes the form of the vessel, therefore, by doing so, points to
its appropriate function, to the shape of the interior space of the
vessel that would be the receptacle for a particular kind of food or
drink. The decoration is designed to reinforce the social role of
the vessel as a practical object, a container" (111). Proceeding to
the second point above, Swift notes that cups are sometimes paired
by means of mirror-image motifs, indicating that they were to be set
on the table in a way that respects their symmetry. Swift then
discusses some examples of dining sets which contain both less- and
more-elaborately decorated items, which may have been used to
differentiate the status of the diners. Lastly, Swift demonstrates
the ways in which motifs could refer to the contents of an item or
to an item's function. So, for example, cups, spoons, and toilet
items often have water or marine motifs to allude to their contact
with liquid; plates sometimes have hunting scenes or depictions of
the food that was to placed thereon; and women's toilet items often
show Venus, the paragon of beauty. Swift's clearest argument about
the active role of these items comes in her analysis of the
fourth-century Projecta casket from the Esquiline hoard. First, she
argues that the realistic scenes of adornment on the casket were
self-referential, pointing to the intended function of the object.
Next, she argues that the depiction of Venus in the act of adornment
naturalized the social practice of adornment. Far from being just a
reflection of elite culture, then, Swift shows how decoration could
have an active role in justifying and perpetuating cultural
practices.
Swift explores the social functions of dress
accessories--female jewelry, male crossbow brooches and belt-sets,
and intaglio rings--in the third main chapter. Her analysis of
jewelry shows some of the ways in which items could convey gender
and status and reinforce feminine norms. Many items of jewelry were
specific to women, she argues, helping to constitute the wearer's
female identity, and the expense of the materials and craftsmanship
could help communicate status. Hairpins with self-referential themes
such as Venus, female heads with ornate hairdos, or even hands in
the act of combing could have reinforced ideals of elite femininity.
Marriage-rings and other depictions of families in jewelry
reinforced the role of women vis-à-vis husbands and other family
members, and in combination with Christian iconography, emphasized
(and even promoted) the idea of divinely sanctioned, unbreakable
marriage bonds. Swift then turns to male dress accessories, showing
how relative status could be indicated by the material of the item,
its size or number of components, and the level of decoration. In
addition, she argues that certain motifs derived from Graeco-Roman
culture may have indicated or solidified a communal Roman identity.
Finally, she discusses intaglio rings, finding that the material and
motifs are often paired, or that the motif suits the intaglio's
function: Bacchus often appears on purple amethyst; circus themes
are commonly found on stones the color of the four main circus
teams; military themes abound on rings found in soldiers' graves;
and votive rings found at shrines sometimes depict the relevant
deity. Furthermore, she notes how some motifs could be apotropaic or
protective, and that inscribing these motifs on material that was
deemed, by itself, to be magical could enhance these qualities. The
potential agency of these designs is best seen in her discussion of
Clement's exhortation that Christians shun military or lascivious
motifs that could spur them to un-Christian acts. Swift comments,
"the decoration could be regarded here as social agent 'policing'
the wearer's behaviour on behalf of God or the church" (181).
Decoration, she concludes, has multiple functions beyond just
decoration.4
In a short concluding chapter, Swift calls
attention to the products of her inquiry. First, she points out that
while previous studies of the so-called "minor arts" have focused on
aesthetic change, her use of anthropological theory can bring out
the social functions of these objections. She shows the roles that
decoration can have in articulating a spectrum of status, as with
visually dazzling mosaics, dining ware of different prestige values,
or variations in the level of ornamentation in dress accessories.
Some motifs can embody the power of divinities, while others can
offer protection; some types of decoration can suggest the way in
which the item or space is to be used, while self-referential motifs
can prescribe or reinforce norms. She argues that the persistence of
certain motifs suggests the power of the Classical tradition, while
the wide dispersion and continuing importance of self-referential
motifs implies, although not entirely unproblematically, a certain
degree of uniformity in social conventions across the provinces.
After a very clear and well-written historiography of stylistic
change in Roman art, Swift ends with her own theory of the
transition into Late Antique art. Swift suggests that the rise of
non-figural motifs in the main floor mosaics of elite villas (as
discussed in chapter 2) trickled down to other arts. As a result,
ornamentation increased to accurately capture and project gradations
of social hierarchy. In the end, Swift uses her analysis of the
social functions of decoration to shed light on developments in
aesthetic taste.
One issue that arises in all of the chapters
is the potential danger of circular arguments. So, for example,
Swift takes mosaic motifs that often appear in marginal spaces to be
a determining factor of any space's "marginality." However, simple
decorative motifs do not always indicate a marginal space, as in the
Villa della Farnesina in Rome, where the plain mosaic floors seem to
have been chosen to contrast with the elaborate wall frescoes. In
addition, while I support Swift's claim that Romans enjoyed
self-referential decoration, problems arise from arguing that, for
example, depictions of Venus indicate that an item belongs to a
women's toilet, and that the decoration is, in turn,
self-referential. I also find problematic that Swift sometimes
assumes that the existence of similar items or motifs across the
provinces indicates uniformity in how the items or motifs were used.
Indeed, recent research has shown the ways in which various cultures
could use "Roman" things in entirely different ways.5 Swift herself acknowledges this
pitfall at one point concerning female toilet items (191), but the
larger issue of assessing how these items and motifs could have been
used needs more discussion. Finally, I found myself wishing for her
analysis of norms and transgression to delve deeper, and for her to
address better how separate categories of material might work
together in acting upon viewers.6
In sum, Swift suggests interesting ways in
which the "minor arts" could play active roles in the creation of
status and gender in the later Roman empire, paving the way for
future work in this area.
Notes:
1. Art and Agency: An Anthropological
Theory. Oxford and New York: Clarendon Press, 1998: 6.
2. The End of the Western Roman Empire: An
Archaeological Investigation. Stroud and Charleston, SC:
Tempus, 2000; Regionality in
Dress Accessories in the Late Roman West. Montagnac:
Monique Mergoil, 2000; "Decorated Vessels: The Function of
Decoration in Late Antiquity" in L. Lavan, E. Swift, and T. Putzeys,
eds. Objects in Context Objects
in Use: Material Spatiality in Late Antiquity. Leiden and
Boston: Brill, 2007: 385-412.
3. Typographical errors are relatively
rare and most are minor. However, there is no room "B" on the plan
of Couvent du Verbe Incarné, Lyon, though it is mentioned in the
text (85); the crossbow brooch in plate 18 is referred to as type 7
in the text (184) but type 6 on the plate itself and in the list of
figures; and many of the plans lack a north arrow and some lack a
scale, occasionally making it difficult for the reader to associate
a room mentioned in the text with one on the plan.
4. For another
archaeological approach to adornment in the Graeco-Roman world
(which may have appeared too late for Swift to incorporate), see C.
S. Colburn and M. K. Heyn, eds. Reading a Dynamic Canvas: Adornment in
the Ancient Mediterranean World. Newcastle: Cambridge
Scholars, 2008.
5.
See, for example, D. J. Mattingly, S. E. Alcock, et al., eds.
Dialogues in Roman Imperialism:
Power, Discourse and Discrepant Experience in the Roman
Empire. Portsmouth, RI: Journal of Roman Archaeology,
1997; and S. Keay and N. Terrenato, eds. Italy and the West: Comparative Issues in
Romanization. Oxford: Oxbow Books, 2001. For Roman
Britain, see, for example, R. Hingley's article in the former:
"Resistance and Domination: Social Change in Roman Britain," 81-102.
6. She does,
however, address the second concern more fully in Swift 2007,
399-405.
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