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Visual & Performing Arts Faculty Publications Visual & Performing Arts Department
2016
A New Approach to Teaching Roman Art History A New Approach to Teaching Roman Art History
Marice Rose
Fair;eld University
, mrose@fair;eld.edu
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Rose, Marice, "A New Approach to Teaching Roman Art History" (2016).
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Rose, Marice. "A New Approach to Teaching Roman Art History." Classical World 110.1 (2016): 119-136.
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Classical World, vol. 110, no. 1 (2016) Pp.119–136
A New Approach to Teaching
Roman Art History
MARICE Rose
ABSTRACT: This article describes an approach to teaching ancient
Roman art using historical empathy and current world events to
foster students’ engagement with, and learning about, both ancient
Roman art and, more broadly, the power of art. This pedagogical
approach can inspire richer understanding and increased motiva-
tion to learn, while offering possibilities for civic engagement. The
suggestions may be helpful for secondary or college-level teachers
of Roman art, and for classics teachers who incorporate ancient
visual culture.
I. Teaching Roman Art History
1
The first time I taught a Roman art course, I organized the class in the
typical linear manner, as a chronological march through history. The
class began with Etruscan and pre-Roman Italian art, and then consid-
ered republican art, focusing primarily on elite domestic decoration in
Pompeii and veristic portraiture. Most of the semester was dedicated to
imperial art, with discussions primarily of canonical, imperially com-
missioned monuments in Rome. The progression was punctuated by
occasional short lessons on art from the nonelite realm and from the
1
A version of this article was first presented at the Humanities and Education Re-
search Association’s 2014 Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C. I am grateful to Julie
Mughal and Ana Siscar of Fairfield University’s Jesuit University Humanitarian Action
Network chapter for encouraging my pedagogical changes and suggesting resources, and
to my Art History colleagues and students for their openness to my pedagogical experi-
ments. I also owe thanks to Sharon James for sharing materials from her 2012 New York
University Faculty Resource Network seminar “Talking Tough Topics through the Clas-
sics,” and for sharing her then forthcoming chapter on teaching about rape, which has
since been published: “Talking Rape in the Classics Classroom: Further Thoughts,” in N. S.
Rabinowitz and F. McHardy, eds., From Abortion to Pederasty: Addressing Difficult Topics
in the Classics Classroom (Columbus 2014) 171–86.
Paedagogus
120 Classical World
provinces, and images of women. The emphasis, however, remained on
Rome’s “grandeur, its relative uniformity, its longevity, and its positive
impacts in bringing to new areas . . . the entity called classical civili-
zation,” as David Mattingly characterizes ancient Rome’s conventional
metanarrative.
2
While teaching the course, I sensed a lack of student
engagement that perhaps mirrored my own. As a feminist scholar of
images of women and the disenfranchised and of classical reception, I
was frustrated by my difficulty integrating noncanonical material into
the course’s traditional foundational content knowledge. I wanted to
heed Natalie Boymel Kampen’s call for histories of Roman art to better
engage multiple social categories, including gender and class, while dis-
cussing both the creation and reception of visual culture.
3
I also felt a
sense of duty to teach Roman imperial art’s relationships to slaves and
subject individuals from conquered territories in light of contemporary
social justice issues, but did not know how to do this responsibly.
My teaching goals therefore adjusted the next time the class was
taught. The previous goals—“Students will learn major Roman monu-
ments in terms of period, place, significance, and by and for whom they
were made; students will know relevant historical events and be able to
use art-historical and architectural terms correctly; students will gain a
broader understanding and appreciation of art”—were retained. I then
added goals: “Students will know the importance and power of visual
culture in the lived experiences of individuals from a wide spectrum of
ancient Roman society; Students will understand the consequences of
Roman imperialism on those individuals, and how these consequences
were reflected or constructed by art.” A more distant, less measurable
aim was that students become more aware, and potentially engaged,
citizens. By changing the course’s goals—and therefore its organization
and activities—to more fully incorporate a variety of social categories,
to consider viewer reception, and to examine course material related to
ancient and contemporary justice issues, student engagement improved.
Class discussions, written work, and end-of-semester reflections showed
that students were better able to make connections with the material,
2
D. Mattingly, Imperialism, Power, and Identity: Experiencing the Roman Empire
(Princeton 2011) xxii.
3
N. B. Kampen (“On Not Writing the History of Roman Art,” ABull 77 [1995] 375
n.4) acknowledges the difficulties of writing such a history for students, because the linear
way is most accessible to novices.
Rose | A New Approach to Teaching Roman Art History 121
and therefore cared more about it. As one student wrote, “This approach
to learning brings the student closer to Roman history and to civilization
as a whole.”
II. Class Logistics
The course was one with no prerequisites, and most students enrolled
in it to fulfill the university’s art distribution requirement. This meant
that they did not have previous knowledge of Roman art’s contexts or
chronology, which are necessary before art history is approached either
thematically or empathetically. It was also crucial that students taking
this as an art history course should learn about the grandeur and inven-
tiveness of Roman built environments, the beauty and expressiveness of
Roman statuary, the illusionistic subtleties of Roman fresco paintings,
and the detail and delicacy of Roman metalwork. Therefore, the first six
weeks of class introduced a chronologically thematic survey of Roman
art within the context of historical events, social structure, religion, and
domestic life (see appendix). Art-historical vocabulary, mediums, and
techniques were introduced, as were specifically Roman art forms such
as triumphal arches and portrait busts. Students learned how to discuss
style and formally analyze Roman portraiture and public works, domes-
tic and religious art and architecture, and funerary art (with attention
to nonimperial commissions). Tests were given to ensure learning and
retention. Units on war in art and on slavery in art followed, with dis-
cussions within those units of both ancient and modern state-sponsored
portraiture, gender, children, and spectacles (see appendix for course
schedule and readings). The units did overlap in certain areas, because
for example many Roman slaves were obtained via war, so there was
much cross-discussion. For textbooks, Eve D’Ambra’s Roman Art and
Roman Women and Sandra Joshel’s Slavery in the Roman World work
well as supplements to comprehensive Roman art textbooks like Fred
Kleiner’s, Steven Tuck’s, or Nancy Ramage and Andrew Ramage’s, be-
cause they are accessible for student readers and consider noncanonical
art such as that from the provinces or relating to slaves, as well as art’s
role in constructing gender and class.
4
4
P. Stewart’s Social History of Roman Art (Cambridge and New York 2008) is also
valuable, although probably better suited for college students.
122 Classical World
Class discussion is important, whether deliberating the effects of a
Roman artist’s aesthetic choices, or big questions regarding the common
good. In class, we sit in a circle facing one another to foster a sense of
community. Students post responses to readings in an online journal
(visible only to me), so they have time to process and reflect upon the
material rather than skimming it immediately before class. Although I
could have saved class time by assigning a documentary film on contem-
porary child slavery to watch at home rather than watching it in class,
the communal experience was powerful as students were forced to give
the film their complete attention.
5
A challenging aspect to this emotional
component of discussing slavery and war crimes (including sexual vio-
lence) is the possibility of making students uncomfortable if they have
related personal experiences.
6
There have been multiple valuable con-
versations at classics conferences and in print about teaching difficult
topics that appear frequently in classical history, myth, and literature.
7
The pedagogical literature includes a wide range of helpful advice, strat-
egies, and classroom activities, with a large body concerning ancient
references to, and descriptions of, rape in light of campus rape culture.
8
The class was not a service-learning class; there were no required ac-
tion or service components to meet my aim of students becoming more
engaged citizens, but students were shown that they have agency and
5
Assigning students reading (and requiring responses) rather than providing factual
information in lectures freed up class time for this and other active learning activities.
6
The current debate in popular media about “trigger warnings” in college classrooms
began after the course was taught; see: J. Jarvie, “Trigger Warning,” The New Republic,
March 3, 2014, accessed May 14, 2015. http://www.newrepublic.com/article/116842/
trigger-warnings-have-spread-blogs-college-classes-thats-bad
7
This was sparked by Sharon James’s 2008 presentation on teaching rape in elegy at
the Feminism/Classics V conference in Ann Arbor; see Rabinowitz and McHardy (above,
n.1) 1–2.
8
It is not possible to summarize all here, but see S. James, “Feminist Pedagogy
and Teaching Latin Literature,” Cloelia 38 (2008) 11–14; G. Liveley, “Teaching Rape in
Roman Elegy,” and S. James, “Teaching Rape in Roman Love Elegy,” in B. K. Gold, ed., A
Companion to Roman Love Elegy (Malden,Mass., 2012) 541–48, 549–57. See also arti-
cles by R. Lauriola and D. Widdows in Cloelia’s 2011 issue with a “Pedagogical Issues in
the Classics” section on teaching sexual violence; articles on teaching rape by Y. Hong, E.
Gloyn, and R. Lauriola in a thematic Paedagogus section in CW 106.4 (2013); Rabinowitz
and McHardy (above, n.1), on homosexuality, slavery, and other “uncomfortable” topics.
Many helpful resources (especially for primary and secondary-school educators) on teach-
ing ancient and modern slavery with sensitivity are listed online; see the Gilder-Lehrman
Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition, “Teacher Resources,” accessed
May 14, 2015, http://www.yale.edu/glc/classroom/index.htm