Colour and Meaning in Ancient Rome

Paperback / softback

Main Details

Title Colour and Meaning in Ancient Rome
Authors and Contributors      By (author) Mark Bradley
SeriesCambridge Classical Studies
Physical Properties
Format:Paperback / softback
Pages:282
Dimensions(mm): Height 216,Width 140
Category/GenreAncient and classical art BCE to c 500 CE
ISBN/Barcode 9780521291224
ClassificationsDewey:937
Audience
Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Illustrations Worked examples or Exercises

Publishing Details

Publisher Cambridge University Press
Imprint Cambridge University Press
Publication Date 9 June 2011
Publication Country United Kingdom

Description

The study of colour has become familiar territory in anthropology, linguistics, art history and archaeology. Classicists, however, have traditionally subordinated the study of colour to form. By drawing together evidence from contemporary philosophers, elegists, epic writers, historians and satirists, Mark Bradley reinstates colour as an essential informative unit for the classification and evaluation of the Roman world. He also demonstrates that the questions of what colour was and how it functioned - as well as how it could be misused and misunderstood - were topics of intellectual debate in early imperial Rome. Suggesting strategies for interpreting Roman expressions of colour in Latin texts, Dr Bradley offers alternative approaches to understanding the relationship between perception and knowledge in Roman elite thought. In doing so, he highlights the fundamental role that colour performed in the realms of communication and information, and its intellectual contribution to contemporary discussions of society, politics and morality.