The Fragility, Instability, Ambiguity, and Self-Reflexivity of Images in Roman Art

Introduction

FRAGILE IMAGES fundamentally challenges the dominant notion of images as powerful actors. It moves away from the focus on the affective, persuasive, performative, and immersive image and instead focuses on its fragility, instability, ambiguity, and self-reflexivity. This radically new approach brings together a Visual Studies perspective and a cultural-historical approach and applies them to Roman imagery from the 2nd century BC to the 4th century AD.

Objectives

The project has three main objectives:

1. A systematic study of pictorial fragility
   The manifold phenomena of pictorial fragility are divided into three analytical dimensions:

   • Temporal fragility, which deals with the material, contextual, and conceptual mutability of images.
   • Semantic fragility, which deals with their ambiguity.
   • Ontological fragility, which addresses their self-reflexivity.
     The case studies aim at elaborating the semantic, aesthetic, but also social potentials of such ‘fragile’ images.

2. A new perspective on Roman visual culture
   By means of a comparative approach, the project explores the extent to which manipulated, ambiguous, and self-reflexive images differ in their spatial contexts and in their socio-cultural forms of use. This focus invites a new way of looking at Roman art: The temporality, ambiguity, and self-reflexivity of Roman images are constitutive elements of an innovative, sophisticated, intelligent, and even intellectual visual culture. This perspective moves away from the old view of Roman art as a mere derivative of Greek pictorial concepts.

3. A reformulation of image theory in the light of ‘fragile’ images
   This project will not only challenge the common notion of the power of images but also transcend the dichotomy of power and weakness. ‘Fragility’ is not considered an image deficit but as a pictorial quality to be analysed in terms of its specific potential. The focus on pictorial fragility will result in renegotiating the ‘activity’ of image and viewer.