Egypt in Italy: Visions of Egypt in Roman Imperial Culture

Molly Swetnam-Burland (College of William and Mary, Virginia)

Egypt in Italy: Visions of Egypt in Roman Imperial Culture
Format
Hardback
Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Country
United Kingdom
Published
6 April 2015
Pages
261
ISBN
9781107040489

Egypt in Italy: Visions of Egypt in Roman Imperial Culture

Molly Swetnam-Burland (College of William and Mary, Virginia)

This book examines the appetite for Egyptian and Egyptian-looking artwork in Italy during the century following Rome’s annexation of Aegyptus as a province. In the early imperial period, Roman interest in Egyptian culture was widespread, as evidenced by works ranging from the monumental obelisks, brought to the capital over the Mediterranean Sea by the emperors, to locally made emulations of Egyptian artifacts found in private homes and in temples to Egyptian gods. Although the foreign appearance of these artworks was central to their appeal, this book situates them within their social, political, and artistic contexts in Roman Italy. Swetnam-Burland focuses on what these works meant to their owners and their viewers in their new settings, by exploring evidence for the artists who produced them and by examining their relationship to the contemporary literature that informed Roman perceptions of Egyptian history, customs, and myths.

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