Roman Realism and Idealism

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Now that the features of Roman realism have been pointed out, I would like to analyze a Roman portraiture or relief sculpture where I feel the artist has used idealization or allegory to enhance the subject. In my opinion the Portrait of a Married Couple (p. 184) is idealistic because it depicts the Roman ideal of time-worn faces. Old age was considered an ideal during the time of the Roman Empire, as it was assumed that elder people were wiser and more experienced.

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Even though one could argue that the Portrait of the married couple has no political agenda and therefore no need to be idealistic, I think that the depiction of a well-educated wise-looking couple was the ideal of that time. Analyzing the couple’s facial expression, one can tell that the husband is the leader at home, which was also the ideal in the patriarchal oriented Roman society.

The Portrait of a Man and His Wife offers a vivid impression of flesh-and-blood Pompeiians. The young man loos literate because he holds a papyrus scroll under his chin. His wife wears an elegant red tunic and pearl earrings and in her hands she holds a stylus and a two-leaved wooden tablet, thus also looks like an educated woman.

Few Pompeian paintings are more arresting than the picture of a young husband and wife, who look out from their simulated spatial world beyond the wall into the viewers' space within the room. The wispy-bearded man addresses us with a direct look, holding a scroll in his left hand, a conventional attribute of educational achievement seen frequently in Roman portraits. His wife’s gaze is by far less direct. This picture is comparable to a modern studio portrait photograph with its careful lighting and retouching, conventional poses and accoutrements. Conclusively is to say that the human features look realistic. However the conveyed message is rather idealistic.

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