Plate 1.4: Meleager on a Roman Sarcophagus (2nd cent.). This relief depicts part of the story of the hero
Meleager, who awarded the hide of a ferocious boar to Atalanta, a huntress who had aided him in pursuing
it. Meleager’s uncles were furious that the prize had been awarded to a woman, and in the ensuing dispute
Meleager killed them. The loss of her brothers so pained Meleager’s mother that she impulsively brought
about her son’s death. Here, on the left, Meleager slays one of his uncles; on the right, mourners carry home
the hero’s dead body.
The relief on a Roman sarcophagus (stone coffin) carved in the second century
(Plate 1.4) depicts the funeral procession of the mythical hero Meleager. It shows
that even in the medium of sculpture, classical artists were concerned with
atmosphere and movement, figures turning and interacting with one another, and
space created by “perspective,” where some elements seem to recede while others
come to the fore.
But even in the classical period there were other artistic conventions and
traditions in the Roman Empire. For many years these provincial artistic traditions
had been tamped down by the juggernaut of Roman political and cultural hegemony.
But in the third century, with the new importance of the provinces, these regional
traditions re-emerged. As provincial military men became the new heroes and
emperors, artistic tastes changed as well. The center—Rome, Italy, Constantinople—
now borrowed its artistic styles from the periphery.
To understand some of the regional traditions, consider the sculpted depiction of
Venus from the north of Britain (Plate 1.5); a tombstone from the region of Carthage
—Tunis, Tunisia today—(Plate 1.6); and a large stone coffer for holding the bones of
the dead from Jerusalem (Plate 1.7). All of these were made under the shadow of
Roman imperial rule. Yet they are little like Roman works of art. Above all, the artists
