This workshop will focus on the sensory stimuli associated with the image of the Roman emperor in religious processions. Starting from one of the basic premises of studies on sensoriality – that sensations are one of the factors that construct reality – I will focus on the interaction between sensations and the stimuli that provoked them, especially on the movement of the statues. I propose reading the movement of images from a kinesthetic perspective, which will allow us to see how this movement might provoke a “dissonant sensory experience” (in Emma-Jayne Graham’s words) related to the nature of the emperor’s power. I argue that the resulting ambiguities allow us to delve deeper into the construction of ideas about the power of the emperor.
Respondent: Harriet Flower, Department of Classics
Image: "Augustan period terracotta: Relief showing an image of Sol on a ferculum. Musée du Louvre (Paris)."