Pantomime Performance and Figured Scenes on Roman Sarcophagi

Abstract

This chapter explores the relationship between pantomime dance and funerary iconography in Roman society. The similarities between the art form of pantomime and sarcophagus art are identified in their shared activities of: interpreting well‐known subject‐matter from mythology to their viewers, inspiring reflection on the human condition through a visual display, and engaging with the human body in a fundamental way. The discussion opens with a critique of an approach which explores the relationship between the two by looking at individual pantomime motifs on Roman sarcophagi. Instead the author follows an alternative approach and considers pantomime and sarcophagus imagery in terms of their subjects, their presentation and their actors. The chapter concludes with a section that looks at the viewers of pantomime and sarcophagus imagery.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 42 citations exist upstream.