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Article: Imperial Rome and Christian Triumph: The Art of the Roman Empire, AD 100-450.
- Article from:
- Church History
- Article date:
- September 1, 2000
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2000 American Society of Church History. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Imperial Rome and Christian Triumph: The Art of the Roman Empire, AD 100-450. By Jas Elsner. Oxford History of Art. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. xvii + 297 pp. $39.05 cloth; $16.95 paper.
It is Elsner's thesis in this deeply knowledgeable, readable text that "the dynamics that motivated the great cultural changes of late antiquity already existed within Roman culture, which had long been willing to redefine its present by freely reinterpreting its past" (3). He sets out his argument for continuity within changing circumstance in the context of the ongoing role of visual arts in Roman culture, starting with the second century C.E. The discussion is ...