Scenes for Comparison
Assignment
Certain scenes on the column of Marcus Aurelius are so close in subject-matter and in position on the column to scenes on the column of Trajan that they are widely, if not universally, regarded as direct imitations of the earlier sculptural reliefs. These parallel scenes on the two columns provide excellent opportunities to analyze both the particulars and the nature of this sculptural imitation.
Choose one set of parallel scenes from those listed in the menu. First study the scene from the column of Trajan, as it appears in the Cichorius plate. Read the description provided of this scene, which is based on the analysis of Frank Lepper and Sheppard Frere in their book, Trajan’s Column. A New Edition of the Cichorius Plates. Introduction, Commentary and Notes (Great Britain: Alan Sutton Publishing, 1988). Use this description to identify the structures, objects and people in the scene. Note that you may also click on the links provided to go to other web sites that offer photographic images of the column of Trajan itself.
Then compare this scene from the column of Trajan with the scene from the column of Marcus Aurelius. You may study both the photograph published by Petersen in 1896, and the high-resolution digital photograph taken by Joseph Cummins in 2008.
Note similarities and differences in the type of objects depicted, the arrangement of those objects within the scene, and the details of the rendering of each object. Out of your detailed observations of similarities and differences between the scenes formulate a specific thesis and argument about the nature of the imitation.
Each image is labeled with either the plate number assigned by Conrad Cichorius, the number of the image taken by Joseph Cummins, or the scene number labeled by Eugen Petersen. The images should be cited with the appropriate number.