Peopled Scrolls
A Hellenistic Motif in Imperial Art
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9315151 |
|---|---|
| Authors | J M C Toynbee (corresponding author), J B Ward Perkins |
| Year | 1950 |
| Volume | 18 |
| Pages | 1-43 |
| Publication date | 1950-11-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Papers of the British School at Rome (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0068-2462 • E-ISSN: 2045-239X |
| Publisher | Open Book Publishers (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0068246200006139 |
| OpenAlex | W2316970488 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 20 |
| References cited | 5 |
The peopling of floral scrolls with living creatures is a decorative device which enjoyed unrivalled popularity throughout the whole history of Imperial art and in almost every country of the Empire. Its full cultivation and flowering were achieved in the Roman age; but its roots, like those of nearly every Roman art-motif, are in the late classical Greek and Hellenistic worlds. These roots were varied and complex. The primitive notion of spirits indwelling in trees and plants, and at a later stage personified in visible shape, may have played a part; some of the constituent elements can certainly be traced back to religious symbolism; and more immediate was the influence of the naturalistic trend of fourth-century art, which favoured the idea of rendering birds, insects, and small beasts in their native setting. In Hellenistic and Imperial times, as these elements mingled and the motif became more widespread, fancy came gradually to outweigh fact; and a delight in incongruity for its own sake found ready expression in the peopling of vine- and acanthus-rinceaux with mythological and genre scenes and figures, framed in the foliage or poised on slender stems, or with human figures and such solid quadrupeds as dogs, bulls, horses, bears, panthers, and lions, careering through the leafy whorls or springing from the hearts of flowers
Aesthetics · Ancient history · Archaeology · Art · Creatures · Hellenistic Period · Literature · Motif (music · Mythology · Natural (archaeology · Roman Empire · Ancient Mediterranean Archaeology and History · Classical Antiquity Studies · Classics · Historical, Religious, and Philosophical Studies · History
The Development of the “Inhabited Scroll” in Architectural Sculpture and Mosaic art from late Imperial Times to the Seventh Century A.D.
La placa de Amiadoso (Allariz, Ourense)
The Mask Motif in the Wall Paintings of Mistra. Cultural Implications of a Classical Feature in Late Byzantine Painting (pl. 83-94)
Motivstudier. Kontinuitet og fornyelse i ornamentale hybridformer fra antikken til ca. 1600
La imagen de los animales en los tejidos del Valle del Nilo en la Antigüedad Tardía
Réflexions préliminaires sur le rôle liminal de certains jardins et décors végétaux dans les sanctuaires du monde romain
New Interpretation of the Imagines Clypeatae on the Coptic Textiles of the 4th – 7th Centuries
The Peopled Scroll of the Great Palace Mosaic in Constantinople. New Perspectives
Half-Human Half-Vegetal Hybrids in Eastern Mosaics
III. The Reculver Cross
Symbolism in the Dura Synagogue A Review Article
The Elephant and the Sea‐shell
A Bibliography
The Roman Temple at Kedesh, Upper Galilee
The Roman Temple at Kedesh, Upper Galilee
Abstract and vegetal design in the San Zeno chapel, Rome
Figured Capitals in Roman Palestine
Building Communities in Ancient Samnium
The Triumph of Dionysus on Mosaics in North Africa
The Transmission and Development of Greco-Roman Motifs in Chinese Buddhist Art
| Unique citing works | 20 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,33 |
| Citation span | 1965 - 2025 (61) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 16 |