Representations of Roman Theater in Visual Art
Sarah Elmore
Miami University
"All art depends for its interpretation on the competence of the viewer, the code she knows: the meaning of a work of visual art is no more contained naturally within it than is the meaning of a poem." (Fowler, 1996: 61). How does one go about developing a "code"? One way is to know the culture within which the art was created. So by knowing about a culture, one can interpret both visual and verbal art and can more easily take in a work of art and come up with one's own interpretation. While this is sometimes easier with literary texts when they paint a visual image in the readers' minds directly, as with Vergil's description of the shield of Aeneas (Aen.6), narrative literature in general depicts characters and actions that readers often picture in their own minds. When watching a play, the audience is able to see the action enacted before them. However, when one reads a play, the characters and actions must be imagined in one's own mind, and it is useful to have culturally correct visual images on which to base one's own reading and imaginative experience. Visual art can help us recreate an ancient play by giving us clues as to how the play would have looked like, including the images of the characters, their actions, and their costumes. With an incorporation of theatrical themes, visual arts also display the importance of theater within the Roman culture. While these visual art forms illustrate important aspects about Roman theater and Roman society, verbal art forms are just as important and provide information that visual art may not be able to convey. Therefore, literature is able to give a context for many pieces of visual art and visual art is able to provide a context for literature. When one combines a knowledge and understanding of both forms of art, it is easier to understand the whole concept of a literary work. Thus, I will describe the Aulularia by Plautus in terms of the art which surrounds it.
First it is important to understand the various forms included in visual arts. Art invariably reflects the culture in which it was created and can be expressed through different means. Some important Roman art forms that can provide a good amount of cultural information include architecture, painting, mosaics, and sculpture. In general, Roman artists (whether they were truly Roman or commissioned Greeks) paid close attention to the detail of its subject. A lot of conclusions can be drawn from the styles and subjects of Roman art, including ideas and images that can help a reader understand and imagine a text. For example, knowing that the Romans paid close attention to detail lets one know that the Romans adhered to reality and likewise represented it in both visual and verbal arts. This helps explain why Roman comedies were often about everyday events, such as the Aulularia which has a common Italian theme of an old miser guarding his money. It also incorporates marriage, food, and slaves. One can then also assume that the costumes would have been realistic and detailed, as would the masks.
From their artwork, it can be reasoned that the Romans had an interesting way of using point of view especially within paintings. With an emphasis on the reality of situations, Roman art often tries to depict scenes in which everything can be seen, either without a clearly defined focal point or with a bird's eye view of a situation. A good example of this is a painting which illustrates a riot in an amphitheater.
It is crucial to acknowledge at once that the Aulularia is a play; it was meant to be performed by actors and watched by an audience. So what did the actors look like? What did the audience see? One thing that is an integral part of any play is the site of the performance. Thus, theaters themselves became an important role for the play. However, Roman theaters did not start out being very elaborate at all. "The development of the theater building always follows the development of dramatic literature" (Bieber, 1961). Plautus, living from about 254 BCE until 184 BCE, was a fairly early Roman comedy writer and the stages that his plays would have originally been performed on were wooden stages that were not permanent structures, but were taken down after performances. The Aulularia, having been written at sometime between the last half of the third century and the second century BCE, would originally have been performed on one of these impermanent structures. Because these stages did not have any permanent backdrops, the background had to be explained to audience members in the prologue of the play, as in the Aulularia when the Lar familiaris describes, in lines 2 through 3, where the house of Euclio is and the neighboring house as well, in lines 31 through 32.
The development of a more elaborate stage followed, after Plautus wrote Amphitruo, which needed an upper story for its performance. So as Bieber claimed, the development of the stage certainly followed the development of the literature. Plautus also began to use Greek columns in place of some of the wooden ones on stage in order to enhance the appearance (Bieber, 1961). The artistic style of the se structures developed into theaters built during the time of Imperial Rome. Theaters are just one example of the architecture present in antiquity. The Romans seemed to focus not only on the aesthetics of their architecture, but also the engineering. Everything was meticulously planned and often symmetry balanced the buildings. Theaters show this symmetry and proportionate balance especially in their interior. One excellent example of a well preserved theater is the Theater of Orange in France (http://www.tulane.edu/lester/text/Western.Architect/Rome/Rome39.html). The cavea, or bleacher seats, were built into a hillside, as is common with Roman theaters. The two-story interior facade behind the stage displayed green, yellow, and white marble columns (1961). When looking at the ornate exterior of a Roman theater, the importance of these buildings and therefore the importance of performance and entertainment, is evident. Emperors spent considerable amounts of money and time building extravagant theaters such as the Theater of Marcellus (http://acs.rhodes.edu/images/mcmanus_images/paula_chabot/theater/pctheater.01.jpg). The artistic beauty, along with the practical necessities of properly placed doors for the actors and excellent acoustics for the audience, was obviously very important to the sponsors of this building project. While Plautus did not live during the time of the Empire, it is quite certain that his plays were still a part of Roman theater, at least until the time of Horace.
The importance of theater and performance can also be seen when looking at some Roman paintings. Masks are often included in murals and mosaics in the houses excavated at Pompeii. Murals often tried to extend rooms through realistically painted three-dimensional structures. They also sometimes did not present the image with any certain point of view so that from wherever the viewer stood, it seemed to be the right point of view. The perspectives varied from building to building, not giving the viewer one clear perspective (Ramage & Ramage, 1996). This helped the mural seem realistic to the viewer. One such mural was found at the villa at Boscoreale. A theater mask is painted at the top of the wall and then a scheme of buildings is framed by two columns, one Corinthian and one Ionic. The artist seemed to try to minimize the difference between illusion and reality by painting the buildings not only realistically three-dimensional, but also from more than one perspective. Perhaps this is why the theater mask is painted at the top. Theater is a type of illusion, as it imitates life ad it tries to make the audience feel as if the events are really happening and that the characters are real people, especially in the Roman culture in which detail of reality was emphasized. A representation of theater is appropriate when displaying an imitation of reality because theater is itself an imitation of reality.
Not only do these paintings show that theater was a common and important form of entertainment through the inclusion of theatrical images, but they also represent what actors may have looked like, what costumes and masks looked like, and stereotypical figures upon which characters may have been based. Costumes are an important part of performance and luckily enough, there are a good number of visual representations of both masks and costumes in paintings. Actors wore masks that vividly displayed exaggerated facial expressions of both men and women. Without the use of makeup, the actors were able to display to the audience the emotion of the character through the use of masks. Wigs were often attached to the masks and were color coded. Usually, stock characters were visually represented in like manners. Old men had white hair, young men black, and slaves had red hair. Women often had long hair and fathers often times had beards. An excellent mural of masks which would actually be useful when discussing the Aulularia can be viewed. This mural of the masks of a flute girl and slave demonstrate the exaggerated facial expressions and hair (http://www.princeton.edu/~classics/gifs/behead.gif).
Clothing costumes can also be seen by looking at a manuscript of one of Terence's comedies {Scanned Image}. There are six elements in the costumes of the Romans during the time of Plautus, and include the following: the pallium was a cloak of fabric worn by men; the palla was a similar garment worn by women; slaves wore mantles; drunken slaves wear an exomis, a slim tunic which left one shoulder bare; a distinguished man wore a chlamys, which was a mantle draped over both shoulders; and finally they wore sandles called the soccus (Bieber, 1961). As the masks and wigs accommodated stock characters, so do these costumes, as the chlamys would be worn only by a distinguished man and the exomis by a drunken slave.
Roman paintings also display the typical characters in Roman society that would be included within a play. For example, in the Aulularia, Euclio is the prevalent character. His miserly nature was apparently not a new idea to the Romans, but rather this type of character was familiar. One vase painting, figure 508 on page 139 in Margarete Bieber's The History of Greek and Roman Theater, portrays an old man guarding his possessions by laying on top of his chest with worried look on his face. Thieves try to drag him off of the chest from both sides so that they can steal his money. This idea of a greedy old man in constant worry of thieves was a common one in Italy during the time of Plautus (Bieber, 1961).
Another vase painting shows and old man talking to an old woman (http://acs.rhodes.edu/images/mcmanus_images/paula_chabot/theater/pctheater.34.jpg). The old man is carrying a staff and the woman clearly looks troubled by her facial expression, or rather the mask's exaggerated expression. These two characters could easily represent what the Euclio and Staphyla would have looked like on stage. The only difference might be that Euclio would probably have white hair instead of dark hair, emphasizing his age.
The same characteriaztion of common figures can also be seen in sculpture. On page 162, figure 585 of Bieber's The History of Greek and Roman Theater, there are two comical statues which display two old men with huge bellies and are reminiscent of Euclio as well. Euclio apparently hid his pot of gold underneath his clothing and therefore his stomach must have protruded. The audience would find this amusing, because as we can see from the two figures, this was a known comical figure. Another example of sculpture representing characters is that of the Lar familiaris. Statues of the Lar were included at their shrines, the Lararium, within each household. So when imagining Phaedria giving gifts to the Lar, as might have been acted out during the prologue, the audience may have seen a statue of the Lar at the lararium. (http://acs.rhodes.edu/images/mcmanus_images/paula_chabot/theater/pctheater.31.jpg). The Lar is usually represented as being youthful, as he is here. In this statue, he is holding a bowl for sacrifice and a "horn of plenty" (McClees, 1924). Yet another common character in plays, especially in the Aulularia is the slave. This slave is sitting on an altar and seems to be happy as can be judged by the mask he wears which shows a large smile. He is alos sitting on an altar. The slave of Lyconides was such a slave, as he sat on the altar outside the shrine of Fides when he overheard Euclio discussing his gold. So this slave is another common stock figure used both in literature and in art.
These statues not only show characters, but they also show costumes of the characters. (http://acs.rhodes.edu/images/mcmanus_images/paula_chabot/theater/pctheater.34.jpg) This mask clearly shows the exaggerated facial expression and wig for the character. The costumes for characters can be seen in such sculptures as this one which portrays a comic actor wearing a Greek himation and a typical mask (http://acs.rhodes.edu/images/mcmanus_images/paula_chabot/thetaer/pctheater.32.jpg) (McClees, 1924). The Greek himation is actually the garment from which the Roman pallium stemmed (Bieber, 1961).
As this statue shows the costume for the character, it also shows exaggerated motion. The "sweeping" motion and gestures help express the emotion and the action of the character (McClees, 1924). Sculpture representing people often carries some feeling of motion with it. If the actor were up on stage representing a character, the actor would be physically portraying the character. Statues of actors representing theater must also carry with it this motion and action because it is an integral part of the character portrayal. Motion was often choreographed and statues of actors represent this action. This statue could represent Megadorus as he is relating his thoughts on dowried daughters to the audience in lines 475 through 495.
"In the comedies of Plautus as in the statuettes everything is much coarser and more farcical than in the Greek models" (Bieber, 1961: 150). While Bieber is contrasting Greek and Roman art in this statement, the idea that literature and art are consistent with each other is inherent. When viewing the art while reading a text, the experience for the reader is enhanced because ultimately art represents the text and the content of the play can often be found in works of art.
Resources:
Bieber, Margarete. (1961)The History of the Greek and Roman Theater. New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
Fowler, Don. (1996) "Even Better than the Real Thing: a Tale of Two Cities," pages 57 -74 in Art and Text in Roman Culture. Great Britain: Cambridge University Press.
McClees, Helen. (1924) The Daily Life of the Greeks and Romans. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Ramage, Andrew and Ramage, Nancy H.. (1996) Roman Art. 2nd ed. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
For Further Reading:
D'ambra, Eve. (1993) Roman Art in Context. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
Duff, J. Wright. (1923) The Writers of Rome. London: Oxford University Press.
Stobart, J.C. (1913) The Grandeur tha was Rome. Philadelphia: J. Lippincott Company.
