cornelius_sulla Posted March 28, 2008 Report Share Posted March 28, 2008 What level of social distinction would you have to reach to be officially accorded the privelige of commissioning an imago? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dianamt54 Posted March 28, 2008 Report Share Posted March 28, 2008 What is an imago? What level of social distinction would you have to reach to be officially accorded the privelige of commissioning an imago? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M. Porcius Cato Posted March 28, 2008 Report Share Posted March 28, 2008 Why do you think there is any? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spittle Posted March 28, 2008 Report Share Posted March 28, 2008 What is an imago? What level of social distinction would you have to reach to be officially accorded the privelige of commissioning an imago? 'ius imago' The priviledge of the nobility to preserve wax deathmasks of their ancestors and display them at funerals. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ingsoc Posted March 28, 2008 Report Share Posted March 28, 2008 Read this intresting book review by Thomas Stevenson Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cornelius_sulla Posted March 29, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 29, 2008 Why do you think there is any? Why do I think there is any degree of social distinction to reach? Forgive me if I am vague, but that's part of my question. Did you have to be a consul or attain a certain office to commission and imago or could you just have one made? Or did having one made without doing something noteable make you a presumptious twerp? I'm interested in the whole idea of imagines and their usage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M. Porcius Cato Posted March 30, 2008 Report Share Posted March 30, 2008 What is an imago?What level of social distinction would you have to reach to be officially accorded the privelige of commissioning an imago? 'ius imago': The priviledge of the nobility to preserve wax deathmasks of their ancestors and display them at funerals. No. According to the review by Stevenson, "there was no formal ius imaginum." As Flower points out in "Ancestor Masks and Aristocratic Power in Roman Culture" (pp. 53-55), the very Latin phrase "ius imaginum" is an an invention of 16th century scholars. In the ancient sources, the closest phrase appears in Cicero, who refers to a ius imaginis ad memoriam posteritatemque prodendae, that is the right of handing over one mask to future generations, NOT the right to preserve such death masks in the first place or to display them at funerals. To answer the original query, within one's own home, one could display one's own portrait at will. And there are certainly plenty of examples of private portraits to be found, including portraits donated by municipia (e.g., Brutus had a number of these portraits at his Tusculan villa). Of course, putting a statue of oneself in public was not legal, and censors often pulled down unauthorized statues (e.g., Livy 40.51.3). Further, the senate could vote to erect a statue of a magistrate in a public place (typically in a temple precinct). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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