Fascinating to see the realism of these portraits degrade toward the end of the empire....pic.twitter.com/wHOMHduxUQ
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Up until about fifty years ago scholars said that this was part of a decline in ability, basically your classic Decay of Rome. The more recent approach (AIUI) is that it's not that ability declines as much as "What should art look like?" changes.
Do you know what kind of evidence/argument differentiates the two hypotheses?
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Lemme hunt through some footnotes in a book when I get to my office in a bit.
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thanks I appreciate it! I understand that tastes can change (and want to learn if that’s the case!), but I can’t shake the impression that the former image here is “better” and that no emperor trying to project his power would want to look like the latter....pic.twitter.com/ZdBD0D4cRP
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