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Roman´s Funerary Reliefs

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Particularly in the Roman times, funerary relief did not be used solely for commemorating the deceased, but rather it was used as a public demonstration of identity of certain group of deceased people. Moreover, the relief itself represents the spirit of the Roman. According to the article In Commemorationem Mortuorum: Text and Image Along the ‘Streets of Tombs,’ written by Michael Koortbojian, the Roman funerary relief is fully filled with Romanitas, which refer to the collection of political and cultural concepts, practices, and value by which the Romans defined themselves. The article focuses on three different types of sculpted funerary monument: wall-mounted grave relief, stele, and altar, dedicated to freedmen and freed women during the Republican and Imperial periods. Except for portrait bust type of wall-mounted grave relief, these funerary monuments are based on the Hellenic models. Even though the Roman artists borrowed basic formulas from them, the final products of the monuments are totally transformed and crowded with Roman artistic characters. Koortbojian claims that certain visual settings on the picture plane are commonly carved on the monuments as a means of representing artistic Roman-ness and the ideal Roman. Moreover, rather than mythical subjects, most funerary reliefs belonged to the freedmen represent profession of the dead in naturalistic manner. Also, he points out physical location of the monuments that they were erected outside the city walls as

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