Conference: Flavian Style: How Art and Literature Shaped a New Age (Day 1)

For a long time, Flavian style has seen scathing judgments. The Fourth Style of wall-paintings in Pompei (typically dated late Neronian – Flavian period) has often been evaluated more negatively compared to earlier Styles. Labels like ‘mannerist’, ‘classicising’, and ‘baroque’ have strongly impacted Flavian scholarship, especially on Flavian epic (e.g. Burck 1971; Vessey 1973). These labels have branded the epics as derivatives of earlier epics, most notably of Virgil’s Aeneid. There is still a remnant of the idea of Vergil’s ‘Gold’ style of Latin and the inferiority of the ‘Silver age’ that came after (cf. also Zissos 2016).

Recent scholarship has rightly criticised the traditional value judgments and terminology which have given the art of the Flavian period a bad reputation. This conference builds on these new perspectives of and approaches to Flavian art and brings together texts and material culture by examining their stylistic features. It does so by including new approaches to style (including digital and affective approaches) as well as more traditional studies of stylistic features.

This conference is part of the Anchoring Innovation framework, since style can also be perceived in terms of innovation (or change). This conference will examine whether there is such a thing as a distinct Flavian style. It will inquire as to what extent Flavian style is stylistically anchored in previous manifestations of art and to what extent it is innovative. Furthermore, this conference will examine whether we can find shared characteristics across different media and whether there is ‘one’ distinctive Flavian style.

Confirmed speakers include: Antony Augoustakis, Valéry Berlincourt, Federica Bessone, Nathalie de Haan, Ana Lóio, Eric Moormann, and Aurora Raimondi Cominesi.