Art history essay - Ancient Roman Sculpture/Painting

[knhirt]

Hi guys!
I'm having a little trouble finding material for my essay, so I'm counting on some kind Escapist with some knowledge of the fine arts to lend me a hand. I've got a copy of the Icelandic translation of The Story of Art by Ernst Gombrich and that got me started, but I need to go a bit deeper (insert your own DiCaprio here) into the subject matter.
If someone could recommend either a specific book (ones that can be found online in PDF format are most immediately useful) that touches a bit more thoroughly on ancient Roman sculpture and painting, or even a trusted website (not sure where to look or what to trust on this subject!), or perhaps the names of specific works or artists of that time, that would help a great deal.
If you have nothing to recommend, then thanks at least for taking the time to read. : )

 

[IndomitableSam]

Libraries, dude, libraries. Your university should have decent collections pertaining to the different courses offered at the school.

I'm pretty ignorant about art history, but as a librarian, we're your first line of resources. Use us. (Nicely. And put us back when you're done so the next person can play.)

Also: Wikipedia - use their sources. And the book you have - does it have a bibliography? Use that. Most sites ending with .edu are good to cite without getting you in trouble, so keep that in mind when browsing.

I have some old Classics textbooks at home and ... actually, I think I took a Greek art history course first year, but I can't remember any of it. Sorry. All I remember is some stuff about how they noted an era change by the type of paint/firing used in pottery.

 

[SckizoBoy]

Hmmm... I don't own them (since I'm not that big on the subject material), but 'Classical Art: From Greece to Rome' by Mary Beard & John Henderson, 'Roman Art: Romulus to Constantine' by Nancy Ramage & Andrew Ramage, are fairly good...

As far as I know, patrician opinion of the arts was quite ambivalent for the most part, and it was only into the 2nd century BC that they opened up their sensibilities to artistic as opposed to annalistic sculpture & artwork. So, while you may be able to turn up a couple sculptors here and there, I don't think you'll find any named painters of early-mid Republican era. Most 'paintings' those days were either graffiti or for sculptures.

Still, it's quite a broad topic you've gone for so best cut it down since (despite the lack of names) there's quite a lot to talk about: era; medium; periodic influence; geographic bias; & artistic aspect.