An ancient Roman forum, house, garden and grave site are recreated in the Yale University Art Gallery's first exhibition to explore the public roles, domestic lives and commemoration of Roman women -- from slaves to empresses and young girls to grandmothers -- which opens on Friday, Sept. 6.
"I, Claudia: Women in Ancient Rome" includes 170 of what are considered the finest works in Roman art in North America, brought together from major museums and small university collections. The objects range from life-size marble portrait statues and reliefs to coins, jewelry and children's toys. The exhibition, which will be on view through Dec. 1, was organized by Diana E.E. Kleiner, the Dunham Professor of the History of Art and deputy provost for the arts, and by Susan B. Matheson, curator of ancient art at the Yale Art Gallery.
"'I, Claudia' offers precisely the pleasure for the eye and sustenance for the mind that the art gallery aspires to give our public," says Susan Vogel, the Henry J. Heinz II Director. "We are grateful to the many lenders for their generous and enthusiastic support of this compelling salute to the women of Rome, and to the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for their essential financial support."
The exhibition is presented in three architectural environments corresponding to the main areas of women's lives in ancient Rome. The public realm is represented by a Roman forum and business quarters; the domestic realm by an atrium and traditional red-and- ochre facade of a family house, covered with reproductions of actual graffiti from Pompeii; and the funerary realm by tombs with carved reliefs, some bearing revealing inscriptions, as well as statues of women and children.
"Placing the works of art in their architectural contexts, the exhibition creates for the visitor not only the experience of actual Roman women but the vibrant life of a Roman city," says Professor Kleiner. "It is my hope that 'I, Claudia' will bring Roman women to life for all who see it and that they will come away with much that resonates in their own lives."
Visitors to the exhibit first enter the public realm, a forum where ancient marble portraits of imperial families are grouped. The first group -- arranged to emphasize the importance of family relationships -- includes Livia 58 B.C.-A.D. 29 , the first Roman empress and an active patron of the arts who commissioned public buildings and religious temples; her husband, emperor Augustus; her son, the future emperor Tiberius; and Augustus' adoptive son, Lucius Caesar; as well as other members of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, such as Caligula and Agrippina the Younger, who was the mother of Nero. A second grouping of portraits and coins focuses on the divinization of the empress.
While these imperial women's primary importance was defined by their roles as daughter, wife and mother, Roman women also "participated directly in political events, had a profound impact on the configuration these events took and directly affected the appearance of the world in which they lived," Professor Kleiner says.
The house designed as an example of the Roman women's domestic realm is furnished with an ancient bronze table, the fulcrum of a couch and fragments of carpeting and other textiles. A Roman garden, planted by members of the New Haven Garden Club in the gallery's courtyard, can be seen beyond the atrium. Three generations of a Roman family are represented by a larger-than-life statue of an ideal Roman woman; a bust of a man, representing her husband; and six marble portraits of children. An older woman for the grandmother and a marble mastiff representing the family pet complete the household. Other objects displayed to offer insights into ancient Roman domestic life include dolls, piggy banks, a model chariot, cosmetic containers, hairpins and jewelry, as well as the equipment used for weaving. Marriage and divorce contracts are also on view.
Familial relationships, religious beliefs and the values of non- elite Roman women are best reconstructed in the funerary realm of the exhibit, according to the curators. On display in this section are a marble funerary relief depicting a freed slave named Vesinia Iucunda, with her husband and son on either side of her. In addition to portraits -- which show how ancient Roman women wore their hair and clothing and how they related to their husbands and sons -- other items on display in this section are memorials to dead children, a biographical sarcophogus, and inscriptions which reveal the qualities for which Roman women wished to be remembered -- beauty, modesty, chastity and fidelity.
"We know more about real, individual Roman women that we do about women from any other ancient civilization, and much of this information comes from portraits, reliefs and objects associated with women such as those in the exhibition," says Ms. Matheson. "While we are eager for visitors to share Claudia's experience, we want to stress that this is a rare and extraordinary opportunity to see some of the most beautiful and expressive Roman art on this continent."
The exhibition is accompanied by a fully-illustrated 240-page catalogue, written by a team of current and former graduate students at Yale, with entries by Ms. Kleiner and Ms. Matheson and art scholars at other institutions. The paperback catalogue is priced at $26.95.
In addition to gallery and art a la carte talks, special programs being offered in conjunction with the exhibit include a major symposium in early November and a Roman Family Festival on Oct. 5. The first talk on the exhibition takes place on Tuesday, Sept. 10, at 2 p.m., and will be presented by Professor Kleiner and Ms. Matheson. Other events will be listed in future issues of the Yale Bulletin & Calendar.
The Yale University Art Gallery, located at 1111 Chapel St., is free and open to the public Tuesday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m., and Sunday, 2-5 p.m. An entrance for persons using wheelchairs is located at 201 York St. For general information, call 432-0600; for further information about access, call 432-0601.