Maiestas. Rome et la puissance des images

Majestas : Rome and the power of images. On the pretext of making the goddess Minerva and the mortal Arachne meet for a competition about the most beautiful tapestry, Ovid, in the 6th book of his Metamorphoses, opposes two aesthetics : on one hand, that of majesty (majestas) meaning hierarchy used, according to him by the Augustan power in the attempt to renew public art in Rome and the provinces, and, on the other hand, realistic aesthetics (ueritas) presented by him as a means of demystifying the powerful. Besides, at the beginning of the 5th book of his Fasti, Ovid presents Minerva as a goddess answerable “sine ui” for Jupiter’s fearful sceptre. This awareness the Rome aristocracy had of the power of images, after P. Zanker’s happy wording, brought about a number of creations — especially in the crucial period of the end of the Republic and the institution of the Empire — , to which much research has been devoted in the course of the last decades.Gilles Sauron. Maiestas. Rome et la puissance des images. In: Histoire de l'art, N°55, 2004. Art, pouvoir et politique. pp. 3-17