The Art of Memory and Roman Art

This article takes as its point of departure sculptures in late Antique Constantinople and Rome and their use as possible “memory markers”, which the viewers would associate with specific areas in the cities. The lack of written street names made such “memory markers” an invaluable aid for the citizens to find their way around. The fact that sense impressions, notable visual ones, trigger off memories, was used by the Romans to form an artificial memory system built on the concepts of loci and imagines. This system was the prerogative of the members of the upper classes, forming part of their rhetorical training. It is here argued that such mental construct of art and architecture would have influenced the Romans’ way of regarding art, both new and recycled monuments