Antichi volti della repubblica

This monograph offers a comprehensive analysis of portraiture in Central Italy from the fourth to the second century BC, bridges the critical historical gap preceding Bernhard Schweitzer's seminal 1948 study on late Republican art. Through a rigorous examination of diverse mediums—including bronzes, terracottas, cinerary urns, and stone sarcophagi—the research addresses longstanding chronological ambiguities and isolated artifact studies. By prioritizing formal evaluation and stylistic research (Stilforschung), the text reconstructs the cultural and historical conditions that dictated the reception, adaptation, and transformation of Hellenistic models within Etruscan, Italic, and early Roman contexts. Crucially, the investigation dismantles the historiographical myth of an isolated, purely "Middle-Italic" artistic identity by detailing a nuanced, continuous dialogue with Greek physiognomic traditions. Ultimately, the work traces the stylistic evolution of Republican portraiture, illuminating the regional artistic syntheses that laid the groundwork for the emerging visual language of the late Republic and early Empire.