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How Dozens of Stunning Ancient Roman Statues Ended Up in Cowtown
The ancient Romans weren’t precious about their marble statues. They didn’t sequester them in museums, displaying them out of reach, next to placards explaining their provenance, context, and meaning. Instead, their sculptures were dispersed in public spaces for everyone to see, functioning much the way roadside billboards do today. Some were used as propaganda, depicting the first emperor, Augustus, as a powerful, handsome young man, for example. Others promoted virtues, such as maturity and fertility, a sort of “Pass It On” campaign for the time. Aspirational bodies with literally chiseled abs were featured in public baths and gymnasiums, inspiring the fitness-minded much like posters of Arnold Schwarzenegger at Gold’s Gym do.These physical forms of mass communication were often painted in vivid colors, making them as…The post How Dozens of Stunning Ancient Roman Statues Ended Up in Cowtown appeared first on Texas Monthly.