Maryl B. Gensheimer

Dr. Gensheimer was awarded the 2020 Arlt Award for her book, Decoration and Display in Rome's Imperial Thermae: Messages of Power and their Popular Reception at the Baths of Caracalla (Oxford UP, 2018). In Decoration and Display in Rome's Imperial Thermae, Gensheimer analyzes the decoration of the Baths of Caracalla (inaugurated 216 CE) and elucidates its critical role in advancing Roman imperial agendas. As Gensheimer notes,"This reassessment of one of the most sophisticated examples of architectural patronage in Classical antiquity examines the specific mechanisms through which an imperial patron could use architectural decoration to emphasize his sociopolitical position relative to the thousands of people who enjoyed his benefaction." "Elevating the exceptional work of early-career humanities faculty has never been more important, and Dr. Gensheimer's brilliant work contextualizes the cultural significance of the two-thousand-year-old ancient Roman Baths of Caracalla and the role art and architecture plays in advancing the politics of imperialism. We are honored to present her with this year's prestigious Arlt Award," said Dr. Suzanne Ortega, president of the Council of Graduate Schools.

Focusing on the relationship between ancient Rome and modern America, the Pellegri Grant supports innovative teaching and research on the part of its grant winners. I have used part of this grant to support graduate instruction on archaeological excavation on the Bay of Naples and to facilitate my own research and publication.

This study employs both archival and material evidence to offer fresh solutions for treating Roman sculpture and its interpretation. Beginning with an investigation of two of the most famous works to survive from Classical antiquity, the Farnese and Latin Hercules statues found in the Baths of Caracalla, this paper demonstrates how Roman sculpture acquires true meaning - not just aesthetic value - through precise context. Understood as part of an overall decorative program, these statues shed light on the material culture of Roman bathing complexes and the underlying rationale of imperial patronage. In comparison, this paper argues that the so-called Giustiniani Hercules statues said to be from the Baths of Nero, which lack archaeological documentation of their findspot, cannot be interpreted with the same degree of nuance as their securely documented comparanda from the Baths of Caracalla. This paper, then, not only proposes news insights into the four statues under review, but also a new framework for discussing both an imperial patron's intentions with regard to sculptural display and that sculpture's possible reception by the ancient viewer.

Across the Roman Empire, ubiquitous archaeological, art historical, and literary evidence attests to the significance of bathing for Romans' daily routines. Given the importance of bathing to the Roman style of living, imperial patrons enhanced their popular and political stature by endowing eight magnificent baths (the so-called imperial thermae) in the city of Rome between 25 B.C.E. and 315 C.E. This book presents a detailed analysis of the decoration of the best preserved of these bathing complexes, the Baths of Caracalla (inaugurated 216 C.E.). An interdisciplinary approach to the archaeological data, to the textual and visual sources, and to anthropological theories facilitates new understandings of the visual experience of the Baths of Caracalla for a diverse Roman audience and simultaneously elucidates the decoration's critical role in advancing imperial agendas. This reassessment of one of the most sophisticated examples of architectural patronage in Classical antiquity examines the specific mechanisms through which an imperial patron could use architectural decoration to emphasize his sociopolitical position relative to the thousands of people who enjoyed his benefaction. The case studies addressed herein, ranging from architectural to freestanding sculpture and mosaic, demonstrate that sponsoring monumental baths was hardly an act of altruism. Rather, even while they provided recreation for elite and sub-altern Romans alike, such buildings were concerned primarily with dynastic legitimacy and imperial largess. The unified decorative program - and the messages of imperial power therein - adroitly articulated these themes.

Decoration was integral and vital to the Baths of Caracalla (inaugurated 216 CE). Polychrome marbles were to be found everywhere: in the mosaic pavements underfoot; in the freestanding sculpture adorning various niches; and in the revetment of the walls and ceiling vaults. This paper examines the subtext of this sumptuous display, addressing the visual experience of the baths for a wide range of viewers. From the most sophisticated senator to his client, thousands of people a day would have followed the visual cues embedded in the baths' polychrome decoration in order to navigate through them and to engage in an afternoon of recreation and relaxation. The case studies addressed in this chapter, encompassing mosaic, architectural, and freestanding sculpture, demonstrate that endowing monumental baths was a concern of dynastic legitimacy and imperial largess.

In a volume analyzing Classical New York, this paper uses the Baths of Caracalla (inaugurated 216 CE) to consider the role of monuments in the transmission of cultural memory and identity. Thus, the author investigates the Baths of Caracalla's architectural afterlife in America when used as the prototype for, among others, the Palace of Fine Arts, St. Louis (1904); Union Station, Washington DC (1907); Union Station, Chicago (1925); and, most importantly in the context of this study, Old Pennsylvania Station, New York (1910). This paper contrasts the lived experience of the recreated architectural spaces of the Baths of Caracalla in New York with their original design and queries the underlying ambitions of various patrons, whether the emperor Caracalla or Alexander Cassatt, the president of the Pennsylvania Railroad and driving force behind Old Pennsylvania Station. In so doing, it attests to the rich and varied adaptations of the Baths of Caracalla in modern America. This study emphasizes intercultural influences and stresses the value of cross- cultural comparisons to address issues of reception, projection, and appropriation. The author devotes special attention to primary sources that vividly illustrate the ways in which iconic Roman landmarks were promoted as physical embodiments of cultural memory. Newsreels and photographs, for instance, are evocative witnesses to this phase of the Baths' reuse as the model for Old Pennsylvania Station, and these and other sources reveal the ways in which Roman baths were fundamental to the reception of the Classical past in twentieth century New York.

An ancient viewer exiting Herculaneum's Central Baths onto the Cardo IV Superiore could see, across the street, a house whose entrance opened onto a striking vista framed by the fauces and the line of sight offered by successive openings into the atrium, tablinum, and beyond - to a polychrome mosaic decorating the east wall of the house's rear courtyard. This mosaic, depicting Neptune and Amphitrite, gives the house its name and is the subject of this chapter. This essay seeks to use the decoration of the House of Neptune and Amphitrite at Herculaneum in order to explore the decorative program's multivalent strategies with which to engage the Roman viewer; and to articulate aspects of the patron's personal and family identity as revealed through decoration. Therefore, the polychrome mosaic featuring Neptune and Amphitrite is examined first within the space of the home, and then within its regional and cultural contexts.

The significance of the sculptural decoration of the Athenian Treasury at Delphi has long been debated. This article demonstrates that the sculptural program is not only an early example of a newfound emphasis on Theseus as the particular hero of Athens, but that it is indicative of an effort to create visual parity between the deeds of Theseus and those of Herakles. The Athenian Treasury is, therefore, the first building to use mythic imagery involving Theseus, Herakles, and their battles against the Amazons as a sophisticated allusion to conflict with Persia and to the decisive role of Athens at the Battle of Marathon in 490 BCE. The mythological themes elaborated in the treasury's decoration ingeniously predicate ancient parallels for contemporary events. My reevaluation of the Athenian Treasury's decoration invites us to reassess the intersections between art, life, and myth in the aftermath of momentous world events like Marathon.

One of the highest-quality replicas of the Achilles and Penthesilea group was excavated at Aphrodisias in 1966-67. Recent research has identified additional fragments belonging to the group. Study of these fragments clarifies our knowledge of this important Roman replica and its Hellenistic original. The Aphrodisias replica was discovered in its late antique context, in the Tetrastyle Court of the Hadrianic Baths. The Achilles and Penthesilea was juxtaposed with a replica of the so-called Pasquino Group and a nude male torso wearing a chlamys. All three statues faced east, toward the main square of the city, the North Agora. Our study elucidates the thematic intent behind this sculptural ensemble and the poignancy of the contrast between Penthesilea and her pendant, the young warrior in the Pasquino group. The material from Aphrodisias, together with its known find context, allows for new reconstructions of a major Greco-Roman statue group and elucidates this statue's repair and display throughout the fifth century C.E.

Ancient Greek and Roman art provides a window through which one can gain an appreciation for ancient self-consciousness of, and engagement with, images. In particular, this chapter addresses Greek and Roman representations of art and architecture that appear as metapictures within larger images. I refer not only to images of the same kind as their support (vases on vases, for instance) but also to metapictures more generally - that is to say, images of vases, sculpture, or architecture represented in other media. This chapter demonstrates that metapictures can be understood as significant documents for our understanding of the underlying intentions of their artists and even the contemporary reception of images and practices of image making in antiquity.

The Women in Archaeology Interest Group consists of AIA members with an interest in the position of women in the modern field of archaeology, and in promoting its understanding to members of the AIA through its various programs and publications.