Pictor in tabula ? Jeux de peintres et effets méta-figuratifs dans les images romaines

Abstract

This paper is a survey on different strategies used by Roman artists to produce meta-figurative effects. It deals with four questions: 1/ how relieves on a couple of Augustan altars managed to perform a mise en abyme, 2/ how famous works of art were “quoted” on a Pompeian fresco (house of Venus in the Shell), 3/ if Roman painters explored self-portraiture and 4/ how they varied reflections on painted mirrors considering the gender of the reflected subject. This first survey throws light on the way Roman image-makers have explored a large panel of meta-figuration: they comment their own technique through these images that must be studied considering the time they were performed by the gaze of their different viewers, and the time they were perpetuated through ages.

Keywords

• roman painting
• meta-image
• metalepsis
• recurrence
• mise en abyme
• self-portrait