Esculturas y relieves figurados de época romana, realizados en material lapídeo local, del noreste de la península ibérica. Litotipos y centros de producción

Abstract

This work deals with the study of the Roman workshops that produced sculptural works carved in local stones, from the northeast corner of the Iberian Peninsula. The aim has been to broaden the current knowledge about local Hispanic art within a precise chronological window that goes from the 3rd century BC to the 3rd century AD. The project has a remarkable multidisciplinary character, combining humanistic and scientific disciplines. This has been methodologically reflected by the adoption of two distinct types of research approaches, on the one hand that common in the fields of Art History and Archeology and on the other hand, a more scientific and experimental approach, particularly focusing in geological methods. The starting objective of our study has been the exhaustive cataloging of Roman figurative sculptures and reliefs from Catalan sites, carved in local materials, The work has involved their identification and archaeometric characterization. From the compilation of the described catalogue, we have quantified the frequency of use of different lithotypes, most of them were already known but some had not been previously described. The different lithotypes have been associated with their corresponding production centers. The objectives have materialized in a catalogue that comprises 171 artworks and includes 18 different local lithotypes. Their archaeometric characterization, particularly focused on the petrographic analysis, has been applied to a total of 44 pieces. This scientific-oriented facet of the project has implied the development of competence in various analytical techniques, a completely new knowledge that has been assumed without any previous background. Most of the works that we have compiled are currently located in Catalan public and private institutions (122). In addition to the pieces located in the museums, of the total number of cataloged works we have found 49 items that were not catalogued, they are in situ, on private collections or presently missing.

Date of Award	1 Mar 2023
Original language	Spanish
Supervisor	Lluis Casas Duocastella (Director) & Montserrat Claveria (Director)