Images of Music and Musicians as Indicators of Status, Wealth and Political Power on Roman Funerary Monuments

Abstract

Investigations of pictorial representations of Roman musical instruments and musicians have established that in funerary contexts they were used by the artist as a tool to draw attention to the wealth and the political or social status of the dead person or his/her family. This article provides an overview of the results of this analysis based on examples from Republican, Imperial and Late Antique contexts. Its purpose is to explore some of the changes that can be observed, affecting both the meanings of the topics that were selected to ornament funerary monuments and their implications for the changing role of the musician in everyday life

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