Les représentations de Mars Ultor sur les pierres gravées

Les représentations de Mars Ultor sur les pierres gravées is principally devoted to engraved stones representing the Mars Ultor type and aims to restore them to their rightful place. When Adolf Furtwängler, in his study of the Somzée collection, determined the Mars Ultor type from a statuette in the same collection, he chose to use only two artefacts for comparison: the engraved gem from the Marlborough collection and a sesterce of Antoninus Pius. Monumental sculpture and reliefs did not provide reliable anchors for the type. Even the famous statue from the Capitoline Museum did not find favour with him. Paradoxically, the studies that followed Furtwängler's focused on the ‘high arts’, intentionally leaving aside the intaglios and the glass pastes, which are the only contemporary examples of the original statue, now lost.

Gems representing the Mars Ultor type were produced between the 1st and 4th centuries. They attest to the longevity and impact of the Augustan image in Roman iconography and allow us to follow the variations in meaning of the motif. Scattered around the world and without documented contexts, the 240-odd engraved stones gathered here prove – if it were still necessary to do so – that the great masterpieces of art history have had a much more important survival on these small objects than on the great monuments traditionally at the centre of iconographic studies. Comparison with statuettes and coins representing the Mars Ultor type also offers a historical and religious view of the cult of the god, promoted by Octavian after the Battle of Philippi.