Culture et images dans le domaine privé à la fin de l’Antiquité : du rêve à la réalité ?

Abstract

The ground-breaking analysis of Late Antique art by R. Bianchi Bandinelli aimed to demonstrate the abandonment of the Hellenistic tradition in favour of other influences – in particular, the irrational elements which were gradually introduced by the art of the provinces and of the non-elite classes. The paradox of recent research is that it has, by contrast, focussed on the status which the ruling class accorded to everything indicating an origin in classical, essentially elitist, culture. But it is useful to question the depth of this tendency and not to overestimate a phenomenon which modern commentators sometimes take for granted.