Abstract
In Antiquity, Roman portraits were not considered as physical material only. There was an abstract faculty to them, which can be called presence. When unpopular individuals were subjected to eternal oblivion, damnatio memoriae, their portraits were demolished. It is argued that the portraits of disgraced individuals had to be destroyed not only because of what they represented visually, but also because of their presence. A term minted by Plato, mimesis, is used on the production of portraits and their presence, and leads to a new hypothesis regarding why damnatio memoriae portraits had to be destroyed. In the discussion on mimesis in relation to portraits, anthropological perspectives on animism are highly relevant.
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