Narrative, Experience, and the Image

This chapter addresses the issue of narrative and experience from the perspective of ancient images, and with a focus on sculpture, a medium which does not seem particularly appropriate for pictorial narrative. As a first step, it discusses this evident lack of congruence between pictorial narrative and sculpture, and show ways in which narrative can, nevertheless, function in sculpture. For this purpose, it introduces a general distinction between two kinds of image-related ‘presence’ with reference to the case of the Knidian Aphrodite. This distinction then serves as a hermeneutical tool in the discussion of the chapter’s main categorical focus, namely the incomplete copies of sculptural groups. The analysis of this phenomenon of the Imperial Era focuses on strategies of involving the viewer in the pictorial narrative and thus reinforcing the immersive power of sculpture. Finally, it discusses the intentional creation of voids within the image, as observed in incomplete copies, in the larger context of the visual culture of the Imperial Era, notably through a parallel with the theatrical medium of pantomime.