Milczenie i mowa obrazów. O wychowawczej roli sztuki w kulturze starożytnego Rzymu
Silence and speech of images. On the educational role of art in ancient Roman culture

Summary/Abstract: Through a proper education of society, and especially of children and young people, every state prepares its citizens to live under given social and political circumstances and propagates desirable modes of behaviour. In order to realise the planned objectives in home and social education, the Romans made use of many forms of activities, including art. When looking at the images, from ancestors’ portraits to historical reliefs, they had to do with the language of image understood not only by the elite, but also by lower social strata. A message of the image comprehended by the Romans is in our world silent – it does not generate emotions, nor do we identify ourselves with people representing virtues of the then world. If we want to entirely comprehend an educational role of the image, we should know the realities of a given epoch. Due to the lack of philosophical knowledge or some deficiencies in education, the virtues recognized by the elite would not have been available to a considerable part of the Roman society but for, among others, the images’ speech. Sculptures, reliefs, mosaics, even architecture, presented the history and propagated virtues and styles of living.

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