Upcoming: “Reexamining the Visual Impact of the Togate Body” by Erin Bello

The ideal of the gens togata has framed scholarship around statuary and reliefs of the togate statue body and has served to eliminate the narrative beyond a codification of symbols as indication of status and achievements. The visual dialogue of the togate consists of the juxtaposition and tension between the face and body, male and female depictions, and between other togate statue bodies. The authority of the statue relies on the object’s reception among others of similar appearance while maintaining a sense of personalization, communicating through the expectation of the viewers in a public space. Through an expanding examination of the togate statue body as means of an actual garment, an object, an ideal, and a codified language in of itself, this paper seeks to examine the visual impact of these statue types among themselves and the public landscape of the Roman world.