While my Christmas present from my wife (hehehe) in the form of an
ancient coin arrived today there's one package I was awaiting even
more eagerly. That package contained a series of articles photocopied
for me at the ANS. I was practically giddy when it arrived, there's
just something about delving into a new (to me) topic that is just so
exciting. At present I am focusing both my reading and my collecting
on the stylistic changes in portraiture over time. This has been a
deft attempt by me to create a collection that can be optimized for
variety and quality while still maintaining some coherence. My
interest started in trying to see how the beautiful and realistic
portraits of early Rome turned into the impersonal facing images on
early Byzantine coinage. Luckily there is some literature including
an entire series done on style by Wayne Sayles in 1990. I have to
admit that the "ugly" Byzantine coins become much more interesting
when one understands the history and reasons behind the changes in the
portraiture. Now I just have to get some back issues...