Late Roman minor arts

	1. Marble vase from late 4th to early 5th century, from Naples or the East Mediterranean. While the style is basically classical, the proportions, such as in the dramatic top flair and small foot, reflect the new aesthetic trends. The effect is a floating mass, rather than naturally set on the ground. The flute recalls eastern columns, and indeed the vase may have been imported into Italy from the Levant. The grape vine and scallop design suggest fertility or even perhaps personal salvation. Note the partial replacement of surface coherence by relationships, which will become fundamental to the feadal aesthetic.
	2. Portraits of Stilicho (detail from a diptych) and Arcadius (from his portrait bust) that show Arcadius handled in the Theodosian style, while Stilicho's facial features, at least, are much more naturalistic.
	3. Miniature painting on gilded glass medalion: a portrait of Galla Placidia (?) with her children, ca. 400 A.D. (Brescia: Mus. Civ.) 6 cm. diameter. Blue enamel ground, with the portraits etched on gold and silver leaf. The glass medalion, apparently done by a Greek artist and perhaps based on a Severan model, is set into a 7th-century processional cross. As the emperors became trapped between aristocratic private interests at court and the armies' efforts to maintain political order, leadership in the fifth century often ended in the hands of people less constained by office, such as court eunuchs and women. In aesthetic terms, this also is far removed from the Theodosian style associated with imperial office.