A Different View

This website aims to provide basic information about the scholarly publications by the Dutch classical archaeologist and art historian          

Dr Frank G.J.M. Müller. These publications are iconological studies of a select number of artworks that belong to the canon of classical Roman art, viz. the so-called Peleus and Thetis Sarcophagus in the Villa Albani in Rome, the fresco-cycle from the oecus of the Villa of Publius Fannius Synistor in Boscoreale, and the famous ancient fresco known as ‘The Aldobrandini Wedding’. These iconological studies have in common that they offer a view on the meaning of these artworks which radically differs from the view proposed by other, more traditional interpretations. This different view is the logical outcome of both the choice of different premises and the consistent application of a ‘microscopic’ iconographical analysis.

At the heart of the author’s approach is the notion that a responsible iconological interpretation is possible only on the basis of careful iconographical analysis. Such an analysis, however, only ever can be successful if the exact nature of the scene  has been grasped before the iconographical analysis. Both detailed observations of the depictions to be interpreted and careful study of their transmission, therefore, are the point of departure of the iconological studies published by the author. In carrying out the iconographical analysis itself the author has deemed it wise to allow himself to be guided by a mostly practical method of research rather than apriorist theoretical considerations. Comparisons must be grounded primarily in clearly verifiable iconographic parallels. With regard to the final iconological interpretation, the author has attempted to uncover the points of contact between the separate artworks and the culture of the specific period in which an artwork was created, an approach stemming from the conviction that artworks also are historical documents that offer us a unique way of accessing historical reality.