Roman portraits

The psychologically realistic portrait was Rome’s main contribution to art. For anyone who likes the haunting portrait (or is it portraits?) of Elagabalus, the must-have book is by Ludwig Goldscheider. Actually, it’s a book where one should mention the photographer, Ilse Schneider-Lengyel, before the author, and is likely to mention the publisher before either – Phaidon.

Roman Portraits has been reprinted, but get it in its original 1940 edition. The printing of black and white photographs of artworks – and perhaps the photography itself – was much finer in the 1940s and ’50s than it is now. Especially for murals and stone.

Goldscheider was a co-founder of Phaidon in 1923. It was a Viennese company and moved to London after the Anschluss. It started publishing large-format art books in 1936. Roman Portraits was one of the earliest and best.

Goldscheider commissioned Schneider-Lengyel in the ’30s to photograph these Roman faces (some were originals, some Renaissance copies) in the museums of Europe. Did she photograph Elagabalus?

Phaidon’s post-war rival in England, Thames & Hudson (named after the rivers), was started by other Viennese exiles – Walter and Eva Neurath, in 1949. Unlike Phaidon, it is still owned by descendants of the founders.

Phaidon’s best-selling author, Ernst Gombrich (Viennese), agreed to stay with Phaidon when its present owner Richard Schlagman (Viennese?) acquired it in 1990 “on the dual condition that Phaidon refrained from (i) printing pornography and (ii) diversifying into burger chains”. (Nigel Spivey at www.phaidon.com.)