I believe Nodelman encompasses the whole background and meaning of Roman portraiture in his essay
How to Read a Roman Portrait, specifically in his statement, "The will to reach out actively into the world of on-going life and to accomplish specific purposes within it through psychological modific
ations imposed upon the observer is the central organizational principle of Roman art." He summarizes that Roman portraiture accomplished these impositions through veristic sculpture, Hellenistic-style art and late antique portraiture. Relevant to our lecture, Nodelman discusses veristic sculpture, including
Unknown Republican from early 1st c. BCE, by describing this style as having "the intent to convey a clearly drawn and forceful polemical content" and to "call attention to their
(aged men) long service to the state and their faithfulness to constitutional procedures." He also talks about the Augustus of Primaporta as reviving Greek Hellenistic portraiture with "his electrical gaze, through which the force of the personality is poured out, is a device borrowed from Hellenistic royal portraiture where it had denoted the heroized, superhuman stature of the kings." He also incorporates late antique port
raiture like
Gordian III from 238 CE and describes it like "an image informed by an awareness of, and full presence in, the concrete circumstances in which it is experience." Nodelman differentiates this style from the others by describing "the gaze of the great eyes, magnified now to tremendous scale turned frontally upon us with the full force of their attention, we encounter unqualified presence, no longer limited by empirical time, place or contingent experience," and as "absolute pure awareness, the principle itself, freed of all individualistic and subjectivistic determinations."
ations imposed upon the observer is the central organizational principle of Roman art." He summarizes that Roman portraiture accomplished these impositions through veristic sculpture, Hellenistic-style art and late antique portraiture. Relevant to our lecture, Nodelman discusses veristic sculpture, including Unknown Republican from early 1st c. BCE, by describing this style as having "the intent to convey a clearly drawn and forceful polemical content" and to "call attention to their 
(aged men) long service to the state and their faithfulness to constitutional procedures." He also talks about the Augustus of Primaporta as reviving Greek Hellenistic portraiture with "his electrical gaze, through which the force of the personality is poured out, is a device borrowed from Hellenistic royal portraiture where it had denoted the heroized, superhuman stature of the kings." He also incorporates late antique port
raiture like Gordian III from 238 CE and describes it like "an image informed by an awareness of, and full presence in, the concrete circumstances in which it is experience." Nodelman differentiates this style from the others by describing "the gaze of the great eyes, magnified now to tremendous scale turned frontally upon us with the full force of their attention, we encounter unqualified presence, no longer limited by empirical time, place or contingent experience," and as "absolute pure awareness, the principle itself, freed of all individualistic and subjectivistic determinations."
