Luther Riedel (Florida State University)
The Arch of Titus served as an essential component of the Flavian program for political propaganda aimed at legitimizing the rule of their dynasty. This has often been noted in the scholarship, as has the innovative use of lifelike relief sculpture to further this objective. However, the manner in which these two elements work together has not been adequately appreciated or emphasized. In fact, the reliefs go far beyond the category of merely lifelike, and take on an aspect of immediacy and audience involvement that we, in the digital age of virtual reality, are only now able to fully recognize. The Arch’s reliefs demonstrate the deliberate intent to interact with its audience in a way that: compels the viewers’ engagement, makes them feel that they are active participants in the events depicted, and promotes their excitement by making them implicit collaborators in the positive ideological messages represented. Very few works of art from the ancient world function at this level of artistic awareness and achievement, and none (that I am aware of) utilizes its technical proficiency to create such a potentially effective political response. We have barely begun to investigate and understand how virtual reality is impacting our own world today, and have even less of an idea of how it will shape our future. The only thing we can know for sure is that it will definitely have a massive impact—whether positive or negative—on our actual reality as humans. The Arch of Titus needs to be reevaluated from this orientation, and understood as a revolutionary work of art in the historical continuum of aesthetic representation and its ideological/cognitive influence that leads up to, and is unfolding for us at this very moment.