ABSTRACT
The rather negative view of Romano-British art expressed so eloquently by Haverfield and Collingwood, to which this book is inevitably an extended reply, has influenced the views of all writers on Roman Britain this century; not least those of Jocelyn Toynbee whose monumental study, discussing listing and often all items which could be described as Art in Britain under the Romans known to her in 1964, will not easily be superseded. While praise is sometimes generously given, the best native craftsmanship is always ascribed to Gauls. It is only very occasionally that the objects described are treated as having tremendous aesthetic merit in themselves, and it is this apologetic and muted response that coloured the linked exhibition on Art in Roman Britain held in 1962. This situation is very different from the enthusiasm for Celtic art, both preand post-Roman or for Anglo-Saxon art.
