Roman & Etruscan Visual Cultures

tufa

a porous, soft volcanic stone; light and easy to sculpt, often used in Etruscan and Roman tombs

imago (pl. imagines)

an Etruscan mask or effigy of an ancestor, made of wax, bronze, or terracotta

verism

hyper-realistic style of Roman sculpture that highlighted wrinkles, beards, receding hair, and non-idealized features, often to suggest wisdom and experience

domus

word for a Roman house; would be decorated so as to display the owner’s personality, interests, and wealth

fresco

a watercolor painting done on wet plaster to fix the colors directly into the wall; often used in Roman households to showcase wealth and interests, in four distinct chronological styles

damnatio memoriae

Latin for condemnation of memory; the erasure of a person’s legacy from public memory by physically destroying their name, depictions, and house

1st style of fresco paintings

aka masonry style; mimicked colored marble in the style of the Macedonian palaces, using light and shadow to make the flat paint appear three-dimensional

atrium

an open-roofed hall at the center of a typical Roman home, where visitors would be received

lararium

a shrine for the household gods of a Roman home

illusionism

the practice of making 2d art appear 3d through shadow, light, vanishing points, overlapping, etc.; typical of the first and second styles of Roman interior frescoes

3rd style of fresco painting

a departure from the three-dimensional illusionism of the previous styles; instead “flattened” the walls by depicting small mythical scenes against solid color

concrete

a mixture of cement and crushed brick or stone; an easily-transportable building material that revolutionized Roman architecture

Tomb of the Reliefs (Etruscan, stone and stucco)

Sarcophagus lid with married couple (Larth Tetnies and Thanchvil) in bed (Etruscan, stone)

Sarcophagus with archaic man and woman from Leverteri (Etruscan, terracotta)

Tomb of the Volumni (Etruscan, stone)

Temple of Minerva at Veii (Etrsucan; stone, wood, mud-brick, and terracotta)

Chimera of Arezzo (Etruscan, bronze)

veristic portraits (Roman, usually marble)

Pseudo-athlete from Delos (Roman, marble)

Pyramid of the freedman Cestius (Roman, concrete with marble veneer)

Cave Canem mosaic (Roman, mosaic)

Theatre of Pompey (Roman; stone, concrete, and brick)

Augustus Primaporta (Roman; marble copy of bronze)

Ara Pacis (Roman, marble)

Colosseum/Flavian Amphitheater (Roman, limestone and concrete)

Domus Aurea / Nero’s Golden House (Roman; stone, gold, ivory, etc.)

Arch of Titus (Roman, marble)

The Pantheon (Roman, various stones and concrete)