Chapter 6: Roman Art

Romulus and Remus

According to legend, ____, abandoned twins, were suckled by a she-wolf, and later established the city of Rome on its fabled seven hills.

Augustus Caesar

Civil war in the late Republic caused a power vacuum that was filled by Octavian, later called ____, who became emperor in 27 B.C.E.

Ashlar Masonry

A technique used where building are built without mortar.

barrel vault

Roman architects understood that arches could be extended in space and form a continuous tunnel-like construction called a \___.

groin vault

A larger more open space, formed when two barrel vaults intersect.

corner piers

The latter is particularly important because the groin vault could be supported with only four \____, rather than requiring a continuous wall space that a barrel vault needed.

Piers

a vertical support that holds up an arch or a vault

Spandrels

The spaces between the arches on the piers.

Coffer

in architecture, a sunken panel in a ceiling

concrete

The Romans used \____ in constructing many of their oversized buildings.

Impluvium

a rectangular basin in a Roman house that is placed in the open-air atrium in order to collect rainwater

Cubiculum

a Roman bedroom flanking an atrium; in Early Christian art, a mortuary chapel in a catacomb

Atrium

a courtyard in a Roman house or before a Christian church

peristyle

The Romans placed their intimate rooms deeper into the house. Eventually another atrium, perhaps held up by columns called a \_____, provided access to a garden flanked by more cubicula.

Composite column

one that contains a combination of volutes from the Ionic order and acanthus leaves from the Corinthian order

Keystone

the center stone of an arch that holds the others in place

Flagstaffs

These staffs are the anchors for a retractable canvas roof, called a velarium.

Velarium

A retractable canvas roof used to protect the crowd on hot days.

Hypogeum

The subterranean part of an ancient building.

Basilica

in Roman architecture, a large axially planned building with a nave, side aisles, and apses

Cupola

a small dome rising over the roof of a building; in architecture, a cupola is achieved by rotating an arch on its axis

Oculus

a circular window in a church, or a round opening at the top of a dome

Fresco

a painting technique that involves applying water-based paint onto a freshly plastered wall. The paint forms a bond with the plaster that is durable and long-lasting

Encaustic

an ancient method of painting that uses colored waxes burned into a wooden surface

Perspective

depth and recession in a painting or a relief sculpture.

Orthogonals

\_______ recede to multiple vanishing points in the distance.

Foreshortening

a visual effect in which an object is shortened and turned deeper into the picture plane to give the effect of receding in space

**First Pompeian Style**

Characterized by painted rectangular squares meant to resemble marble facing.

**Second Pompeian Style**

had large mythological scenes and/or landscapes dominating the wall surface. Painted stucco decoration of the First Style appears beneath in horizontal bands.

**Third Pompeian Style**

characterized by small scenes set in a field of color and framed by delicate columns of tracery.

Triclinium

a dining room in a Roman house.

Veristic

sculptures from the Roman Republic characterized by extreme realism of facial features

Bust

a sculpture depicting the head, neck, and upper chest of a figure

Contrapposto

a graceful arrangement of the body based on tilted shoulders and hips and bent knees

Continuous narrative

a work of art that contains several scenes of the same story painted or sculpted in continuous succession

Horror vacui

(Latin for a “fear of empty spaces”) a type of artwork in which the entire surface is filled with objects, people, designs, and ornaments in a crowded, sometimes congested way

House of Vettii

• Private citizen’s home in Pompeii

• Originally built during the Republic with early imperial additions.

• Two brothers owned the house; both were freedmen who made their money as merchants.

The Colosseum

• meant for wild and dangerous spectacles—gladiator combat, animal hunts, naval battles.

• Accommodated 50,000 spectators.

• 76 entrances and exits circle the façade.

• the name comes from a colossal statue of Nero that used to be adjacent.

Petra

was a central city of the Nabataeans, a nomadic people, until Roman occupation in 106 C.E.

Great Temple of Petra

• Nabataean concept and Roman features such as Corinthian ­columns.

• The city was built along a caravan route.

• Approached through a propylaeum and a grand staircase that leads to a colonnade terrace in the lower precincts.

Treasury of Temple (Petra)

• In reality, it was a tomb, not a “treasury,” as the name implies.

• Greek, Egyptian, and Assyrian gods on the façade.

• Monuments carved in traditional Nabataean rock-cut cliff walls.

Forum of Trajan

• Large central plaza flanked by stoa-like buildings on each side.

• Originally held an equestrian monument dedicated to Trajan in the center.

• Built with booty collected from Trajan’s victory over the Dacians.

Basilica of Ulpia

• Law courts held here; apses were a setting for judges.

• Said to have been paid for by Trajan’s spoils taken from the defeat of the Dacians.

• Grand interior space (385 feet by 182 feet) with two apses.

Trajan Markets

• Semicircular building held several levels of shops.

• Main space is groin vaulted; barrel vaulted area with the shops.

• Multilevel mall.

• Original market had 150 shops.

Pantheon

• it was built as a Roman temple dedicated to all the gods.

• it may have been dedicated to a select group of gods and the divine Julius Caesar and/or used for court rituals.

• It is now a Catholic church called Santa Maria Rotonda.

Pentheus Room

• a Triclinium

• Main scene is the death of the Greek hero.

• This painting opens the room with the illusion of windows and a sunny cityscape beyond.

Head of a Roman patrician

• Tradition of wax portrait masks in funeral processions of the upper class to commemorate their history.

• Bulldog-like tenacity of features

• Features may have been exaggerated

Augustus of Prima Porta

• Contrapposto.

• References Polykleitos’s Doryphoros.

• Found in the villa of Livia, Augustus’s wife

• May have been commissioned by Emperor Tiberius

Column of Trajan

• A 625-foot narrative cycle (128 feet high) wrapped around it

• 150 episodes, 2,662 figures, 23 registers—continuous narrative.

• Scenes depict the preparation for battle

• Visitors who entered were meant to wander up the interior spiral staircase to the viewing platform at the top

Ludovisi Battle Sarcophagus

• Extremely crowded surface with figures piled atop one another; horror vacui.

• Interment of the dead; rich carving suggests a wealthy patron with a military background.

• Confusion of battle is suggested by congested composition.