Classics 51B Midterm 2

Portrait of Livia, from an imperial cult center in the Fayum region in Egypt.

4 CE. Marble

• Augustus’s sister is Livia —> publicly honored for explicit dynastic messaging and to serve as exempla for elite women and how they should be portrayed

• No Verism, eternal young look

• Nodus: Bun at the top of the head, a popular Roman style

Porticus of Octavia, Campus Martius in Rome

27 – 23 BCE. Concrete and marble architectural complex

• On Campus Martius: area which is dominated by males

• Temples to Jupitor Stator and Juno Regina

• Libraries, schools in honor of Marcellus by Octavia

• Curia Octaviae: Where senate meets, shows who holds power

• Art works: Greek spolia, Roman icons

  • Seated Cornelia statue: posthumous public statue of Cornelia, celebrated as a mother and daughter; seated figure is matronly

Funerary relief of the Gessii, Rome

30 – 20 BCE (Late Republican), marble (from Carerra)

• truncated bust styled portraits styled as citizens; in a family group

• Wife on right: wearing a stola —> shows modesty, styled like Lydia (Recently freed)

• Man in center with paludamentum and he is veristic, dressed as a late Republican hero (Freeborn)

• Son on the right, dressed in toga, pious, shorter hair like Augustus

• After freed, get married; but have the son before she gets freed; son is freed at death of his fasther, and the son makes this portrait

Tomb of the Baker, Rome.

30 – 20 BCE, marble, tufa, concrete

• Monument of Eurysaces who is a baker, not the actual baker but the contractor

• He has a Greek name, suggesting that he was formerly enslaved and then came into wealth because of his position

• Reliefs depict the different parts of the baking process, suggesting pride in work

• Large circles are thought to be kneading machines

• Right at the outskirts of Rome, everyone can see it

• doesn’t look like traditional round funerary monuments

Monument of the Julii, (in Gaul / southern France)

30 – 20 BCE. Limestone

• Dedicated by three sons to their father; either people who fought in the army and moved to live in Gaul or Gallic people who joined the army and were given citizenship

• Three parts: Tholos (circular structure on top), quadrifons: 4 sided arch; socle: foundation

  • odd to have multiple teired funerary monuments—> parts are familiar but combination is not

• 2 sides of the socle: battle, 2 sides mythological

  • even though normal to mix these two, different from roman because chaos depicted similar to Hellenistic + deep relief —> not common in Rome at the time (more Gallo-Celtic)

Harbor at Caesarea, Caesarea Maritima in Roman Judea

22 – 10/9 BCE (dedicated in 15 BCE so 22-15 BCE okay too) Roman concrete

• Harod makes and pays for it (do what you need to o for the people)

• strategic political decision to bring in trade

• made using ROMAN concrete: pozzolana, lime, water, aggregate

• excavated, constructed using box method (wooden framework then concrete) and later Hollow-wall Box method (box with hollow walls to sea, filled with mortar, add concrete when it sinks)

• Temple to Augustus and Rome, faces outwards, to foreigners, because most locals were Jewish

House of the Vettii, Pompeii.

62 – 79 CE

• No tablinium: could be because they do not have any visitors (noit established elite) and might be formerly enslaved and are clients of another family

• likely high priest from the freedperson class (must have money because requires a sizeable donation)

• decorated in the style of nouveau riche

• bronze lockboxes displat wealth blatantly —> owners had money but no class

• Priapus: in fauces, large erect phallus, weighing against gold, showing that they are economically paid off; phallus as an apotrophaic to ward off evil

• Cupids at work in the triclinium, to gesture to their past as the working class, or reinforce those rules, since at eye level for children

• Hercules and the snakes: Pentheus in the Pentheus room —> both stories of overcoming violence, also familiarity with greek myth shows intellectualism

Second style architectural painting in the Villa at Oplontis, Bay of Naples.

Mid-1st c. BCE. Fresco

• Realistic paintings: architectural with figural compositions between painted columns or doors 

• Trick: to look like theres no wall

• Entry into garden (red) trophy in circle (brown)

• Columns depicted 

Third style wall painting in the Villa of Boscotrecase, Bay of Naples. 

ca. 10 BCE.

• Decorative style with great attention to detail, refined technique

• Framed pendant paintings with mythological subjects

• Wispy columns, flat, no volume

• Less distracting to focus on elite, maybe because felt losing power

First Style

• Incrustation or masonry Style 

• Plaster molded and painted to imitate ashlar masonry

Fourth Style

• Combo of Second and Third Styles

• Delicate architecture but layered spaces

• Subjects and perspective take on fantastical quantity

• Mythological panels

• Crowded with decorative elements

House of the Painters at Work, Pompeii. 

Ongoing work in 79 CE. *Unfinished 4th style fresco.

• Unfinished 4th style fresco.

• Can tell basic steps of 4th style painting process: painted top down, vertical sections

• 1. Broad color swaths 2 architecture/minorfigural details 3. Figural panels 4. Cover with sealant 

• 3+ personnel

House of the Chaste Lovers, Pompeii.

 62-79 CE. 

• Bakery with grindstones and oven

• Similar to restaurant for lower and middle class freed people

• could see blindfolded four legged labroers and two legged workers, clearly overworked, skin stripped from whipping as you go to dining portion

• Small triclinium with paintings of “chaste” but eroticized diners that romanticize act of eating in the restaurant 

The Colosseum (Flavian Amphitheater), Rome  

70 – 80 CE. Concrete core and travertine

• area formerly occupied by Nero’s lake taken by Flavians to make public space

  • Currying favor with “bread and circusses”

• 3 stories of arcades: arches framed by engaged columns ; 3 column orders

• 4th story: windows

• Interior: arena, cavea: seating based on social class 

• Made with concrete barrel and stone arcades

• Used for gladiator fighting and earlier days to reenact naval battle

• Subterranean Structures: trap doors for animals 

• Funded by spoils of war

Arch of Titus, Rome (along the triumphal route) 

81 CE. Concrete and travertine 

• Triumphant (Spoils from the sack of Jerusalem); Commemorative(Triumph of Titus, Apotheosis of Titus)

Spoils from the sack of Jerusalem

81 CE

• Passageway Relief of Arch of Titus

• Shows menorah, symbolic of triumph over Jerusalem, placards denoting what is being triumphant

• TRIUMPH

• Idea of movement is depicted well, high relief

Triumph of Titus

81 CE

• Passageway Relief of Arch of Titus

• Titus in chariot, being crowned with the corona civica by Victory

  • Okay to depict God crowning mortal because Titus is dead, thes deified

• Old and young figure: depicts Senate and the Roman population

• Overlapping figures, high relief, playing with depth

• COMMEMORATE

Apotheosis of Titus

81 CE

• Relief Sculpture in the vault of the Arch of Titus

• Apotheosis: elevation of someone to a divine status

• Titus on eagle suggests apotheosis

• Used to legitimize Domitian’s rise

The Cancelleria Relief of Domitian/Nerva’s profectio, Rome 

c. 93-96 CE. Marble

• Profectio: ritual departure usually before war

• Older style, lower relief to clacize Domitian’s rise and legacy

• Mixing gods (Mars, Minerva, Roma) with mortals for the first time

• Old and young faces (Senate and Roman people)

• Nervas face is used to replace Domitian when the senate appoints him 

Forum of Trajan, Rome. 

106-113 CE. Architectural complex.

• Similar to the Forum of Augustus: exedra and axial orientation

• Statue of Trajan in center

• Leads out to Basilica (practicing law) instead of temple

• Paid for by ex-manubia from Dacian people (rich in mineral resources (gold))

• Dacian slaves holding up the roof (roman Victory)

• Shield portraits of imperial family

• Libraries, column, and temple to deified trajan behind Basilica

Column of Trajan, Forum of Trajan in Rome. 

106-113 CE. Column monument.

• Victory monument over Dacian people

• Base: spolia from that war: shields, helmets, contains Trajan’s ashes

• Victory + commemorate engineering feat of excatation and construction of Forum of Trajan

• Reliefs not only depict battles but order, rationalism, administrative work under Trajan

• High reliefs, humans dominate (importance of narrative)

• Trajan traits: virtus (sacrifices), clementia (lets Dacians live), pietas (to Gods)

• Depicts two dacian wars

Pantheon, Campus Martius, Rome. 

110s – 128 CE. Architectural complex – concrete, brick, marble. 

• Marcus Aggripa name on the front, since he was original benefactor, to legitimize Hadrian’s power

• Traditional: Pediment, Corinthian capitals, octostyle

• Inside: Dome, carries load in compression

• Coffers: sunken square shaped panels in a vault

• Niches on wall possible because of relieving brick arches hidden in concrete

• Double pediment on accident 40 foot columns came in