Chapter 6: Roman Art
Key Notes
- Time Period
* Legendary founding of Rome by Romulus and Remus : 753 B.C.E.
* Roman Republic : 509–27 B.C.E.
* Roman Empire : 27 B.C.E.–410 C.E. - Culture, beliefs, and physical settings
* Roman art was produced in the Mediterranean basin from 753 B.C.E. to 337 C.E.
* Roman art can be subdivided into the following periods: Republican, Early Imperial, Late Imperial, and Late Antique.
* Roman culture is rich in written literature: i.e., epics, poetry, dramas. - Art Making
* Roman art reflects influences from other ancient traditions.
* Roman architecture reflects ancient traditions as well as technological innovations. - Cultural Interactions
* There is an active exchange of artistic ideas throughout the Mediterranean.
* Roman works were influenced by Greek objects. In fact, many Hellenistic works survive as Roman copies. - Audience, functions and patron
* Ancient Roman art is influenced by civic responsibility and the polytheism of its religion.
* Roman art first shows republican and then imperial values.
* Roman architecture shows a preference for large public monuments.. - Theories and Interpretations
* The study of art history is shaped by changing analyses based on scholarship, theories, context, and written records.
* Roman art has had an important impact on European art, particularly since the eighteenth century.
* Roman writing contains some of the earliest contemporary accounts about art and artists.
Historical Background
- From hillside village to world power, Rome rose to glory by diplomacy and military might.
* The effects of Roman civilization are still felt today in the fields of law, language, literature, and the fine arts. - According to legend, Romulus and Remus, abandoned twins, were suckled by a she-wolf, and later established the city of Rome on its fabled seven hills.
* At first the state was ruled by kings, who were later overthrown and replaced by a Senate. - The Romans then established a democracy of a sort, with magistrates ruling the country in concert with the Senate, an elected body of privileged Roman men.
* Variously well-executed wars increased Rome’s fortunes and boundaries. - In 211 B.C.E., the Greek colony of Syracuse in Sicily was annexed.
* This was followed, in 146 B.C.E., by the absorption of Greece. - The Romans valued Greek cultural riches and imported boatloads of sculpture, pottery, and jewelry to adorn the capital.
* A general movement took hold to reproduce Greek art by establishing workshops that did little more than make copies of Greek sculpture. - Civil war in the late Republic caused a power vacuum that was filled by Octavian, later called Augustus Caesar, who became emperor in 27 B.C.E.
* From that time, Rome was ruled by a series of emperors as it expanded to faraway Mesopotamia and then retracted to a shadow of itself when it was sacked in 410 C.E. - The single most important archaeological site in the Roman world is the city of Pompeii, which was buried by volcanic ash from Mount Vesuvius in 79 C.E.
* In 1748, systematic excavation—actually more like fortune hunting—was begun.
* Because of Pompeii, we know more about daily life in Rome than we know about any other ancient civilization.
Roman Architecture
- Ashlar Masonry: A technique used where building are built without mortar.
* Carefully cut and grooved stones that support a building without the use of concrete or other kinds of masonry. - Roman architects understood that arches could be extended in space and form a continuous tunnel-like construction called a barrel vault.
- Groin Vault: A larger more open space, formed when two barrel vaults intersect.
- The latter is particularly important because the groin vault could be supported with only four corner piers, rather than requiring a continuous wall space that a barrel vault needed.
* Pier: a vertical support that holds up an arch or a vault - Spandrels: The spaces between the arches on the piers.
- Arches and vaults make enormous buildings possible, like the Colosseum (72–80 C.E.), and they also make feasible vast interior spaces like the Pantheon (118–125 C.E.). Concrete walls are very heavy.
- To prevent the weight of a dome from cracking the walls beneath it, coffers are carved into ceilings to lighten the load.
* Coffer: in architecture, a sunken panel in a ceiling - The Romans used concrete in constructing many of their oversized buildings.
- Much is known about Roman domestic architecture, principally because of what has been excavated at Pompeii.
* The exteriors of Roman houses have few windows, keeping the world at bay.
* A single entrance is usually flanked by stores which face the street.
* Stepping through the doorway one enters an open-air courtyard called an atrium, which has an impluvium to capture rainwater.
* Impluvium: a rectangular basin in a Roman house that is placed in the open-air atrium in order to collect rainwater
* Private bedrooms, called cubicula, radiate around the atrium.
* Cubiculum: a Roman bedroom flanking an atrium; in Early Christian art, a mortuary chapel in a catacomb
* The atrium provides the only light and air to these windowless, but beautifully decorated, rooms.
* Atrium (plural: atria): a courtyard in a Roman house or before a Christian church - The Romans placed their intimate rooms deeper into the house. Eventually another atrium, perhaps held up by columns called a peristyle, provided access to a garden flanked by more cubicula.
- The center of the Roman business world was the forum, a large public square framed by the principal civic buildings.
- Composite columns first seen in the Arch of Titus have a mix of Ionic (the volute) and Corinthian (the leaf) motifs in the capitals.
* Composite column: one that contains a combination of volutes from the Ionic order and acanthus leaves from the Corinthian order - Tuscan columns as seen on the Colosseum are unfluted with severe Doric-style capitals
- Keystone: the center stone of an arch that holds the others in place
➼ House of Vettii
- Details
* From Imperial Roman,
* 2nd century B.C.E.–1st century C.E.
* Rebuilt c. 67–79 C.E.
* Made of cut stone and fresco
* Found in Pompeii, Italy - Form
* Narrow entrance to the home sandwiched between several shops.
* Large reception area called the atrium, which is open to the sky and has a catch basin called an impluvium in the center; rooms called cubicula radiate around the atrium.
* Peristyle garden in rear with fountain, statuary, and more cubicula; this is the private area of the house.
* Axial symmetry of house; someone entering the house can see through to the peristyle garden in the rear.
* Exterior of house lacks windows; interior lighting comes from the atrium and the peristyle. - Function
* Private citizen’s home in Pompeii
* Originally built during the Republic with early imperial additions. - Context
* Two brothers owned the house; both were freedmen who made their money as merchants.
* Extravagant home symbolized the owners’ wealth.
* After the earthquake of 62 A.D., many wealthy Romans left Pompeii, leading to the rise of the “nouveau riche.” - Image
➼ The Colosseum (Flavian Amphitheater)
- Details
* Imperial Roman
* 72–80 C.E.
* Made of stone and concrete
* Found in Rome - Function
* Stadium meant for wild and dangerous spectacles—gladiator combat, animal hunts, naval battles—but not, as tradition suggests, religious persecution. - Form
* Accommodated 50,000 spectators.
* Concrete core, brick casing, travertine facing.
* 76 entrances and exits circle the façade.
* Interplay of barrel vaults, groin vaults, arches.
* Façade has engaged columns
* first story is Tuscan,
* second story is Ionic,
* third story is Corinthian, and
* the top story is flattened Corinthian; each thought of as lighter than the order below.
* 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.
* Sand was placed on the floor to absorb the blood; occasionally the sand was dyed red.
* Hypogeum: The subterranean part of an ancient building. - Context
* Real name is the Flavian Amphitheater; the name Colosseum comes from a colossal statue of Nero that used to be adjacent.
* The building illustrates what popular entertainment was like for ancient Romans.
* Entrances and staircases were separated by marble and iron railings to keep the social classes separate; women and the lower classes sat at the top level.
* Much of the marble was pulled off in the Middle Ages and repurposed. - Images
Content Area for Petra: West and Central Asia
➼ Treasury and Great Temple of Petra, Jordan
- Details
* Nabataean Ptolemaic and Roman
* c. 400 B.C.E.–100 C.E.
* Made of cut rock
* Found in Jordan - Context
* Petra was a central city of the Nabataeans, a nomadic people, until Roman occupation in 106 C.E.
* The city was built along a caravan route.
* They buried their dead in the tombs cut out of the sandstone cliffs.
* Five hundred royal tombs in the rock, but no human remains found; burial practices are unknown; tombs are small.
* The city is half built, half carved out of rock. –The city is protected by a narrow canyon entrance.
* The Roman emperor Hadrian visited the site and named it after himself: Hadriane Petra. - Content
* Approached through a monumental gateway, called a propylaeum, and a grand staircase that leads to a colonnade terrace in the lower precincts.
* A second staircase leads to the upper precincts.
* A third staircase leads to the main temple. - Form
* Nabataean concept and Roman features such as Corinthian columns.
* Monuments carved in traditional Nabataean rock-cut cliff walls.
* Lower story influenced by Greek and Roman temples but with unusual features:
* Columns not proportionally spaced.
* Pediment does not cover all columns, only the central four.
* Upper floor: broken pediment with a central tholos.
* Combination of Roman and indigenous traditions.
* Greek, Egyptian, and Assyrian gods on the façade.
* Interior: one central chamber with two flanking smaller rooms. - Function: In reality, it was a tomb, not a “treasury,” as the name implies.
- Images
➼ Forum of Trajan
- Details
* By Apollodorus of Damascus
* 106–112 C.E.
* Made of brick and concrete
* Found in Rome, Italy - Form
* Large central plaza flanked by stoa-like buildings on each side.
* Originally held an equestrian monument dedicated to Trajan in the center. - Function: Part of a complex that included the Basilica of Ulpia, Trajan’s markets, and the Column of Trajan.
- Context: Built with booty collected from Trajan’s victory over the Dacians.
- Image
➼ Basilica of Ulpia
- Details
* c. 112 C.E.
* Made of brick and concrete
* Found in Rome, Italy
* Basilica: in Roman architecture, a large axially planned building with a nave, side aisles, and apses - Form
* Grand interior space (385 feet by 182 feet) with two apses.
* Nave is spacious and wide.
* Double colonnaded side aisles.
* Second floor had galleries or perhaps clerestory windows.
* Timber roof 80 feet across.
* Basilican structure can be traced back to Greek stoas. - Functional: Law courts held here; apses were a setting for judges.
- Context
* Said to have been paid for by Trajan’s spoils taken from the defeat of the Dacians.
* Ulpius was Trajan’s family name. - Image
➼ Trajan Markets
- Details
* 106–112 C.E.
* Made of brick and concrete
* Found in Rome, Italy - Form
* Semicircular building held several levels of shops.
* Main space is groin vaulted; barrel vaulted area with the shops. - Function
* Multilevel mall.
* Original market had 150 shops. - Materials: Use of exposed brick indicates a more accepted view of this material, which formerly was thought of as being unsuited to grand public buildings.
- Image
➼ Pantheon
- Details
* Imperial Roman
* 118–125 C.E.
* Made of concrete with stone facing
* Found Rome, Italy - Form Exterior
* Corinthian-capital porch in front of this building.
* Façade has two pediments, one deeply recessed behind the other; it is difficult to see the second pediment from the street. - Form Interior
* Interior contains a slightly convex floor for water drainage.
* Square panels on floor and in coffers contrast with roundness of walls; circles and squares are a unifying theme.
* Coffers may have been filled with rosette designs to simulate stars.
* Cupola walls are enormously thick: 20 feet at base.
* Cupola: a small dome rising over the roof of a building; in architecture, a cupola is achieved by rotating an arch on its axis
* Thickness of walls is thinned at the top; coffers take some weight pressure off the walls.
* Oculus, 27 feet across, allows for air and sunlight; sun moves across the interior much like a spotlight.
* Oculus: a circular window in a church, or a round opening at the top of a dome
* Height of the building equals its width; the building is based on the circle; a hemisphere.
* Walls have seven niches for statues of the gods.
* Triumph of concrete construction.
* Was originally brilliantly decorated. - Function
* Traditional interpretation: it was built as a Roman temple dedicated to all the gods.
* Recent interpretation: 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. - Context
* Inscription on the façade: “Marcus Agrippa, son of Lucius, having been consul three times, built it.”
* The name Pantheon is from the Greek meaning “all the gods” or “common to all the gods.”
* Originally had a large atrium before it; originally built on a high podium; modern Rome has risen up to that level.
* Interior symbolized the vault of the heavens. - Images
Roman Painting
- Interior wall paintings, created to liven up generally windowless Roman cubicula, were frescoed with mythological scenes, landscapes, and city plazas.
* 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
* Mosaics were favorite floor decorations—stone kept feet cool in summer.
* Encaustics from Egypt provided lively individual portraits of the deceased.
* Encaustic: an ancient method of painting that uses colored waxes burned into a wooden surface - Murals were painted with some knowledge of linear perspective—spatial relationships in landscape paintings appeared somewhat consistent.
* Perspective: depth and recession in a painting or a relief sculpture. - Orthogonals recede to multiple vanishing points in the distance.
- Sometimes, to present an object in the far distance, an artist used atmospheric perspective, a technique that employs cool pastel colors to create the illusion of deep recession.
- Figures were painted in foreshortening, where they are seen at an oblique angle and seem to recede into space.
* 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 - So much Pompeian wall painting survives that an early history of Roman painting can be reconstructed.
* 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.
* Fourth Pompeian Style combines elements from the previous three:
* The painted marble of the First Style is at the base;
* the large scenes of the Second Style and
* the delicate small scenes of the Third Style are intricately interwoven.
* The frescos from the Pentheus Room are from the Fourth Style.
➼ Pentheus Room
- Details
* Imperial Roman
* 62–79 C.E.
* fresco
* Foun in Pompeii, Italy - Function
* Triclinium: a dining room in a Roman house. - Context
* Main scene is the death of the Greek hero Pentheus.
* Pentheus opposed the cult of Bacchus and was torn to pieces by women, including his mother, in a Bacchic frenzy; two women are pulling at his hair in this image.
* Punishment of Pentheus is eroticized; central figure with arms outstretched; exposed nakedness of his body.
* Architecture is seen through painted windows; imaginary landscape.
* This painting opens the room with the illusion of windows and a sunny cityscape beyond. - Image
Roman Sculpture
- The instructional program included painted relief and freestanding sculptures. Later arches utilized current art with statues from two-hundred-year-old emperors.
- The Column of Trajan (112 C.E.), had an entrance at the base, from which the visitor could ascend a spiral staircase and emerge onto a porch, where Trajan’s architectural accomplishments would be revealed in all their glory.
* A statue of the emperor, which no longer exists, crowned the ensemble.
* The banded reliefs tell the story of Trajan’s conquest of the Dacians.
* The spiraling turn of the narratives made the story difficult to read; scholars have suggested a number of theories that would have made this column, and works like it, legible to the viewer. - Republican Sculpture
* Republican busts of noblemen, called veristic sculptures, are strikingly and unflatteringly realistic, with the age of the sitter seemingly enhanced.
* 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
* Republican full-length statues concentrate on the heads, some of which are removed from one work and placed on another.
* The bodies were occasionally classically idealized, symbolizing valor and strength. - Imperial Sculpture
* Emperors, who were divine, were shown differently than senators. The contrapposto, perfect proportions, and heroic attitudes of Greek statues inspired
* Contrapposto: a graceful arrangement of the body based on tilted shoulders and hips and bent knees
* Roman artists. Forms become less individualistic, iconography more heavenly.
* At the end of the Early Imperial period, a stylistic shift begins to take place that transitions into the Late Imperial style.
* Compositions are marked by figures that lack individuality and are crowded tightly together.
* Everything is pushed forward on the picture plane, as depth and recession were rejected along with the classicism they symbolize.
* Proportions are truncated—contrapposto ignored; bodies are almost lifeless behind masking drapery.
* Emperors are increasingly represented as military figures rather than civilian rulers.
➼ Head of a Roman Patrician
- Details
* Republican Roman
* c. 75–50 B.C.E.
* Made of marble
* Found in Museo Torlonia, Rome - Function
* Funerary context; funerary altars adorned with portraits, busts, or reliefs and cinerary urns.
* Tradition of wax portrait masks in funeral processions of the upper class to commemorate their history.
* Portraits housed in family shrines honoring deceased relatives. - Context
* Realism of the portrayal shows the influence of Greek Hellenistic art and late Etruscan art.
* Bulldog-like tenacity of features; overhanging flesh; deep crevices in face.
* Full of experience and wisdom—traits Roman patricians would have desired.
* Features may have been exaggerated by the artist to enhance adherence to Roman Republican virtues such as stoicism, determination, and foresight.
* Busts are mostly of men, often depicted as elderly. - Image
➼ Augustus of Prima Porta
- Details
* Imperial Roman
* Early 1st century C.E.
* Made of marble
* Found in Vatican Museums, Rome - Form
* Contrapposto.
* References Polykleitos’s Doryphoros.
* Characteristic of works depicting Augustus is the part in the hair over the left eye and two locks over the right.
* Heroic, grand, authoritative ruler; over life-size scale.
* Back not carved; figure meant to be placed against a wall.
* Oratorical pose. - Function and Original Context
* Found in the villa of Livia, Augustus’s wife; may have been sculpted to honor him in his lifetime or after his death (Augustus is barefoot like a god, not wearing military boots).
* May have been commissioned by Emperor Tiberius, Livia’s son, whose diplomacy helped secure the return of the eagles; thus it would serve as a commemoration of Augustus and the reign of Tiberius. - Content
* Idealized view of the Roman emperor, not an individualized portrait.
* Confusion between God and man is intentional; in contrast with Roman Republican portraits.
* Standing barefoot indicates he is on sacred ground.
* On his breastplate are a number of gods participating in the return of Roman standards from the Parthians; Pax Romana.
* Breastplate indicates he is a warrior; judges’ robes show him as a civic ruler.
* He may have carried a sword, pointing down, in his left hand.
* His right hand is in a Roman orator pose; perhaps it held laurel branches.
* At base: Cupid on the back of a dolphin—a reference to Augustus’s divine descent from Venus; perhaps also a symbol of Augustus’s naval victory over Mark Antony and Cleopatra.
* Maybe a copy of a bronze original, which probably did not have the image of Cupid. - Image
➼ Column of Trajan
- Details
* 113 C.E.
* Made of marble
* Found in Rome - Form
* A 625-foot narrative cycle (128 feet high) wrapped around the column tells the story of Trajan’s defeat of the Dacians; this is the earliest example of this kind of structure.
* Crowded composition.
* Base of the column has an oak wreath, the symbol of victory.
* Low relief; few shadows to cloud what must have been a very difficult object to view in its entirety. - Function
* Visitors who entered the column were meant to wander up the interior spiral staircase to the viewing platform at the top where a heroic nude statue of the emperor was placed.
* Base contains the burial chamber of Trajan and his wife, Plotina, whose ashes were placed in golden urns in the pedestal. - Technique: Roman invention of a tall hollowed out column with an interior spiral staircase.
- Content
* 150 episodes, 2,662 figures, 23 registers—continuous narrative.
* Continuous narrative: a work of art that contains several scenes of the same story painted or sculpted in continuous succession
* Scenes on the column depict the preparation for battle, key moments in the Dacian campaign, and many scenes of everyday life
* Trajan appears 58 times in various roles: commander, statesman, ruler, etc. - Context
* Stood in Trajan’s Forum at the far end surrounded by buildings.
* Scholarly debate over the way it was meant to be viewed.
* A viewer would be impressed with Trajan’s accomplishments, including his forum and his markets.
* Two Roman libraries containing Greek and Roman manuscripts flanked the column. - Image
➼ Ludovisi Battle Sarcophagus
- Details
* Late Imperial Roman
* c. 250 C.E.
* Made of marble
* Found in National Roman Museum, Rome - Form
* Extremely crowded surface with figures piled atop one another; horror vacui.
* Abandonment of classical tradition in favor of a more animated and crowded space.
* 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
* Figures lack individuality. - Function: Interment of the dead; rich carving suggests a wealthy patron with a military background.
- Technique
* Very deep relief with layers of figures.
* Complexity of composition with deeply carved undercutting. - Content
* Roman army trounces bearded and defeated barbarians.
* Romans appear noble and heroic while the Goths are ugly.
* Romans battling “barbaric” Goths in the Late Imperial period.
* Youthful Roman general appears center top with no weapons, the only Roman with no helmet, indicating that he is invincible and needs no protection; he controls a wild horse with a simple gesture. - Context
* Confusion of battle is suggested by congested composition.
* Rome at war throughout the third century.
* So called because in the seventeenth century it was in Cardinal Ludovisi’s collection in Rome. - Image
