Two Works of Roman Art That Share the Same Theme

Roman Art and Architecture

Revd Professor Martin Henig MA, DPhil, DLitt, FSA; Member, Kinesthesia of Classics, University of Oxford, and Honorary Visiting Professor at the Institute of Archaeology, Academy College London

View from Coliseum showing Curvation of Constantine, Palatine Hill, Arch of Titus, Nero's Temple, etc., Rome (Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Sectionalisation); photo credit: Moffett Studio, 1909

The Romans originated in central Italy, influenced by other local Italian cultures, notably those of Etruria, simply from the 5th century they came into contact with the Greeks and from then onwards, the Roman commonwealth captivated many aspects of first Classical and then Hellenistic art. However it never lost its distinctive character, especially notable in such fields as architecture, portraiture, and historical relief. From about the 1st century BC, the rapid expansion of the Roman Empire brought Graeco-Roman fine art to many parts of Europe, Northward Africa and nearer Asia assuasive the evolution of myriad provincial arts, ranging eventually from Northern Uk to the Sahara and from Spain to Arabia.

The architectural legacy of Rome is especially widespread. Across the traditional nature of the Roman temple, characterised by its high podium with prominent entrance at i end simply, Roman compages is characterised by its fix adoption of Hellenistic planning and a daring use of new materials, such as brick and especially concrete leading to the stupendous structures such as the slap-up Thermae of Rome and indeed in the provinces, the Pantheon in Rome, and ultimately Justinian's church of Sancta Sophia in Constantinople.

Marble portrait of the emperor Caracalla, marble, h. 362 mm, Roman, c. 212–217 AD (New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Samuel D. Lee Fund, 1940, Accession ID: xl.11.1a); image © The Metropolitan Museum of Fine art

A key attribute of Roman public art was the commemoration of important individuals, and the later Republic is a catamenia of hit portraits of leading Romans, partly following native veristic traditions of portraiture and partly influenced by Hellenistic interest in physiognomy. Under the Empire, portrait busts of ancestors—as well as of the now all-powerful emperors—graced buildings both public and private. Copies and adaptations of famous Greek sculptures were also numerous in houses, temples, baths, and theatres, and they were designed to provide a frisson of culture to what were advised and sometimes vulgar displays of power and wealth. Under the Empire in particular, reliefs depicting the achievements of the Emperors graced commemorative arches (such every bit the Arch of Titus) and columns (notably Trajan's Column), providing a sort of visual counterpart to the literary accounts of historians. These aspects of commemoration can be seen on a miniature scale on the plentiful and cute Roman coinage, where many of the all-time portraits tin be seen, as well as a wide range of imagery, both divine and documentary.

Correct: Didrachm of Rome, silver, 7.41 gm, vii:00, 18.5 mm, Roman, c. 300–280 BC (New Haven: Yale University Fine art Gallery, Ruth Elizabeth White Fund, accretion ID 2011.eighty.1); image © Yale Academy Art Gallery. Left: Sarcophagus depicting the triumph of Dionysos and the seasons, Phrygian marble, overall: 34 ten 85 x 36 1/4 in. (86.4 x 215.ix x 92.1 cm), ca. Advertizement 260–270 (New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Purchase, Joseph Pulitzer Heritance, 1955, Accession ID:55.11.five); photograph © The Metropolitan Museum of Fine art

Much of the most distinctive sculpture of the Roman period is plant on the peripheries of the Empire where native sculptors worked local limestones and sandstones in what approximated to Metropolitan Roman style. The sculpture produced in the Trier region and elsewhere in Northern Gaul and in the Cotswold region of Britain is lively and uninhibited, characterised by a pleasing fluidity of style which is paralleled by work of a not different quality produced by sculptors who employed the same soft and malleable stones in the Middle Ages. Similarly rich in texture but more than hieratic in form are the funerary and religious sculptures from Palmyra in Syrian arab republic. Especially distinctive are portraits of women and men conspicuously wearing native, non-Roman clothes.

Right: Wall painting from Room F of the Villa of P. Fannius Synistor at Boscoreale, fresco, 73 ane/2 x 73 ane/2in. (186.7 x 186.7cm) , Roman, Tardily Republican, c. 50–40 B.C. (New York, Metropolitan Museum of Fine art, Rogers Fund, 1903, Accession ID: 03.fourteen.5); paradigm © The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Left: Wall painting from Room F of the Villa of P. Fannius Synistor at Boscoreale, fresco, h. 76 in. (193.04 cm.) width 44-3/4 in. (113.7 cm.), Roman, Late Republican, c. 50–40 B.C. (New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rogers Fund, 1903, Accession ID: 03.14.12); epitome © The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Roman interiors were lavishly painted and stuccoed. For the 1st century BC and 1st century Advert, the largest trunk of prove comes from the Campanian cities and suburban villas destroyed by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in AD 79 (for example, Pompeii and Herculaneum). Four 'styles' have been distinguished, the beginning based on rendering panels of coloured marble in painted imitation, the 2d opening up the wall to illusionistic mythological or landscape painting, and the later styles adding more decorative and imaginative motifs to emphasise the bamboozlement of the projection. In fact the commencement 2 styles in particular were taken from the Hellenistic earth, as tin be shown by comparing Campanian work with paintings from Hellenistic palaces and tombs. Nevertheless, when taken individually, such exquisite works of art equally the garden paintings from Livia's house at Prima Porta outside Rome and the fantasy conceits which ornamented Nero's Golden Business firm bear witness considerable originality. Moreover, painting continued to develop in the Mediterranean earth and in the provinces, where archaeology continues to increase our knowledge of after Roman painting. Paintings from the Roman catacombs (Christian, Jewish and infidel), the Constantinian ceiling paintings from Trier, and the row of Christian praying figures (orantes) from the villa at Lullingstone, Kent in England demonstrate a trend for figurative paintings to go more formal and anticipatory of Byzantine icons.

Mosaic Fragment with a Dionysiac Procession, mosaic: limestone and glass tesserae, late 2d–early on 3rd century AD, 67.three ten 67.nine cm (New Oasis: Yale University Fine art Gallery, Ruth Elizabeth White Fund, accession ID 2004.2.2); image © Yale University Art Gallery

Mosaics are oft regarded as quintessentially Roman, but they too originated in Hellenic republic and especially the Hellenistic globe. Many Roman mosaics are geometric in the mode of rugs and carpets, but a vast range of figurative subjects were produced, ranging from mythological and religious scenes to landscape and marine mosaics to scenes of gladiatorial combat and wild beast fights. Different styles and workshops and differences in repertoire are recognisable throughout the Empire. In North Africa for case nosotros find many realistic representations of the Roman arena, while in Greece and Great britain such scenes are largely eschewed in favour of mythology. The early 4th century mosaic of the Great Hunt at Piazza Armerina in Sicily is a technically superb mosaic depicting trigger-happy conflict between beast and beast and homo and man, while the gimmicky and as imposing mosaic at Woodchester, Gloucestershire, England is far more vibrant in terms of design and in the imaginative stylisation of animals which circle peacefully effectually Orpheus but perhaps lacks the technical finesse of the Sicilian mosaic.

The so-called small-scale arts were of great importance in the highly acquisitive Roman society. The rich vied with each other in displays of gilded jewellery and services of silvery plate, which became ever more impressive in the late Roman flow. Engraved gems were acquired from the known world, including sapphires and emeralds from Republic of india, rock crystal from the Alps, and amber from the Baltic. Hard stones were carved as intaglios to serve as seals or as cameos. Some of these were signed by famous artists such as Dioskourides, who is known to have carved the emperor Augustus' signet band. Softer stones such as amber and fluorspar were fashioned into the course of small vessels.

Right: Chugalug with coins from Constas to Theodosius I, gold, enamel, sapphire, emerald, garnet, and glass, Roman Empire, c. 385-400 AD, length. 79.1 cm (The J. Paul Getty Museum, object number 83.AM.224) Digital image courtesy of the Getty'south Open Content Program. Left: Spouted Jar with Satyr Heads, gilded silverish, Roman Empire, c. 4th - 5th century AD, H: 37.9 x Diam.: 27.5 cm (The J. Paul Getty Museum, object number 92.AM.12) Digital image courtesy of the Getty's Open up Content Program/font>

The range of Roman art is vast, and its multifariousness renders information technology hard to classify. But its influence on the arts of the Renaissance and the Neo-Classical age and thus of our own time renders it strangely familiar to usa in most if non all its aspects.

Further reading in Grove

Subject essays

Ancient Rome

• Introduction
• Architecture
• Planning
• Sculpture
• Painting
• Mosaics
• Stucco
• Glass
• Metalwork
• Other arts
• Collections, museums, and exhibitions

Rome

• Forum Romanum
• Imperial Fora
• Palatine
• Ara Pacis
• Domus Aurea
• Colosseum
• Trajan's Column
• Pantheon
• Castel Sant'Angelo
• Baths of Caracalla
• Basilica of Maxentius
• Arch of Constantine
• Catacombs
• Villa of Maxentius

• Architectural Orders
• Aboriginal Near Eastward
• Baths: Ancient Hellenic republic and Rome
• Bosom: Ancient Origins
• Classical Dress: Rome
• Concrete: Aboriginal
• Dome, History: Origins
• Early on Christian and Byzantine Art
• Façade Decoration, Sculpture: Ancient Hellenic republic and Ancient Rome
• Gardens: Ancient Rome
• Jewel Engraving: Roman
• Herculaneum
• Istanbul
• Italy
• Landscape Painting: Classical
• Laokoon
• Belatedly Antiquity
• Military Architecture and Fortification: Rome
• Mosaic: Aboriginal Rome
• Narrative Art: Greece and Rome
• Ornament and Pattern: Ancient Rome
• Palace: Rome
• Pediment: Rome
• Pompeii
• Relief sculpture: Ancient Rome
• Sarcophagus: Roman Empire
• Stele: Greece and Rome
• Withal-life: Classical World
• Temple: Rome
• Theatre, Classical World: Rome
• Tomb: Italy and the Roman Empire
• Triumphal Arch: Rome
• Villa: Roman

Biographies

Rulers and Patrons

• Augustus
• Agrippa
• Tiberius
• Claudius
• Nero
• Titus
• Domitian
• Trajan
• Hadrian
• Antinous
• Antoninus Pius
• Marcus Aurelius
• Septimius Severus
• Diocletian
• Constantine the Great
• Theodosios I
• Galla Placidia
• Julius Caesar
• Justinian I

Artists, Architects, and Writers

• Apollodoros of Damascus
• Arkesilaos
• Cicero
• Cossutius
• Dioskourides
• Hagesandros, Polydoros and Athenodoros
• Pasiteles
• Pliny
• Plutarch
• Rabirius
• Vitruvius

Net resources

Find more images and information through these links, selected by the author and Oxford Art Online editors.

General resource

• Greek and Roman Fine art in the Ancient Globe [thematic essays in the Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History]
• Smarthistory: Ancient Rome [online educational resource with essays and multimedia content on ancient Rome]
• Art and Archaeology in the Perseus Digital Library [primary and secondary sources for the study of ancient Greece and Rome catalogue, including catalogue of objects, sites, and buildings]
• Digital Roman Forum [digital model of the Roman Forum as it appeared in tardily antiquity created by the UCLA Cultural Virtual Reality Laboratory]
• Rome Reborn [3D digital models illustrating the urban evolution of Ancient Rome]
• Sample programme of a Roman House [floor programme created by Barbara F. McManus]
• Ara Pacis Augustae [comprehensive body of images of the Ara Pacis]
• LacusCurtius [site on Roman antiquity, including source texts and secondary literature]
• IMAGO [the Roman Club's online image depository financial institution developed from the slide collection at the Order's library]

Select journals bachelor online

• Journal of Roman Archaeology
• Journal of Roman Studies
• Periodical of Hellenic Studies
• American Journal of Archæology

Select museum collections online

• The British Museum
• The Louvre
• The State Hermitage Museum
• Metropolitan Museum of Art
• Cleveland Museum of Fine art
• Walters Art Museum
• The Brooklyn Museum
• University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archæology and Anthropology
• J. Paul Getty Museum
• Roman museums in the Google Art Project

Back to all Subject Guides

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Source: https://www.oxfordartonline.com/page/roman-art-and-architecture

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