Content Areas: Ancient Mediterranean, 3500 B.C.E.–300 C.E.
Petra: West and Central Asia, 500 B.C.E.–1980 C.E.
TIME PERIOD: 753 B.C.E.–FIFTH CENTURY C.E.
| 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. |
ENDURING UNDERSTANDING: The culture, beliefs, and physical settings of a region play an important role in the creation, subject matter, and siting of works of art.
Learning Objective: Discuss how the culture, beliefs, or physical setting can influence the making of a work of art. (For example: the Pantheon)
Essential Knowledge:
■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.
ENDURING UNDERSTANDING: Art making is influenced by available materials and processes.
Learning Objective: Discuss how material, processes, and techniques influence the making of a work of art. (For example: the Colosseum)
Essential Knowledge:
■Roman art reflects influences from other ancient traditions.
■Roman architecture reflects ancient traditions as well as technological innovations.
ENDURING UNDERSTANDING: Cultural interaction through war, trade, and travel can influence art and art making.
Learning Objective: Discuss how works of art are influenced by cultural interaction. (For example: Augustus of Prima Porta)
Essential Knowledge:
■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.
ENDURING UNDERSTANDING: Art and art making can be influenced by a variety of concerns including audience, function, and patron.
Learning Objective: Discuss how art can be influenced by audience, function, and/or patron. (For example: Head of a Roman patrician)
Essential Knowledge:
■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.
ENDURING UNDERSTANDING: Art history is best understood through an evolving tradition of theories and interpretations.
Learning Objective: Discuss how works of art have had an evolving interpretation based on visual analysis and interdisciplinary evidence. (For example: Pentheus Room)
Essential Knowledge:
■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. Moreover, 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.
Patronage and Artistic Life
The Roman state and its wealthiest individuals were the major patrons of the arts. They could be known to spend lavishly on themselves and their homes, but they also felt a dedication to the general good and generously patronized public projects as well.
The homes of wealthy Romans, such as the ones that survive at Pompeii, were stage sets in which the influential could demonstrate their power and privilege. Elaborate social rituals inspired Romans to build their houses in order to impress and entertain. Consequently, Romans designed lavishly appointed interiors containing everything from finely executed fresco paintings to marble plumbing fixtures. Thus the interiors were grand domestic spaces that announced the importance of the owner. Artists, considered low members of the social scale, were treated poorly. Many were slaves who toiled in anonymity.
ROMAN ARCHITECTURE
The Romans were master builders. Improving upon nascent architectural techniques, they forged great roads and massive aqueducts as an efficient way of connecting their empire and making cities livable. Their temples were hymns to the gods and symbols of civic pride. Their arenas awed spectators both by their size and their engineering genius.
Figure 6.1: Barrel vault
The Romans understood the possibilities of the arch, an architectural device known before but little used. Because arches could span huge spaces, they do not need the constant support of the post-and-lintel system. Each wedge-shaped stone of a Roman arch is smaller at the bottom and wider at the top. This seemingly simple development allowed a stable arch to stand indefinitely because the wider top could not pass through the narrower bottom. Mortar is not needed because the shape of stones in the arch supports the structure unaided. Buildings without mortar are built in a technique known as ashlar masonry.
Roman architects understood that arches could be extended in space and form a continuous tunnel-like construction called a barrel vault (Figure 6.1). When two barrel vaults intersect, a larger, more open space is formed, called a groin vault (Figure 6.2). 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 (Figure 6.3). The spaces between the arches on the piers are called spandrels (Figure 6.4).
Figure 6.2: Groin vault
Arches and vaults make enormous buildings possible, like the Colosseum (72–80 C.E.) (Figure 6.8), and they also make feasible vast interior spaces like the Pantheon (118–125 C.E.) (Figures 6.11a and 6.11b). Concrete walls are very heavy. To prevent the weight of a dome from cracking the walls beneath it, coffers (Figure 6.5) are carved into ceilings to lighten the load.
Figure 6.3: Piers
Figure 6.4: Spandrels are in the light areas
The Romans used concrete in constructing many of their oversized buildings. Although not their invention, once again they made this technique workable, using it initially as filler in buildings and then as the main support element. Romans thought that concrete was aesthetically displeasing, so although its flexibility and low cost were desirable, concrete was cloaked with another material, like marble, which seemed more attractive.
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. Private bedrooms, called cubicula, radiate around the atrium. The atrium provides the only light and air to these windowless, but beautifully decorated, rooms.
Figure 6.5: Coffers
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.
Grander Roman buildings, such as the Colosseum (Figures 6.8a and 6.8b) and the Pantheon (Figure 6.11) use concrete, arches, and the various kinds of vaulting techniques to achieve grand and spacious effects.
The center of the Roman business world was the forum, a large public square framed by the principal civic buildings. The gods needed to be worshipped and appeased; therefore, the focus of all fora is the temple dedicated to the locally favorite god. Around the sides of the forum are bath houses, markets, and administrative buildings dealing with life’s everyday essentials.
Figure 6.6: Composite capital
Although the Romans sometimes use Greek and Etruscan columns in their architecture, they are just as likely to use adapted forms that were inspired by their earlier counterparts. Composite columns first seen in the Arch of Titus have a mix of Ionic (the volute) and Corinthian (the leaf) motifs in the capitals. Tuscan columns as seen on the Colosseum are unfluted with severe Doric-style capitals (Figure 5.2). Both columns are raised on large pedestals to diminish the size of the viewers and increasing their sense of awe.
Greek architecture remained a strong influence throughout Roman history. It was common for Roman temples to be fronted by Greek porches of columns and pediments, as in the Pantheon, even if the core of the building was completely Roman with its yawning domed interior.
House of the Vettii, Imperial Roman, 2nd century B.C.E.–1st century C.E., rebuilt c. 67–79 C.E., cut stone and fresco, Pompeii, Italy (Figures 6.7a and 6.7b)
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.
Figure 6.7a: Atrium, House of the Vettii, Imperial Roman, 2nd century B.C.E.–1st century C.E., rebuilt c. 67–79 C.E., cut stone and fresco, Pompeii, Italy
Function
■Private citizen’s home in Pompeii, originally built during the Republic with early imperial additions.
Figure 6.7b: House of the Vettii plan
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.”
■See Pentheus Room (Figure 6.13).
Content Area Ancient Mediterranean, Image 39
Web Source http://web.mit.edu/course/21/21h.405/www/vettii/sources.html
■Cross-Cultural Comparisons for Essay Question 1: Domestic Spaces
–Wright, Fallingwater (Figure 22.16a)
–Venturi, House in New Castle County (Figure 22.27a)
–Alberti, Palazzo Rucellai (Figure 15.2)
The Colosseum (Flavian Amphitheater), Imperial Roman, 72–80 C.E., stone and concrete, Rome (Figures 6.8a and 6.8b)
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.
■Above the squared windows at the top level are small brackets meant to hold flagstaffs; these staffs are the anchors for a retractable canvas roof, called a velarium, used to protect the crowd on hot days.
■Sand (hence the term: arena) was placed on the floor to absorb the blood; occasionally the sand was dyed red.
■Hypogeum, the subterranean part of an ancient building, can be seen in Figure 6.8b.
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.
Content Area Ancient Mediterranean, Image 44
Web Source http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/romans/colosseum_01.shtml
Figure 6.8a: The Colosseum (Flavian Amphitheater), Imperial Roman, 72–80 C.E., stone and concrete, Rome
Figure 6.8b: The Colosseum, aerial view
■Cross-Cultural Comparisons for Essay Question 1: Civic Spaces
–Hadid, MAXXI (Figures 29.2a, 29.2b)
–Athenian Agora (Figure 4.15)
–Mies van der Rohe, Seagram Building (Figure 22.18)
CONTENT AREA FOR PETRA: WEST AND CENTRAL ASIA
Most art history texts place Petra in the Roman period. The College Board, however, puts Petra in a content area called West and Central Asia.
Treasury and Great Temple of Petra, Jordan, Nabataean Ptolemaic and Roman, c. 400 B.C.E.–100 C.E., cut rock, Jordan (Figures 6.9a, 6.9b, and 6.9c)
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 Area West and Central Asia, Image 181
Figure 6.9a: Petra, 400 B.C.E.–100 C.E., cut rock, Jordan
■Cross-Cultural Comparisons for Essay Question 1: City Planning
–Forum of Trajan (Figures 6.10a, 6.10b, 6.10c)
–Persepolis (Figures 2.6a, 2.6b)
–Hadid, MAXXI (Figures 29.2a, 29.2b)
Great Temple of Petra, Jordan
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.
Figure 6.9b: Treasury at Petra, Nabataean Ptolemaic and Roman, early 2nd century, cut rock, Jordan
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.
Figure 6.9c: Great Temple, at Petra, Nabataean Ptolemaic and Roman, early 2nd century, cut rock, Jordan
Function
■In reality, it was a tomb, not a “treasury,” as the name implies.
Content Area West and Central Asia, Image 181
Web Source http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/326/
Apollodorus of Damascus, Forum of Trajan, 106–112 C.E., brick and concrete, Rome, Italy (Figure 6.10a)
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 (Figure 6.10b), Trajan’s markets (Figure 6.10c), and the Column of Trajan (Figure 6.16).
Context
■Built with booty collected from Trajan’s victory over the Dacians.
Content Area Ancient Mediterranean, Image 45
Web Source https://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/imperialfora/trajan/forumtrajani.html
Figure 6.10a: Apollodorus of Damascus, Forum of Trajan, 106–112 C.E., brick and concrete, Rome, Italy
Figure 6.10b: Apollodorus of Damascus, Basilica of Ulpia, c. 112 C.E., brick and concrete, Rome, Italy
Apollodorus of Damascus, Basilica of Ulpia, c. 112 C.E., brick and concrete, Rome, Italy (Figure 6.10b)
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.
Function
■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.
Content Area Ancient Mediterranean, Image 45
Web Source http://archive1.village.virginia.edu/spw4s/RomanForum/GoogleEarth/AK_GE/AK_HTML/CB-007.html
■Cross-Cultural Comparisons for Essay Question 1: Buildings with a Central Nave
–Santa Sabina (Figure 7.3b)
–Hall of Mirrors (Figure 17.3d)
–Westminster Hall (Figure 12.5)
Figure 6.10c: Trajan Markets, 100–112 C.E., brick and concrete, Rome, Italy
Trajan Markets, 106–112 C.E., brick and concrete, Rome, Italy (Figure 6.10c)
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.
Content Area Ancient Mediterranean, Image 45
Web Source http://www.history.com/topics/ancient-history/ancient-rome/videos/trajan-market
■Cross-Cultural Comparisons for Essay Question 1: Shopping
–Sullivan, Carson, Pirie, Scott and Company Building (Figure 21.14a)
Figure 6.11a: Pantheon, Imperial Roman, 118–125 C.E., concrete with stone facing, Rome, Italy
Pantheon, Imperial Roman, 118–125 C.E., concrete with stone facing, Rome, Italy (Figures 6.11a and 6.11b)
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.
Interior
■Interior contains 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.
■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.
■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.
Figure 6.11b: Pantheon, 118–125 C.E., concrete with stone facing, Rome, Italy
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.
Figure 6.12a: Figure seen in foreshortening
Content Area Ancient Mediterranean, Image 46
Web Source http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Pantheon.html
■Cross-Cultural Comparisons for Essay Question 1: Houses of Worship
–Chartres Cathedral (Figures 12.4a, 12.4b)
–Angkor Wat (Figure 23.8a)
–Templo Mayor (Figure 26.5a)
ROMAN PAINTING
Interior wall paintings, created to liven up generally windowless Roman cubicula, were frescoed with mythological scenes, landscapes, and city plazas. Mosaics were favorite floor decorations—stone kept feet cool in summer. Encaustics from Egypt provided lively individual portraits of the deceased.
Murals were painted with some knowledge of linear perspective—spatial relationships in landscape paintings appeared somewhat consistent. 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 (Figures 6.12a, 6.12b), where they are seen at an oblique angle and seem to recede into space.
Figure 6.12b: Figure seen in foreshortening
So much Pompeian wall painting survives that an early history of Roman painting can be reconstructed.
■First Pompeian Style is 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 is characterized by small scenes set in a field of color and framed by delicate columns of tracery.
■Fourth Pompeian Style combine 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 (Figure 6.13) are from the Fourth Style.
Pentheus Room, Imperial Roman, 62–79 C.E., fresco, Pompeii, Italy (Figure 6.13)
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.
■See House of the Vettii (Figures 6.7a, 6.7b).
Content Area Ancient Mediterranean, Image 39
Web Source https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1468-0424.2012.01697.x
Figure 6.13: Pentheus Room, Imperial Roman, 62–79 C.E., fresco, Pompeii, Italy
Alexander Mosaic, Roman mosaic copy of a Greek original, found in Pompeii: see under Greek Art, Figure 4.20
ROMAN SCULPTURE
The Romans erected commemorative arches to celebrate military victories. Sculpture was applied to the surface to animate the architecture as well as to recount the story of Roman victories. A combination of painted relief and freestanding works was integrated into a coherent didactic program. Later arches used works from contemporary artists, as well as sculptures removed from arches of previous emperors, some two hundred years older. In this way the glory of the past was linked to the accomplishments of the present.
Another Roman innovation was the hollowed-out column with banded narrative relief sculptures spiraling around the exterior. The first, the Column of Trajan (112 C.E.) (Figure 6.16), 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. This may have been a form of idealization: Republicans valued virtues such as wisdom, determination, and experience, which these works seem to possess.
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. The Romans had great respect for ancestors: Figures can sometimes be seen holding busts of their ancestors in their hands as a sign of their patrician heritage.
Head of a Roman patrician, Republican Roman, c. 75–50 B.C.E., marble, Museo Torlonia, Rome (Figure 6.14)
Form
■Extremely realistic face, called a veristic portrait.
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.
Figure 6.14: Head of a Roman patrician, Republican Roman, c. 75–50 B.C.E., marble, Museo Torlonia, Rome
Context
■Realism of the portrayal shows 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.
Content Area Ancient Mediterranean, Image 42
Web Source http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/ropo/hd_ropo.htm
■Cross-Cultural Comparisons for Essay Question 1: Portraits
–Mblo (Figure 27.7)
–Portrait of Sin Sukju (Figure 24.6)
–Sherman, Untitled #228, from the History Portraits series (Figure 29.10)
Imperial Sculpture
While busts of senators conveyed the gruff virtues of Republican Rome, emperors, whose divinity descended from the gods themselves, were portrayed differently. Here, inspiration came from Classical Greece, and Roman sculptors adopted the contrapposto, ideal proportions, and heroic poses of Greek statuary. Forms became less individualized, iconography more associated with the divine.
At the end of the Early Imperial period, a stylistic shift begins to take place that transitions into the Late Imperial style. Perhaps reflecting the dissolution and anarchy of the Roman state, the classical tradition, so willingly embraced by previous emperors, is slowly abandoned by Late Imperial artists. 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.
Augustus of Prima Porta, Imperial Roman, early 1st century C.E., marble, Vatican Museums, Rome (Figure 6.15)
Form
■Contrapposto.
■References Polykleitos’s Doryphoros (Figure 4.3).
■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
Figure 6.15: Augustus of Prima Porta, Imperial Roman, early 1st century C.E., marble, Vatican Museum, Rome
■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.
■May be a copy of a bronze original, which probably did not have the image of Cupid.
Content Area Ancient Mediterranean, Image 43
■Cross-Cultural Comparisons for Essay Question 1: Power and Authority
–Ndop (Figure 27.5a)
–Lindauer, Tamati Waka Nene (Figure 28.7)
–Houdon, George Washington (Figure 19.7)
Column of Trajan, 113 C.E., marble, Rome (Figure 6.16)
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 (since replaced with a sculpture of Saint Peter).
■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.
■Scenes on the column depict the preparation for battle, key moments in the Dacian campaign, and many scenes of everyday life (i.e., transportation, religious ceremonies, construction techniques).
■Trajan appears 58 times in various roles: commander, statesman, ruler, etc.
Figure 6.16: Column of Trajan, 113 C.E., marble, Rome, Italy
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.
Content Area Ancient Mediterranean, Image 45
Web Source http://www.nationalgeographic.com/trajan-column/article.html
■Cross-Cultural Comparisons for Essay Question 1: Narrative in Art
–Bayeux Tapestry (Figures 11.7a, 11.7b)
–Night Attack on the Sanjô Palace (Figures 25.3a, 25.3b)
–Walker, Darkytown Rebellion (Figure 29.21)
Figure 6.17: Ludovisi Battle Sarcophagus, Late Imperial Roman, c. 250 C.E., marble, National Roman Museum, Rome
Ludovisi Battle Sarcophagus, Late Imperial Roman, c. 250 C.E., marble, National Roman Museum, Rome (Figure 6.17)
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.
■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.
Content Area Ancient Mediterranean, Image 47
Web Source for Roman sarcophagi http://www.metmuseum.org/TOAH/hd/rsar/hd_rsar.htm
■Cross-Cultural Comparisons for Essay Question 1: Relief Sculpture
–Churning of the Ocean of Milk (Figure 23.8c)
–Last Judgment, Sainte-Foy, Conques (Figure 11.6a)
–Code of Hammurabi (Figures 2.4a, 2.4b)
VOCABULARY
Ashlar masonry: carefully cut and grooved stones that support a building without the use of concrete or other kinds of masonry
Atrium (plural: atria): a courtyard in a Roman house or before a Christian church
Basilica: in Roman architecture, a large axially planned building with a nave, side aisles, and apses (Figure 6.10b)
Bust: a sculpture depicting the head, neck, and upper chest of a figure (Figure 6.14)
Coffer: in architecture, a sunken panel in a ceiling (Figure 6.5)
Composite column: one that contains a combination of volutes from the Ionic order and acanthus leaves from the Corinthian order
Continuous narrative: a work of art that contains several scenes of the same story painted or sculpted in continuous succession (Figure 6.16)
Contrapposto: a graceful arrangement of the body based on tilted shoulders and hips and bent knees (Figure 6.15)
Cubiculum (plural: cubicula): a Roman bedroom flanking an atrium; in Early Christian art, a mortuary chapel in a catacomb
Cupola: a small dome rising over the roof of a building; in architecture, a cupola is achieved by rotating an arch on its axis
Encaustic: an ancient method of painting that uses colored waxes burned into a wooden surface
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 (Figures 6.12a, 6.12b)
Forum (plural: fora): a public square in a Roman city (Figure 6.10a)
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 (Figure 6.13)
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 (Figure 6.17)
Impluvium: a rectangular basin in a Roman house that is placed in the open-air atrium in order to collect rainwater (Figure 6.7b)
Keystone: the center stone of an arch that holds the others in place
Oculus: a circular window in a church, or a round opening at the top of a dome (Figure 6.11b)
Peristyle: an atrium surrounded by columns in a Roman house (Figure 6.10a)
Perspective: depth and recession in a painting or a relief sculpture. Objects shown in linear perspective achieve a three-dimensionality in the two-dimensional world of the picture plane. Lines, called orthogonals, draw the viewer back in space to a common point, called the vanishing point. Paintings, however, may have more than one vanishing point, with orthogonals leading the eye to several parts of the work. Landscapes that give the illusion of distance are in atmospheric or aerial perspective
Pier: a vertical support that holds up an arch or a vault (Figure 6.3)
Spandrel: a triangular space enclosed by the curves of arches (Figure 6.4)
Triclinium: a dining table in ancient Rome that has a couch on three sides for reclining at meals; or a room containing a triclinium (Figure 6.13)
Tuscan order: an order of ancient architecture featuring slender, smooth columns that sit on simple bases.; no carvings on the frieze or in the capitals (Figure 6.8a)
Vault: a roof constructed with arches. When an arch is extended in space, forming a tunnel, it is called a barrel vault (Figure 6.1). When two barrel vaults intersect at right angles, it is called a groin vault (Figure 6.2)
Veristic: sculptures from the Roman Republic characterized by extreme realism of facial features (Figure 6.14)
SUMMARY
Art was used to emphasize the power of the state in a society in which empire building was a specialty. Monumental buildings and sculptures graced the great cities of the Roman world. The introduction of new methods of vaulting and the use of new construction materials, like concrete, enabled the Romans to build structures that not only had impressive exteriors but also had unparalleled interiors of great spaciousness.
Much is known about Roman art because of the destruction of the city of Pompeii by the volcanic explosion of Vesuvius in 79 C.E. Remains of Roman paintings betray some knowledge of linear perspective and foreshortening. Frescoes dominate the walls of elaborate villas in this seaside resort.
The Romans greatly admired Greek sculpture and were inspired by it throughout their history; indeed, much is known about Greek art from Roman copies that survive. Republican veristic works were influenced by Hellenistic Greek art; Imperial sculptures are modeled more on the Greek Classical age. Even though Roman sculpture retained a grandeur until the end of the Empire, it increasingly took on a military character, as in works such as the Ludovisi Battle Sarcophagus.
PRACTICE EXERCISES
Multiple-Choice
1.Which of the following statements is true of both the Ludovisi Battle Sarcophagus and Athena Battling Alkyoneos from the Great Altar of Zeus and Athena at Pergamon?
(A)They celebrate the victory of the gods over the giants.
(B)They illustrate the conquest of barbarians.
(C)They depict everyday events.
(D)They show the defeat of Christian armies.
2.The form of the Augustus of Prima Porta is intended to recall
(A)the majesty of Egyptian pharaohs as seen in works like King Menkaura and queen
(B)the idealization of the human form as seen in Greek classical sculptures such as the Doryphoros
(C)the formal quality of Greek archaic sculptures like the Anavysos Kouros
(D)the Roman Republican veristic sculptures, such as the Head of a Roman patrician
3.Which of the following works is a Roman copy of a Greek original?
(A)Seated boxer
(B)Winged Victory of Samothrace
(C)Peplos Kore
(D)Alexander Mosaic
4.An atrium, such as the one seen in the House of Vettii, supplies light and air into the private spaces of a Roman home. Atria can also function as
(A)spaces conducive to family religious ceremonies
(B)courtyards to conduct business in a more comfortable private setting
(C)places to gather rainwater for household use
(D)outdoor bedrooms in a protected space
5.The Column of Trajan had many functions, including
(A)being the centerpiece of buildings in a Roman racetrack
(B)being used as a large sundial to indicate the time of day
(C)acting as the Emperor Trajan’s tomb
(D)recounting the military victory of Emperor Trajan against the Greeks
Short Essay
Question 6: Continuity and Change
Suggested Time: 15 minutes
This is the Treasury at Petra, Jordan, dated between c. 400 B.C.E. and 100 C.E.
What was the function of this building?
What aspects of the site reflect its ancient Nabataean roots?
Although built in the Roman period, it shows Greek influence. Using at least two examples, explain which elements of the building were inspired by Greek architecture.
How has the design adapted the Greek elements in a nontraditional way to create a new architectural design?
ANSWER KEY
1.B
2.B
3.D
4.C
5.C
ANSWERS EXPLAINED
Multiple-Choice
1.(B) The Ludovisi Battle Sarcophagus illustrates a Roman victory over barbarians. The sculpture of Athena Battling Alkyoneos shows the victory of the gods over the giants. By implication, the Greeks were meant to see themselves as heroes over the barbarians who tried to conquer their land.
2.(B) Augustus of Prima Porta is a Roman work whose idealization, contrapposto, and human form express a parallel with the works of the Greek Classical period, particularly the Doryphoros.
3.(D) The Alexander Mosaic is a Roman copy of a Greek original, probably a fresco, that was found on the floor of a Roman villa at Pompeii.
4.(C) Interior atria often had impluvia, or basins, that were used to capture rainwater for household use.
5.(C) The Column of Trajan had many functions, including acting as a tomb for the emperor and as a glorification of his military victories against the Dacians, not the Greeks. It also was the centerpiece in a vast complex of buildings that was built in central Rome, but did not sit in the center of a racetrack. It did not tell time by acting as the point in a sundial.
Short Essay Rubric
Task |
Point Value |
Key Points in a Good Response |
|
What was the function of this building? |
1 |
Although named a “treasury,” the building was actually a tomb. |
|
What aspects of the site reflect its ancient Nabataean roots? |
1 |
Answers could include: ■Rock-cut tombs carved into cliff walls. ■Combination of gods from Greece, Egypt, and Assyria. ■Adaptation of Roman architectural forms interpreted in free way. |
|
Using at least two examples, explain which elements of the building were inspired by Greek architecture. |
2 |
Answers could include: ■Columns supporting an entablature. ■Pediment over the columns. ■Greek tholos structure. ■Door set back behind columns. ■Placement of sculpture in niches. |
|
How has the design adapted the Greek elements in a nontraditional way to create a new architectural design? |
1 |
Answers could include: ■Uneven and asymmetrical placement of columns. ■Tholos located on second story. ■Broken pediment on second story. |