Roman art was heavily influenced by Etruscan and Greek styles. The major forms of Roman art included architecture, painting, sculpture, and wall painting. Roman architecture advanced with techniques like arches, domes, concrete, and sophisticated sanitation systems in public buildings and baths. Roman painting styles ranged from realistic panel paintings to decorative wall murals. Sculpture evolved from idealized Greek styles to realistic Roman portraits in marble and bronze. Coins also spread images of emperors and monuments. Overall, Roman art moved from Greek idealism toward realistic depictions of individuals and daily life.

1. ROMAN ART
“THE ERA OF REALISM”

2. Work by
Aabhika Samantaray
Veena Rajgopalan
Subash K Babu
Chandru
Jaidheep S

3. Introduction
MAJOR FORMS OF ARTS : Architecture, Painting, Sculpture And Wall Painting.
MINOR FORMS OF ARTS: Pottery, Terracotta, Glass work, Mosaic, Coins and medals, Jewelry, Furniture ,
Seal carving.
ROMANS GOT THE INFLUENCE FROM BOTH ETRUSCAN AND GREEK ART
Augustus of
Prima Porta
Gladiator Mosaic Colosseum Unguentarium
Seal carving

4. TIMELINE
● REPUBLICAN ROMAN ART: Mostly copied the Etruscan style of art in this period. Roman
architecture flourished in the Roman Republic.
● EARLY ROMAN EMPIRE: Religious at that time was intense, temples were constructed. Each had its
own bronze statues. Purpose of artwork was for storytelling and modest decoration.
● LATE ROMAN EMPIRE: There was scarcity of artistic interest in their mentality. They were quite
tough, violent and tenacious. They generally disregarded anything that did not bring immediate
utility. The Senates even arranged the demolition of any artwork that was not straight forward.
Gladiator Mosaic
influenced from Etruscan
art
Temple of Hercules Victor
Brutus at The
Capitoline
Museum

5. Ancient Roman architecture
● Romans adopted the external language of Classical Greek Style to depict ANCIENT ROME, but the
works were different from Greek buildings, becoming a new architectural style.
Pantheon, Rome, Italy Parthenon, Athens, Greece

6. Ancient Roman architecture
● They produced massive public buildings and were responsible for significant developments in
housing and public hygiene.
● For example their public and private baths and latrines, under-floor heating in the form of
the hypocaust, mica glazing.
PUBLIC BATH SYSTEM
PUBLIC BATHHOUSE PRIVATE BATHHOUSE
PUBLIC SANITATION PUBLIC BUILDING

7. Ancient Roman architecture
● The Romans only began to achieve significant originality in architecture around
the beginning of the Imperial period, after they combined aspects
Etruscan architecture with Greece, including most elements of the style we now
call classical architecture.
● They moved from columns and lintels to massive walls, punctuated by arches
and domes. both of which greatly developed under the Romans. The classical
orders now became largely decorative rather than structural, except
in colonnades.
FROM COLUMNS & LENTILS TO ARCHES & DOMES

8. Ancient Roman architecture
MATERIALS USED by ROMANS
1. Stone
2. Roman brick: Fire clayed bricks of different shapes and sizes.
3. Roman concrete (opus caementicium): Roman concrete was based on a hydraulic-setting cement.
It is durable due to its incorporation of pozzolanic ash, which prevents cracks from spreading.
Close-up view of the wall of the
Roman shore fort at Burgh
Castle, Norfolk, showing
alternating courses of flint and
brickwork.
Roman Concrete was widely used in
Pantheon
Use of Red Brick in St. George
Rotunda

9. ROMAN PAINTINGS
● Roman painting survives mainly in
the form of
1. Panel Paintings
2. Illumination
3. Murals
● Roman paintings also descended
from Greek techniques.
Wall painting from Room H of the Villa of P.
Fannius Synistor at Boscoreale
Wall painting from the west wall
of Room L of the Villa of P.
Fannius Synistor at Boscoreale

10. Panel Paintings
● Most surviving Roman panel
paintings are
Egyptian mummy portraits,
prepared upon the subject's
death for inclusion in burial.
● These portraits, which
comprise the only large
preserved body of ancient
panel painting, were produced
under the Roman Empire (of
which Egypt was a province).
● Encaustic (paint with a wax
binder) was the usual medium,
as opposed to tempera (paint
with a water-based binder, like
egg yolk); this fact, along with
the arid Egyptian climate, was
key to the portraits' survival.

11. illumination
● painted decoration of
manuscripts
● While no Greek illumination
survives, a modest amount of
Roman work does, due largely
to the Roman use
of parchment (adult animal
skin) and vellum (young
animal skin) rather than
papyrus, which is much less
durable.
● The style of Roman
illumination reflects that of
Roman mural painting.

12. MURALS
● FIRST STYLE(masonry style):
Creates the illusion that a wall is
composed of stone blocks of
various colours and patterns.
Sometimes other architectural
elements (e.g. entablatures, pilast
ers) are also painted in.
● RUDIMENTARY AESTHETIC.

13. ● SECOND STYLE(three-
dimensional style).
● A scene is painted with
realistic shading and
deep perspective, creating the
illusion that one is looking
through the wall at a scene
beyond.
● In some cases, the scene is
framed with architectural
elements, as though one were
looking out from inside a
building.
MURALS

14. ● THIRD STYLE (tapestry
style)
● Rectangular areas of solid
colour are the dominant
visual effect.
● Each rectangle is sparsely
covered with fine decorative
elements yielding the overall
impression of a wall covered
in large, lightly embroidered
tapestries.
● Sometimes a realistic
scene is embedded among
the tapestries, as though it
were a framed painting
hanging on the wall.
MURALS

15. ● FOURTH STYLE (hybrid style)
● Simply merges the second and
third styles.
● Deep perspective and three-
dimensional architecture are
merged with the rectangular
"tapestries" and "framed
paintings" described above.
MURALS

16. Colours used during roman art period
They primarily used the colour RED and YELLOW.
Red and orange:
1. Cinnabar (HgS)
2. Realgar {arsenic sulphide (AsS)}.
3. haematite -iron oxide (Fe2O3)
4. Red ochres. mineral found in many places over the Roman world.
Blue:
1. Blue azurite, copper carbonate (CuCO3 )
2. Lapis lazuli, from Afghanistan, to form the pigment ultramarine.
3. plant dye indigo, imported from India .
Purple:
1. A secretion from several species of predatory sea rock snails in the
family Muricidae the rock sea snails known as Murex.
Green:
1. ‘green earth’, a siliceous mineral.
2. by mixing two clays; celadonite, found in weathered volcanic rocks and
glauconite, a sedimentary rock.
3. mineral malachite (copper (II) carbonate (CuCO3)
4. by mixing yellow ochre and Egyptian blue.

17. Yellow:
1. Goethite
2. yellow ochre (iron (III) hydroxide, Fe(OH)3).
White:
1. calcium carbonate(CaCO3).
2. ring white
Black
1. Coal
2. Burnt bone or ivory.
3. pyrolusite, manganese oxide (MnO2)
Mixing colours
The Roman artists were very adept at mixing colours to
produce other secondary and tertiary colours, and it is in
this way they obtained many purples, browns and greens.
They were also expert at extending expensive pigments by
mixing them with cheaper similarly coloured pigments so
we often find cinnabar mixed with haematite to create red.
Colours used during roman art period

18. Roman sculpture
● Roman sculpture blended the idealized perfection of
Classical Greek Sculpture with a greater aspiration for
realism and mixed in the styles prevalent in Eastern art.
● Roman sculpture begin to search for new avenues of
artistic expression, moving away from Etruscan and
Greek roots.
● Roman artists were seeking to capture and create
optical effects of light and shade for greater realism.
● The realism in Roman portrait sculpture and funerary
art may well have developed from the tradition of
keeping realistic wax funeral masks of deceased family
members in the ancestral home.
● Transferred to stone, we then have many examples of
private portrait busts which sometimes present the
subject as old, wrinkled, scarred, or flabby; in short, these
portraits tell the truth.

19. THERE ARE THREE TYPES OF ROMAN
SCULPTURES
● Statues
● Busts
● Architectural Sculptures
In addition to mythological works, the
Romans produced a great volume
of civic sculpture celebrating statesmen
and their achievements.
The Romans favoured bronze and marble
above all else for their finest work.
However, as metal has always been in
high demand for reuse, most of the
surviving examples of Roman sculpture
are in marble.
Roman sculpture

20. STATUES
Roman sculpture
BRONZE STATUES
OF A ARISTROCATIC
BOY
MARBLE PORTRAIT OF THE
EMPEROR OF THE IMPERIAL
FAMILY
THE ORATOR
STATUE OF A
WOMAN OF
ROMAN ERA

21. BUSTS
Roman sculpture
BRONZE
PORTRAIT
OF ROMAN
MATRON
MARBLE
BUST OF A
WOMAN
MARBLE
PORTRAIT
BUST OF
EMPEROR
GAIUS,
KNOWN AS
CALIGULA
MARBLE
BUST OF A
MAN
This bust seems
unappealing due
to the accuracy
of every wrinkle
and receding
hairline.
But for the
Romans,
hyperrealism
was the point to
be able to
recognize the
person.
The busts were
also intended as
embodiments of
Roman virtues,
and their
advanced age
was part of what
lent them their
dignity.

22. ARCHITECTURAL SCULPTURES
Roman sculpture

23. coinage
Coins had a function
as a vehicle to
spread the imagery of
the ruling class
as coinage was the
mass media of the
day and often carried
likenesses of
emperors and
famous imperial
monuments which
would be the nearest
most Romans ever
got to see of them.

24. Pottery and terracotta

25. Glass work

26. Jewelry
Mostly gold ornaments.
Not everyone was able to able ornaments.

27. Furniture

28. Comparing the art of roman and greek
GREEK
• Idealistic portraits.
• Designed for public.
• Sculpture always had
the entire body.
• Just head of a
sculpture was
considered
incomplete.
• They did not use
concrete for artworks.
• Youthful, athletic
male figures.
ROMAN
• Realistic portraits
• Served private needs.
• Wanted sculptures to
remind viewers a
specific person.
• A person’s character
can be best
understood from the
face it self.
• Portrait heads (busts)
• Concrete was used.
• Stressed out and
tough male figures.

29. THANK
YOU