4. 4
GREEK ROMAN
Preferred Structure: Temples to Glorify
Gods
Civic Buildings to
honor Empire
Walls: Made of cut stone
blocks
Concrete with
Ornamental facing
Trademark Forms: Rectangles, Straight
Lines
Circles, Curved Lines
Support System: Post and Lintel Rounded Arch
Column Style: Doric & Ionic Corinthian
Sculpture: Idealized Gods &
Goddesses
Realistic (Verism)
humans, idealized
officials
Painting: Stylized figures
floating in Space
Realistic images with
perspective
Subject of Art: Mythology Civic Leaders, military
triumphs
5. 5
Temple of Athena Nike
Classical Greek
Temple of Portunus
Rome, Italy - ca. 75 BC
8. 8
Athena and Alcyoneus
frieze from the Altar of
Zeus at Pergamon, c.180
BCE.
HELLENISTIC GREEK
Spoils from the Temple of
Solomon, Jerusalem.
Relief on the Arch of Titus
EARLY EMPIRE ROME
9. 9
Etruscan Supremacy: 700-509 BCE
Provided link between Greek and Roman Art
KEYWORDS: TERRA-COTTA, COMPOSITE ORDER
Roman Republican Period: 509-27 BCE
Begins with overthrowing last Etruscan King and ends with Julius
Caesar… Major buildings built more for POLITCAL use than for
WORSHIP
KEYWORDS: TEMPLES, ARA PACIS, HOMAGE TO RULERS
Early Empire Period: 27 BCE-180 CE
KEYWORDS: WALL PAINTINGS, CONCRETE, ARCH, COLOSSEUM
The High Empire: 180-195 CE
Five Good Emperors (Trajan, Hadrian, etc.) kept things prosperous
and peaceful.
KEYWORDS: COLUMN OF TRAJAN, HADRIAN’S WALL, PANTHEON
The Late Empire: 195-400 CE
Diocletian had Empire divided into four parts.
KEYWORDS: TETRARCHY, ARCH OF CONSTANTINE
11. 11
Republic Rome Temple of Portunus
Rome, Italy - ca. 75 BC
A superb example of Roman eclecticism
is the Temple of Portunus, the Roman
god of harbors.
Follows the Etruscan pattern:
•High podium is accessible only at the
front, with its wide flight of steps.
•Freestanding columns are confined to
the deep porch.
•The structure is built of stone overlaid
originally with stucco in imitation of the
white marble temples of the Greeks.
•The columns are Ionic, complete with
flutes and bases.
•In an effort to approximate a peripteral
Greek temple - while maintaining the
Etruscan plan - the architect added a
series of engaged Ionic half-columns
around the cella’s sides and back.
•The result was a pseudoperipteral
temple.
Model of a typical Etruscan Temple
6th Century BC
12. 12
Temple of “the Sibyl” or of “Vesta”
Tivoli, Italy - early first century BC
The Romans’ admiration for the
Greek temples they encountered
in their conquests also led to the
importation of the round, or
tholos, temple type.
The travertine columns are
Corinthian
In contrast with Greek practice,
the cell wall was constructed not
of masonry blocks but of a new
invention: concrete.
Republic Rome
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Aulus Metellus
Late 2nd - early 1st century BC
Artists of the Republican Period
sought to create very realistic
images of their rulers. Dressed in
the traditional draped toga, Aulus
Metellus poses with authority and
persuasiveness.
Republic Rome
14. 14
Funerary Relief with Portraits of the Gessii
Rome (?), Italy - ca. 30 BC
The surviving sculptural portraits of prominent Roman Republican figures are uniformly literal
reproductions of individual faces. Although their style derives to some degree from Hellenistic and
Etruscan portraits, Republican portraits are one way the patrician class celebrated its elevated
status. Slaves and former slaves could not possess such portraits, because, under Roman law,
they were not people but property. Yet when freed slaves died, they often ordered portraits for
their tombs - in a style that contrasts sharply with that favored by freeborn patricians. This image
depicts former slaves who have gained their freedom and right to have their portraits created.
Republic Rome
15. 15
Augustus of Primaporta,
Early 1st Century BCE
Octavian Caesar (the great-nephew and
adopted ‘son’ of Julius Caesar) became
the first Roman Emperor in 44BC. By 27
BC, the Senate conferred him the title
‘Augustus’ (meaning ‘exalted’ or
‘sacred’).
For the next 41 years, Augustus Caesar
led the empire thru a period of peace
and prosperity known as the Pax
Romana, or Roman Peace.
The inclusion of Venus’ son, Cupid, is a
reminder of Augustus’ divine descent
(related to Goddess Venus).
Furthermore, this depicts the return of
Roman military standards by the
Parthians. The marble statue was
originally painted.
Republic Rome
16. 16
The Ara Pacis (or ‘Altar of
Augustan Peace’) was a
monument dedicated in 9 BC to
commemorate Augustus; return
to Rome after establishing
Roman rule in Gaul.
Included on this monument was
the Imperial Procession – a relief
showing the family members and
other who attended the
dedication. (This is much
different than the ‘Procession of
the Gods’ frieze located on the
Parthenon in Athens.)
Republic Rome
Ara Pacis, 13-9 BCE. Republic Roman.
17. 17
Augustus Caesar was elevated to
Divine Status after his death (as
memorialized with the Ara Pacis)…
Here is an onyx cameo of the
‘crowning’ of Augustus as Jupiter –
King of the Gods. His adopted
son, Tiberius, holds a lance and
steps out of the chariot on the left,
ready to be the next Emperor.
This piece combines:
• The idealized heroicism of
Classical Greek Art
• The dramatic action of
Hellenistic Art
• The Roman realism and
depiction of historical events
Republic Rome
Gemma Augustea, Onyx
ca 1st Century AD, Republic Rome
18. 18
Head of a Roman patrician, from Otricoli,
Italy, ca 75-50 B.C.
Republican patrician portraits :
Mostly men of advanced age (generally these
elders held the power in the state)
One of the most striking of these so-called
veristic (superrealistic) portraits is of an
unidentified patrician.
We are able to see this man’s personality:
serious, experienced, determined- virtues
that were admired during the Republic.
Kresilas, Pericles
Classical Greece
Republic Rome
19. 19
Pompeii & the
Cities of Vesuvius
Aerial view of the amphitheater, Pompeii,
Italy, ca 80 B.C.
The forum was an oasis in the heart of
Pompeii - an open, airy plaza.
Throughout the rest of the city, every
square foot of land was developed. At the
southern end of the town, immediately
after the Roman colony was founded in
80 B.C., Pompeii’s new citizens erected a
large amphitheater. It is the earliest such
structure known and could seat some
twenty thousand spectators. The word-
amphitheater means “double theater”,
and the Roman structures closely
resemble two Greek theaters put
together, although the Greeks never built
amphitheaters. Greek theaters were
placed on natural hillsides, but supporting
an amphitheater’s continuous elliptical
cavea required building an artificial
mountain- and only concrete, unknown to
the Greeks, was capable of such a job.
Barrel vaults also form the tunnels
leading to the stone seats of the arena.
Arena is Latin for “sand”, which soaked up the
contestants’ blood. Instead of refined performances,
the Amphitheater held mostly bloody gladiator
combats.
20. 20
Brawl in the Pompeii amphitheater
Pompeii, Italy, ca. A.D. 60-79
This painting that is found on the wall of
a Pompeian house depicts an incident
that occurred in the amphitheater in A.D.
59. A brawl broke out between the
Pompeians and their neighbors, the
Nucerians, during a contest between the
two towns.
The fight left many wounded and led to a
10 year prohibition against such events.
The painting shows the cloth awning
(velarium) that could be rolled down from
the top of the cavea to shield spectators
from either sun or rain. It also has the
distinctive external double staircases
that enabled large numbers of people to
enter and exit the cavea in an orderly
fashion.
Pompeii & the
Cities of Vesuvius
23. 23
Atrium of the House of the Vettii
Pompeii, Italy, second century B.C., rebuilt A.D. 62-79
One of the best preserved houses at
Pompeii, partially rebuilt and an
obligatory stop on every tourist’s
itinerary today, is the House of the
Vettii, an old Pompeian house
remodeled and repainted after the
earthquake of A.D. 62
The photograph was taken in the
fauces. It shows the impluvium in the
center of the atrium, the opening in the
roof above, and in the background, the
peristyle garden with its marble tables
and mural paintings.
The house was owned by two brothers,
Aulus Vettius Restitutus and Aulus
Vettius Conviva, probably freedmen
who had made their fortune as
merchants. Their wealth enabled them
to purchase and furnished houses that
would have been owned only by
patricians.
Pompeii & the
Cities of Vesuvius
25. 25
Dionysiac mystery frieze
Pompeii, Italy, ca. 60-50 B.C.
Especially striking is how some of the figures interact across the corners of the room. Nothing comparable
to this existed in Hellenistic Greece. Despite the presence of Dionysos, satyrs, and other figures from
Greek mythology, this is a Roman design.
Pompeii & the
Cities of Vesuvius
26. 26
Early Empire
General view of wall paintings from Cubiculum M of the
Villa of Publius Fannius Synistor
Boscoreale, Italy, decorated ca. 50-40 B.C.
In the early Second Style Dionysiac mystery
frieze, the spatial illusionism is confined to the
painted platform that projects into the room.
This cubiculum is a prime example of mature
Second Style designs in which painters
created a 3-D setting that also extends
beyond the wall.
All around the room the painter opened up the
walls with vistas of Italian towns and sacred
sanctuaries. Painted doors and gates invite
the viewer to walk through the wall into the
created world. Their attempt at perspective
was intuitive and it not conform to the “rules”
of linear perspective that would later be
discovered by the Renaissance masters.
Although this painter was inconsistent in
applying it, he demonstrated a interest in, but
lacking knowledge of linear [single
vanishing-point] perspective. It was most
successfully employed in the far corners,
where a low gate leads to a peristyle framing
a tholos temple [see detail on next slide].
Intuitive perspective was a favored tool of Second Style
painters seeking to transform the usually windowless
walls of Roman houses into “picture-window” vistas that
expanded the apparent space of the rooms.
27. 27
Early Empire
Detail of tholos from Cubiculum M of the Villa of Publius
Fannius Synistor
Boscoreale, Italy, ca. 50-40 B.C.
Illusionism:
The Second Style is, in most respects, the antithesis of the
First Style. Some scholars have argued that the Second
Style also has precedents in Greece, but most believe it is a
Roman invention.
The Second Style evolved in Italy around 80 B.C. and was
popular until around 15 B.C., when the Third Style was
introduced.
Second Style painters aimed not to create the illusion of an
elegant marble wall, as First Style painters sought to do.
Rather, they wanted to dissolve a room’s confining walls and
replace them with the illusion of an imaginary three-
dimensional world, which they did only pictorially.
The First Style’s modeled stucco panels gave way to the
Second Style’s flat wall surfaces.
28. 28
Republican Era /Early Empire
Gardenscape - Villa of Livia
Primaporta, Italy
ca. 30-20 B.C.
Second Style picture-window
wall
Second Style painters favored
linear perspective seeking to
transform usually windowless
walls of Roman houses into
“picture-windows” vistas that
expanded the apparent space of
the rooms.
Recession is suggested by
atmospheric perspective, which
creates the illusion of distance by
the greater reduction of color
intensity, the shift of color toward
an almost neutral blue, and the
blurring of contours as the
intended distance between eye
and object increases.
- The flimsy fence is the only architectural element
- The wall seems to frame the landscape
- The fence, trees, and birds in the foreground are precisely
painted, while the details of the dense foliage in the background
are indistinct.
29. 29
4th style, Rome, Italy
4th style wall painting in room 78 of the
Domus Aurea (“golden house”) of Nero
64-48 A.D.
In the Fourth Style the obsession with illusions
returned once again.
This style became popular around the time of
the Pompein earthquake
In the Golden House of Nero, where this mural
is located, all the walls are a creamy white
with landscapes and other motifs painted
directly on the white walls.
The paintings that are on the walls are
“irrational fantasies” They depict fragments of
buildings, columns supporting half pediments,
double story columns supporting nothing at all.
Architecture became just another motif in the
artist’s design.
30. 30
Herculanium, Italy Neptune and Amphitrite wall mosaic
62-79 A.D.
The house of Neptune and Amphitrite takes its
name from this mosaic. Shown here are
Neptune, sea god, and his wife Amphitrite set
into an elaborate niche.
They preside over the running water of the
fountain in the courtyard in front of them.
Mosaics were usually confined to floors in the
ancient world. In the Roman times, however,
mosaics were used to decorate walls and even
ceilings. This foreshadowed the extensive use
of mosics in the Middle Ages.
The subject chosen for Roman mosaics were
diverse although mythological themes were
immensily popular.
31. 31
Pompeii and the Cities of Vesuvius Portrait of a husband and wife;
Pompeii,Italy AD 70-79
Originally formed part of a Fourth Style wall
of an exedra, recessed area on the opening
of the atrium of a Pompeian house.
Standard attributes of Roman marriage
portraits are displayed here with the man
holding a scroll and the woman holding a
stylus and a wax writing tablet. These
portraits suggested high education even if it
wasn’t true of the subjects.
The heads are individualized to the subject’s
features, not simply standard types.
This is the equivalent of modern wedding
photographs.
32. 32
Pompeii and the Cities of Vesuvius Still life with peaches, detail from a wall
painting; Heraculaneum, Italy; AD 62-79
Roman painters’ interest in the likeness of
individual people was matched by their concern
for recording the appearance of everyday
objects.
This still life demonstrates that Roman painters
sought to create illusionistic effects while
depicting small objects. Here they used light and
shade with attention to shadows and highlights.
The illusion created here is the furthest advance
by ancient painters in representational technique.
It appears that this artist understood that the look
of things is a function of light. Also, the goal was
to paint light as one would strive to paint the
touchable object that reflects and absorbs it.
This illusion of light marks the furthest
advance by ancient painters in
representational technique; it would not be
seen again until the Dutch in the 1700’s.
Still Life, Dutch
ca. 1700
33. 33
Augustus Rome's first emperor. He also added many territories to the empire.
Claudius He conquered Britain.
Nero
He was insane. He murdered his mother and his wife and threw thousands
of Christians to the lions.
Titus
Before he was emperor he destroyed the great Jewish temple of Solomon
in Jerusalem.
Trajan
He was a great conqueror. Under his rule the empire reached its greatest
extent.
Hadrian
He built 'Hadrian's Wall' in the north of Britain to shield the province from
the northern barbarians.
Diocletian He split the empire into two pieces - a western and an eastern empire.
Constantine
He was the first Christian emperor. He united the empire again chose his
capital to be the small town Byzantium, which he renamed Constantinople.
Romulus Augustus
He was the last emperor of Rome, nicknamed Augustulus which means
'little Augustus'.
Justinian
He was the last 'great' emperor. He conquered many territories, created
the 'Justinian Code' and built the fantastic church Santa Sophia.
Constantine XI
The last emperor of Constantinople. He died defending his great city
against the Turks.
