Roman Art

Presentation by Dr. Shubham Shiva

Introduction

• Ancient Rome remained the most powerful nation on earth for several centuries.

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• They excelled all others, at military organization and warfare, engineering, and architecture.

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• Their unique cultural achievements include the invention of the dome and the groin vault, the development of concrete, and a European-wide network of roads and bridges.

• Despite this, Roman sculptors and painters produced only a limited amount of outstanding original fine art, as they preferred instead to recycle designs from Greek art, which they revered as far superior to their own.

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• Indeed, many types of arts practiced by the Romans - including, sculpture (bronze and marble statuary, sarcophagi), fine art painting (murals, portraiture, vase-painting), and decorative art (including metalwork, mosaics, jewelry, ivory carving) had already been fully mastered by Ancient Greek artists.

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• Therefore, while numerous Greek sculptors (like Phidias, Kresilas, Myron, Polykleitos, Callimachus, Skopas, Lysippos, Praxiteles, and Leochares, Phyromachos) and painters (like Apollodorus, Zeuxis of Heraclea, Agatharchos, Parrhasius, Apelles of Kos, Antiphilus, Euphranor of Corinth) were accorded great respect throughout the Hellenistic world, most Roman artists were regarded as no more than skilled tradesmen and have remained anonymous.
• Although it is wrong to say that Roman art was devoid of innovation.
• Its urban architecture was ground-breaking, as was its landscape painting and portrait busts.
• Roman artists also produced no great masterpieces - witness the extraordinary relief sculpture on monuments like Ara Pacis Augustae and Trajan's Column.
• We can say that Roman art was predominantly derivative and, above all, utilitarian. It served a purpose, a higher good, the dissemination of Roman values along with a respect for Roman power.
• As it transpired, classical Roman art has been immensely influential on many subsequent cultures.

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Origins

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• Although Rome was founded as far back as 750 BCE, it led to a precarious existence for several centuries. Initially, it was ruled by Etruscan kings who commissioned a variety of Etruscan art (murals, sculptures and metalwork) for their tombs as well as their palaces, and to celebrate their military victories.
• After the founding of the Roman Republic in 500 BCE, Etruscan influence waned and, from 300 BCE, as the Romans started coming into contact with the flourishing Greek cities of southern Italy and the eastern Mediterranean, they fell under the influence of Greek art - a process known as Hellenization.
• Soon many Greek works of art were being taken to Rome as booty, and many Greek artists followed to pursue their careers under Roman patronage.
• However, the arts were still not a priority for Roman leaders who were more concerned about survival and military affairs.
• It wasn't until about 200 BCE after it won the first Punic War against Hannibal and the Carthaginians, that Rome felt secure enough to develop its culture. Even then, the absence of an independent cultural tradition of its own meant that most ancient art of Rome imitated Greek works.
• Rome was unique among the powers of the ancient world in developing only a limited artistic language of its own.

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Realism

• Like the Romans themselves, early Roman Art c.510 BCE to 27 BCE) tended to be realistic and direct. Both two-dimensional and three-dimensional, Portraits, were typically detailed and unidealized.
• Although later during the age of Hellenistic Art (c.27 BCE - 200 CE), the Romans became aware of the propaganda value of busts and statuary and sought to convey political messages through poses and accessories. The same value was accorded to relief sculpture, for instance, the Column of Marcus Aurelius.
• Thus when commemorating a battle, for example, the artwork used would be executed in a realistic - almost "documentary" style.
• This realistic down-to-earth Roman style is in vivid contrast to Hellenistic Art, which illustrated military achievements with mythological imagery.
• Paradoxically, one reason for the ultimate fall of Rome was that it became too attached to the propagandist value of its art, and squandered huge resources on grandiose building projects purely to impress the people.
• Construction of the Baths of Diocletian (298-306), for instance, monopolized the entire brick industry of Rome, for several years.

Republican Rome

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• The mythic founding of the Roman Republic is supposed to have happened in 509 B.C.E., when the last Etruscan king, Tarquinius Superbus, was overthrown.
• During the Republican period, the Romans were governed by annually elected magistrates, the two consuls being the most important among them, and the Senate, which was the ruling body of the state.
• Eventually, the system broke down and civil wars ensued between 100 and 42 B.C.E. The wars were finally brought to an end when Octavian (later called Augustus) defeated Mark Antony in the Battle of Actium in 31 B.C.E.
• In the Republican period, art was produced in the service of the state, depicting public sacrifices or celebrating victorious military campaigns (like the Monument of Aemilius Paullus at Delphi).
• Portraiture extolled the communal goals of the Republic; hard work, age, wisdom, and being a community leader and soldier.  Patrons chose to have themselves represented with balding heads, large noses, and extra wrinkles, demonstrating that they had spent their lives working for the Republic as model citizens, flaunting their acquired wisdom with each furrow of the brow.
• We now call this portrait style veristic, referring to the hyper-naturalistic features that emphasize every flaw, creating portraits of individuals with personality and essence.

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Imperial Rome

Augustus’s rise to power in Rome signaled the end of the Roman Republic and the formation of Imperial rule. Roman art was now put to the service of aggrandizing the ruler and his family. It was also meant to indicate shifts in leadership. The major periods in Imperial Roman art are named after individual rulers or major dynasties, they are:

Augustan (27 B.C.E.-14 C.E.) �Julio-Claudian (14-68 C.E.)�Flavian (69-98 C.E.)�Trajanic (98-117 C.E.)�Hadrianic (117-138 C.E.)�Antonine (138-193 C.E.)�Severan (193-235 C.E.)�Soldier Emperor (235-284 C.E.)�Tetrarchic (284-312 C.E.) �Constantinian (307-337 C.E.)

Imperial art often hearkened back to the Classical art of the past.  “Classical”, or “Classicizing,” when used in reference to Roman art refers broadly to the influences of Greek art from the Classical and Hellenistic periods (480-31 B.C.E.). Classicizing elements include the smooth lines, elegant drapery, idealized nude bodies, highly naturalistic forms, and balanced proportions that the Greeks had perfected over centuries of practice.

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• Augustus and the Julio-Claudian dynasty were particularly fond of adapting Classical elements into their art.
• The Augustus of Primaporta was made at the end of Augustus’s life, yet he is represented as youthful, idealized, and strikingly handsome like a young athlete, all hallmarks of Classical art.
• The emperor Hadrian was known as a philhellene, or lover of all things Greek. The emperor himself began sporting a Greek “philosopher’s beard” in his official portraiture, unheard of before this time.
• Décor at his rambling Villa at Tivoli included mosaic copies of famous Greek paintings, such as Battle of the Centaurs and Wild Beasts by the legendary ancient Greek painter Zeuxis.
• Later Imperial art moved away from earlier Classical influences, and Severan art signals the shift to the art of Late Antiquity. The characteristics of Late Antique art include frontality, stiffness of pose and drapery, deeply drilled lines, less naturalism, squat proportions, and lack of individualism. Important figures are often slightly larger or are placed above the rest of the crowd to denote importance.
• In relief panels from the Arch of Septimius, Severus, from Lepcis Magna, Septimius Severus and his sons, Caracalla and Geta ride in a chariot, marking them out from an otherwise uniform sea of repeating figures, all wearing the same stylized and flat drapery.
• There is little variation or individualism in the figures and they are all stiff and carved with deep, full lines. There is an ease to reading the work; Septimius is centrally located, between his sons, and slightly taller; all the other figures direct the viewer’s eyes to him.
• Constantinian art continued to integrate the elements of Late Antiquity that had been introduced in the Severan period, but they are now developed even further. For example, on the oratio relief panel on the Arch of Constantine, the figures are even squatter, frontally oriented, similar to one another, and there is a clear lack of naturalism. Again, the message is meant to be understood without hesitation: Constantine is in power.

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Realistic Approach

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• Like the Romans themselves, early Roman art (c.510 BCE to 27 BCE) tended to be realistic and direct.
• Portraits, both two-dimensional and three-dimensional, were typically detailed and unidealized.
• Although later during the age of Hellenistic-Roman art (c.27 BCE - 200 CE), the Romans became aware of the propaganda value of busts and statuary and sought to convey political messages through poses and accessories. The same value was accorded to relief sculpture, for instance, the Column of Marcus Aurelius, and for painting Triumphal Paintings.
• Thus when commemorating a battle, for example, the artwork used would be executed in a realistic - almost "documentary" style. This realistic down-to-earth Roman style is in vivid contrast to Hellenistic art which illustrated military achievements with mythological imagery.
• Paradoxically, one reason for the ultimate fall of Rome was that it became too attached to the propagandist value of its art, and squandered huge resources on grandiose building projects purely to impress the people. Construction of the Baths of Diocletian (298-306), for instance, monopolized the entire brick industry of Rome, for several years.

Types of Roman Art

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Architecture

• Rome's greatest contribution to the history of art is undoubted to be found in the field of architectural design. Roman architecture during the age of the Republic (knowledge of which derives largely from the 1st-century Roman architect Vitruvius) discovered the round temple and the curved arch but, after the turn of the Millennium, Roman architects and engineers developed techniques for urban building on a massive scale.
• The erection of monumental structures like the Pantheon and the Colosseum, would have been impossible without Rome's development of the arch and the dome, as well as its mastery of strong and low-cost materials like concrete and bricks.
• The Romans didn't invent the arch - it was known but not much used in Greek architecture - but they were the first to master the use of multiple arches or vaults. From this, they invented the Roman groin vault - two barrel vaults set at right angles - which represented a revolutionary improvement on the old Greek post-and-lintel method, as it enabled architects to support far heavier loads and to span much wider openings. The Romans also made frequent use of the semicircular arch, typically without resorting to mortar: relying instead on the precision of their stonework.

• Arches and vaults played a critical role in the erection of buildings like the Baths of Diocletian and the Baths of Caracalla, the Basilica of Maxentius, and the Colosseum.
• The arch was also an essential component in the building of bridges, exemplified by the Pont du Gard and the bridge at Merida, and aqueducts, exemplified by the one at Segovia, and also the Aqua Claudia and Anio Novus in Rome itself.
• A further architectural development was the dome (vaulted ceiling), which made possible the construction and roofing of large open areas inside buildings, like Hadrian's Pantheon, the Basilica of Constantine, as well as numerous other temples and basilicas since far fewer columns were needed to support the weight of the domed roof.
• The use of domes went hand in hand with the extensive use of concrete - a combination sometimes referred to as the "Roman Architectural Revolution".
• But flagship buildings with domes were far from being the only architectural masterpieces built by Ancient Rome.
• Just as important was the five-story apartment building known as an insula, which accommodated thousands of citizens.
• It was during the age of Emperor Trajan (98-117 CE) and Emperor Hadrian (117-138 CE) that Rome reached the zenith of its architectural glory, attained through numerous building programs of monuments, baths, aqueducts, palaces, temples, and mausoleums.
• Many of the buildings from this era and later, served as models for architects of the Italian Renaissance, such as Filippo Brunelleschi (1377-1446) designer of the iconic dome of the cathedral in Florence, and both Donato Bramante (1444-1514) and Michelangelo (1475-1564), designers of St Peter's Basilica. The time of Constantine (306-337 CE) witnessed the last great building programs in the city of Rome, including the completion of the Baths of Diocletian and the erection of the Basilica of Maxentius and the Arch of Constantine.

Parts of an Arch

• The arch may be said to have originated with the idea of placing a considerable number of blocks in a concentric arrangement.
• The wedge-shaped blocks, called voussoirs, hold each other firmly in place and prevent each other from slipping.
• The voussoirs at the top, or crown, of the arch, convert the downward pressure into lateral (sideways) pressure, or thrust, which is transmitted from the upper voussoirs down around the opening and finally into the ground through the wall or pier on which the arch rests.
• Not only can considerable distances be spanned in this way, but arches can carry a much heavier load than a horizontal lintel.

A vault is a ceiling of brick, stone, or concrete built in the principle of the arch. A tunnel vault, or barrel vault, is a tunnel-like, semi-cylindrical extension of an arch, which may be thought of as an unbroken series of arches pressed together, one behind the other.

If a barrel vault is intersected at right angles by another barrel vault of the same size, a cross vault, or groin vault, is formed.

This is a very efficient form of vaulting allowing full illumination from the sides. Groin vaults also allow a great saving in material and labor over the simple barrel vault, thrust is concentrated along the groins (the four diagonal edges formed along the points where the barrel vaults intersect), so the vault need only be abutted at its four corners.

Keystones are the most important and vital aspect of the Roman arch.

Gothic rib vault ceiling of the Saint-Séverin church in Paris

Dome, in architecture, the hemispherical structure evolved from the arch, usually forming a ceiling or roof.

Domes first appeared as solid mounds and in techniques adaptable only to the smallest buildings, such as round huts and tombs in the ancient Middle East, India, and the Mediterranean.

The Romans introduced the large-scale masonry hemisphere.

The dome exerts thrusts all around its perimeter, and the earliest monumental examples, such as the Roman Pantheon, required heavy supporting walls.

Famous Roman Buildings

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Circus Maximus (6th century BCE - 4th century CE)

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It Dates back to Etruscan times, and is located in the valley between the Aventine and Palatine hills.

This was the main Roman chariot racing venue in Rome, Italy. It measured roughly 2,000 feet in length (610 metres) and 400 feet in width (120 metres),

It was rebuilt in the age of Julius Caesar to seat an estimated 150,000 spectators, and again during the reign of Constantine to seat about 250,000. It is now a park.

Built to seat some 50,000 spectators, its intricate design, along with its model system of tiered seating and spacious passageways, makes it one of the greatest works of Roman architecture.

The Colosseum was one of the key sights on the Grand Tour of the 18th century.

Colosseum (72-80 CE)

Built in the center of Rome by Vespasian to appease the masses, this elliptical amphitheater was named after a colossal statue of Nero that stood nearby.

The Arch of Titus (c.81 CE)

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The oldest surviving Roman triumphal arch, it was built after the young Emperor's death to celebrate his suppression of the Jewish uprising in Judea, in 70 CE. Standing on the Via Sacra, south-east of the Roman Forum, the Arch of Titus was the model for Napoleon's Arc de Triomphe in Paris (1806-36).

Inscription- SENATUS

POPOLUS QUE ROMANUS

DIVO TITO DIVI VESPASIANI F

VISPASIANO AUGUSTO

(The Senate and People of Rome, to Divus Titus, son of Divus Vespasian, Vespasian Augustus).

The use of 'Divo' for Titus indicates that the arch was erected after the death of the emperor in 81 CE.

The inscription on the west side describes the refurbishment of the monument by Pope Pius VII in 1821 CE.

Temple of Solomon,

Treasure, Arch of Titus

Chariot Panel, Arch of Titus

Inner Archway, Arch of Titus

Baths of Trajan (104-9 CE)

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A huge bathing and leisure complex on the south side of Oppian Hill, designed by Apollodorus of Damascus, it continued to be used up until the early fifth century, or possibly later, until the destruction of the Roman aqueducts compelled its abandonment.

In 104AD, Nero’s fabulous, massive, gold dripping residence the “Domus Aurea” was destroyed by fire. Apollodorus of Damascus was given the job of designing the baths in order to replace the destroyed site.

After over 5 years and a huge 100,000 m2 of work, the baths finally opened in 109AD. They were located on the south side of Oppian hill, where the remains can be seen to this day. These baths were the first of their type to allow women the chance to bathe too!

A marble plan dating to the 3rd century AD gives some detail of the architecture. From there, and from the various sections still visible today, we can get a sense of the Baths of Trajan interior.

On site, the remains of fabulous frescoes and mosaics have been found, however, these were likely to have existed on the site prior to the creation of the Trajan Baths. On-site

Pantheon (c.125 CE)

Built by Marcus Agrippa as a temple dedicated to the seven gods of Ancient Rome, and rebuilt by Hadrian in 126 CE, the Pantheon is a daring early instance of concrete construction. The interior space is based on a perfect sphere, and its coffered ceiling remains the largest non-reinforced concrete dome in the world. In the middle of its dome, an oculus lets in a beam of light.

Baths of Caracalla (212-16 CE)

Capable of holding up to 16,000 people, the building was roofed by a series of groin vaults and included shops, two gymnasiums (palaestras), and two public libraries.

The baths proper consisted of a central 185 x 80 feet cold room (frigidarium) a room of medium temperature (tepidarium) with two pools, and a 115-foot diameter hot room (caldarium), as well as two palaestras.

The entire structure was built on a 20-foot-high base containing storage areas and furnaces.

The baths were supplied with water from the Marcian Aqueduct.

The Baths of Caracalla were built in the 3rd century and named after emperor Caracalla who commissioned the building of the enormous bathhouse complex together with his father, emperor Septimius Severus. This was one of the largest buildings in Roman times together with the Colosseum. The baths spanning 11 hectares, at the time richly decorated with beautiful mosaics, frescos, and marble cladding were the largest bathhouse complex of Rome with room for over 2,500 people. Common people were also welcome in the complex of cold, warm and hot baths, pools, massage rooms, dressing rooms, receptions, and even libraries and brothels. In addition to hygiene, the baths primarily had a social and sports function.

Baths of Diocletian (298-306)

These baths (thermae) were probably the most grandiose of all Rome's public baths. Standing on high ground on the northeast part of the Viminal, the smallest of the Seven hills of Rome, the baths occupied an area well in excess of 1 million square feet and was supposedly capable of holding up to 3,000 people at one time. The complex used water supplied by the Aqua Marcia and Aqua Antoniniana aqueducts.

Build by order of Emperor Diocletian in the III century AD, the baths were the bigger in the ancient world, at the time of construction

Diocletian’s Baths are unique. They are among the biggest ancient thermal baths in the world and there are mostly intact.

When visiting, it is still possible to admire the giant vaulted ceilings of many of the chambers and it is possible to walk into the natatio, the ancient swimming area.

The baths occupy a surface of 13 hectares and they were able to hold up to 3000 people.

The baths stayed in use until the VI century and were then abandoned for about one thousand years.

Then, in 1561, Pope Pius IV decided to reuse the space and put Michelangelo in charge of turning them into a church and a monastery.

The church is called Santa Maria Degli Angeli e dei Martiri and it is still nowadays one of the most beautiful churches in Rome, of the mix of ancient spaces and Renaissance decor.

The church occupies what used to be the tepidarium and part of the nation while the monastery occupied the northernmost part of the baths.

Basilica of Maxentius (308-12 CE)

The largest building in the Roman Forum, it featured a full complement of arches and barrel vaults and a folded roof. It had a central nave overlooked by three groin vaults suspended 120 feet above the floor on four piers. There was a massive open space in the central nave, but unlike other basilicas, it didn't need the usual complement of columns to support the ceiling, because the entire building was supported on arches. Moreover, its folded roof reduced the total weight of the structure thus minimizing the horizontal force on the outer arches.

The Basilica Nova, also known as the Basilica of Maxentius and Constantine, was a large secular basilica built in the heart of the city along the Via Sacra in the Roman Forum. It was begun by Maxentius and completed by Constantine after 313.

This massive basilica was truly a triumph of engineering. Its design was in many ways closer to imperial baths than classical basilicas, as it had huge deeply coffered vaults made of concrete similar to the Baths of Diocletian

It was lavishly decorated with marble revetments on its walls, while the floor was paved with colored marble in a geometric pattern of squares and circles similar to that of the Pantheon.

Its vaults were deeply coffered in elaborate patterns of octagons, hexagons, and lozenges and decorated with stucco, painted and gilded. The vaults would have appeared like a billowing canopy supported by eight Corinthian columns of Proconnesian marble. Underneath the vaults were enormous windows that lit the interior.

In addition, statues were placed in numerous niches in the interior and presumably the exterior as well, though its program is unknown.

Sculpture: Types and Characteristics

Roman sculpture may be divided into four main categories: historical reliefs; portrait busts and statues, including equestrian statues; funerary reliefs, sarcophagi or tomb sculpture; and copies of ancient Greek works. Like architecture, a good deal of Roman sculpture was created to serve a purpose: namely, to impress the public - be they Roman citizens or 'barbarians' - and communicate the power and majesty of Rome. In its important works, at least, there was a constant expression of seriousness, with none of the Greek conceptualism or introspection. The mood, pose and facial features of the Roman statue of an Emperor, for instance, was typically solemn and unsmiling. As Rome grew more confident from the reign of Augustus (31 BCE - 14 CE), its leaders might appear in more magnanimous poses, but gravitas and an underlying sense of Roman greatness was never far from the surface. Another important characteristic of Rome's plastic art was its realism. The highly detailed reliefs on Trajan's Column and the Column of Marcus Aurelius, for instance, are perfect illustrations of this focus on accurate representation, and have been important sources of information for scholars on many aspects of the Roman Legion, its equipment and battle tactics.

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Nonetheless, as we have seen, Roman sculptors borrowed heavily from the sculpture of Ancient Greece, and - aside from the sheer numbers of portrait busts, and the quality of its historical reliefs - Roman sculpture was dominated by High Classical Greek sculpture as well as by Hellenistic Greek sculpture. What's more, with the expansion of Rome's empire and the huge rise in demand for statuary, sculptors churned out endless copies of Greek statues.

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Historical Reliefs

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Rome didn't invent relief sculpture - Stone Age man did. Nor was there any particular genius in the skill of its carvers and stone masons: both the reliefs of the Parthenon (447-422 BCE) and the frieze of the Pergamon Altar of Zeus (c.166-154 BCE) outshone anything created in Italy.

What Rome did was to inject the genre with a new set of aesthetics, a new purpose: namely, to make history. After all, if an event or campaign is "carved in stone", it must be true, right? The Greeks adopted the more "cultured" approach of recording their history more obliquely, using scenes from mythology. The Romans were far more down to earth: they sculpted their history as it happened, warts and all.

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Trajan's Column (106-113 CE)

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The greatest relief sculpture of Ancient Rome, Trajan's Column is a 125-foot Doric-style monument, designed by the architect Apollodorus of Damascus. It has a spiral frieze that winds 23 times around its shaft, commemorating the Dacian triumphs of Emperor Trajan (98-117 CE). Sculpted in the cool, balanced style of the 2nd century, its composition and extraordinarily meticulous detail makes it one of the finest reliefs in the history of sculpture. A full-size cast of Trajan's Column is on show at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and the National History Museum of Romania, Bucharest.

Marcus Aurelius' Column (c.180-193 CE)

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Second only to Trajan's monument, this 100-foot Doric column in the Piazza Colonna also features a winding ribbon of marble sculpture carved in low relief, which illustrates the story of the Emperor's Danubian or Marcomannic wars, waged by him during the period 166-180 CE.

It includes the controversial "rain miracle", in which a colossal thunderstorm saves the Roman army from death at the hands of the barbarian Quadi tribes.

The sculptural style of the column differs significantly from that of Trajan's Column, as it introduces the more expressive style of the 3rd century, seen also in the triumphal arch of Septimius Severus (199-203 CE) by the foot of the Capitoline Hill.

The heads of the Marcus Aurelius figures are larger than normal, to show off their facial expressions. A higher relief is used, permitting greater contrast between light and shadow. Overall, much more dramatic - a style which clearly reflected the uncertain state of the Roman Empire.

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Other famous relief works of stone sculpture carved by Roman artists include: the processional marble frieze on the Ara Pacis Augustae (13-9 BCE) in the Campus Martius, and the architectural relief sculpture on the Arch of Titus (c.85-90 CE) and the Arch of Constantine (312-15 CE).

View of the opposite (eastern) side with Tellus Panel at the left and Roma Panel at the right

Ara Pacis Augustae

The Ara Pacis Augustae is an altar in Rome dedicated to Pax, the Roman goddess of Peace. The monument was commissioned by the Roman Senate on July 4, 13 BC to honour the return of Augustus to Rome after three years in Hispania and Gaul and consecrated on January 30, 9 BC. Originally located on the northern outskirts of Rome, a Roman mile from the boundary of the pomerium on the west side of the Via Flaminia, the Ara Pacis stood in the northeastern corner of the Campus Martius, the former flood plain of the Tiber River and gradually became buried under 4 mts (13 ft) of silt deposits. It was reassembled in its current location, now the Museum of the Ara Pacis, in 1938, turned 90° counterclockwise from its original orientation so that the original western side now faces south.

The better preserved scene depicts the sacrifice of a pig (the standard sacrifice when Romans made a peace treaty) by an old priest and two attendants. In 1907, this scene was identified by Johannes Sieveking, as the moment when Aeneas, newly arrived in Italy, sacrificed a sow and her 30 piglets to Juno, as told by Virgil and others, even though the scene differs greatly from Vergil's description. In the 1960s

The Arch of Constantine (Italian: Arco di Costantino) is a triumphal arch in Rome dedicated to the emperor Constantine the Great. The arch was commissioned by the Roman Senate to commemorate Constantine's victory over Maxentius at the Battle of Milvian Bridge in AD 312. Situated between the Colosseum and the Palatine Hill, the arch spans the Via Triumphalis, the route taken by victorious military leaders when they entered the city in a triumphal procession. [a] Dedicated in 315, it is the largest Roman triumphal arch, with overall dimensions of[1] 21 m (69 ft) high, 25.9 m (85 ft) wide and 7.4 m (24 ft) deep. It has three bays, the central one being 11.5 m (38 ft) high and 6.5 m (21 ft) wide and the laterals 7.4 m (24 ft) by 3.4 m (11 ft) each. The arch is constructed of brick-faced concrete covered in marble.

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The three bay design with detached columns was first used for the Arch of Septimius Severus in the Roman Forum (which stands at the end of the triumph route) and repeated in several other arches now lost.

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Though dedicated to Constantine, much of the sculptural decoration consists of reliefs and statues removed from earlier triumphal monuments dedicated to Trajan (98–117), Hadrian (117–138) and Marcus Aurelius (161–180).

Constantine's Arch is an important example, frequently cited in surveys of art history, of the stylistic changes of the 4th century, and the "collapse of the classical Greek canon of forms during the late Roman period", a sign the city was in decline, and would soon be eclipsed by Constantine's founding of a new capital at Constantinople in 324. The contrast between the styles of the re-used Imperial reliefs of Trajan, Hadrian and Marcus Aurelius and those newly made for the arch is dramatic and, according to Ernst Kitzinger, "violent", that where the head of an earlier emperor was replaced by that of Constantine the artist was still able to achieve a "soft, delicate rendering of the face of Constantine" that was "a far cry from the dominant style of the workshop". It remains the most impressive surviving civic monument from Rome in Late Antiquity, but is also one of the most controversial with regards to its origins and meanings.

Portrait Busts and Statues

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These works of marble and (occasionally) bronze sculpture were another important Roman contribution to the art of Antiquity. Effigies of Roman leaders had been displayed in public places for centuries, but with the onset of Empire in the late 1st-century BCE, marble portrait busts and statues of the Emperor - which were copied en masse and sent to all parts of the Roman world - served an important function in reminding people of Rome's reach.

They also served an important unifying force. Roman administrators had them placed or erected in squares or public buildings throughout the empire, and affluent citizens bought them for their reception rooms and gardens to demonstrate loyalty. The traditional head-and-shoulders bust was probably borrowed from Etruscan art, since Greek busts were usually made without shoulders.

Roman statues and portrait busts are in many of the best art museums around the world, notably the Louvre (Paris), the Vatican Museums (Rome), the British Museum (London), the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York) the Getty Museum (Los Angeles).

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Famous Portraits of Roman Emperors

Famous busts and statues of Roman leaders include:

- Statue of Augustus (Ruled 27-14 CE) (Livia's Villa, Prima Porta)�- Statue of Tiberius in Old Age (14-37) (Capitoline Museum)�- Bust of Caligula (37-41) (Louvre)�- Statue of Claudius as the God Jupiter (41-54) (Vatican Museum)�- Head of Nero (54-68) (British Museum)�- Bust of Galba (68-69) (Capitoline Museum)�- Statue of Titus (79-81) (Vatican Museum)�- Bust of Trajan (98-117) (British Museum)�- Bronze Statue of Hadrian (117-138) (Israel Museum)�- Bronze Equestrian Statue of Marcus Aurelius (180) (Piazza del Campidoglio)�- Statue of Commodus as Hercules (180-192) (Capitoline Museum)�- Bust of Gordian II (238) (Capitoline Museum)�- Bust of Pupienus (238) (Capitoline Museum)�- Bust of Balbinus (238) (Capitoline Museum)�- Bust of Maxentius (306-312) (Museo Torlonia)�- Colossal Head of Constantine (307-337) (Basilica Nova)

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The marble statue of Augustus at Prima Porta adopts features from a Greek athletic statue from fifth century B.C., the Doryphoros of Polykleitos; its head, facial construction, leg and overall pose. It was found in the villa of Livia in Prima Porta and was constructed to commemorate the Roman victory over the Parthians in 20 B.C. It gives the portrait of Augustus as a handsome and young ruler, wearing a decorated cuirass and a tunic, with the figure of Cupid riding a dolphin on his side.

Augustus is depicted in his function as “Imperator,” or army leader, implying that the sculpture should be part of a memorial monument to his recent successes; he is dressed in military garb, wielding a consular baton, and commanding the troops with his right hand raised in a rhetorical stance. The bas-reliefs on his plated cuirass have a complicated metaphorical and political purpose, referring to a variety of Roman deities, notably Mars, the god of battle, as well as embodiments of the most recent regions he conquered. Augustus’ deeds are illuminated at the top by the Sun’s chariot.

The statue is an idealized representation of Augustus in a conventional Roman orator’s posture, based on the artist Polykleitos’ “Doryphoros” statue from the 5th century BC.

The addition of Cupid mounting a dolphin as a supporting structure for the monument, on the other hand, indicates Augustus’ legendary link to the goddess Venus through his adopted father Julius Caesar. The clear Greek influence in aesthetics and signifier for official sculptural portraits, which became devices of governmental rhetoric under the Roman emperors, is a core component of the Augustan philosophical campaign, a transition from the Roman Republican era symbology, which saw wise characteristics as icons of somber character.

As a result, the Prima Porta monument represents a deliberate inversion of iconography from the Greek classical and Hellenistic periods, when youth and power were revered as indicators of leadership, with heroes being emulated and culminated in Alexander the Great himself.

An over-life-size bronze portrait of Tiberius from Herculaneum provides an occasion to assess the character and career of Rome's second emperor.

Damaged by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79, this bronze statue of the Roman emperor Tiberius (ruled A.D. 14–37) was discovered in 1741, during the first years of excavation at Herculaneum. Standing over eight feet high, this monumental statue presents Tiberius with his head veiled, in his role as chief priest of ancient Rome.

Tiberius Julius Caesar Augustus 16 November 42 BC – 16 March AD 37) was the second Roman emperor. He reigned from AD 14 until 37, succeeding his stepfather, the first Roman emperor Augustus. Tiberius was born in Rome in 42 BC. His father was the politician Tiberius Claudius Nero and his mother was Livia Drusilla,

The portrait style created for Augustus was adopted by his family and immediate successors in order to stress the unity and continuity of the Julio-Claudian dynasty.

This fine bust of Caligula (r. A.D. 37– 41) has regular features and carefully designed locks of hair similar to those in portraits of Augustus.

Here, however, the artist has also conveyed something of Caligula’s vanity and cruelty in the proud turn of the head and the thin, pursed lips.

The head shows the signs of aging common in middle-aged people: forehead lines, bags under the eyes, and nasolabial folds. Claudius was indeed about 50 at the time of his accession in AD 41. So the head seems true to life. By contrast, the body is youthful. His nude torso puts that youthfulness on display.

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Realism was the mark of Roman portraiture already under the Republic. Roman elites kept ancestor masks (imagines) in their homes. Some Roman portraits are actually hyper-realistic, with exaggerated features (including exaggerated defects): modern scholars call these “veristic” and the style “verism.” Why exaggerate? Verism projected aristocratic virtues: maturity, experience, seriousness, determination… The logic is not unlike that of caricature: physiognomy reveals character, and character belongs to ideology.

The head shows the signs of aging common in middle-aged people: forehead lines, bags under the eyes, and nasolabial folds. Claudius was indeed about 50 at the time of his accession in AD 41. So the head seems true to life. By contrast, the body is youthful. His nude torso puts that youthfulness on display.

Realism was the mark of Roman portraiture already under the Republic. Roman elites kept ancestor masks (imagines) in their homes. Some Roman portraits are actually hyper-realistic, with exaggerated features (including exaggerated defects): modern scholars call these “veristic” and the style “verism.” Why exaggerate? Verism projected aristocratic virtues: maturity, experience, seriousness, determination… The logic is not unlike that of caricature: physiognomy reveals character, and character belongs to ideology.

Statue of Claudius as the God Jupiter

Portrait of Nero (Claudius Caesar Aug. Germanicus: 54—68 AD)

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It was found in 1869 by R Rosa in the eastern wing of the cryptoporticus which supports the sacred area of the Temple of Apollo. Originally in the Museo Palatino (Gherardini 1881, n. 6), it was later kept in the Museo Nazionale Romano.

The nose is chipped; parts of the neck and nape missing.

Greek island marble. Its Height is 31The Palatine portrait is perhaps the most beautiful of Nero’s portraits. It is characterized by the large head of the Domizi, the short beard, partially incised, the fleshiness — a little soft — of the face, the locks arranged on the forehead in the Julio-Claudian fashion. But the importance of this head, besides the excellent workmanship and the certainty of the identification, is to be found in the rendering of the sentiments, the capacity of making the complex personality of Nero shine through, by means of a knowing play of light and shade, which hollow out the eyes and stress the wrinkles. Of the three known groups of Nero’s portraits, the Palatine version — which gives the name to the Thermae type — is dated between 59 (date of the Quinquennalia) and 64 AD (date of the Decennalia). Therefore, it represents the intermediate phase between the Cagliari type — the youngest — and the Monaco type, in which the psychological degeneration of the person is by now evident. The Palatine portrait shows Nero in a moment of equilibrium, in which the emperor is still a long way from the conception of the absolute dynast of a Hellenistic type and the excesses of the last years of the reign.

Statue of Titus

The Bust of Trajan

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The bust, one of many issued to commemorate the emperor Trajan’s Decennalia (tenth anniversary of his accession — he reigned AD 98—117), shows him in the style of a Hellenistic ruler, with his upper body bared and his head slightly turned. Trajan was born at Italica near Seville in modern Spain, and was the first non-Italian emperor, reflecting the political and economic shifts taking place within the Roman empire.

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Under Trajan the empire reached its greatest extent, with the conquests of Mesopotamia (modern Iraq), and Dacia (modern Romania). The latter was celebrated on Trajan’s Column in Rome, which carries the history of the two Dacian wars in a 200 metre long frieze spiralling up the shaft. The column was only one element of an immense complex of forum, basilica (law-court), libraries, shops, and housing built with the proceeds of his conquests. Trajan, however, was not only a very capable commander, but was also renowned for his fairness, good government and wisdom. Elements of these are preserved in his correspondence with the younger Pliny, one of his ablest provincial governors, notably on the subject of early Christian communities. This reputation endured for centuries, and it is this perceived piety which earned Trajan, rather than Augustus, Hadrian or Constantine, a place in the Paradiso of Dante Alighieri (1265—1321).

magnificent bronze statue of Hadrian, now on display at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, was found by chance by an American tourist in Tel Shalem (Beth Shean Valley, Israel) on the 25th of July 1975 while searching for ancient coins with a metal detector. Tel Shalem was once occupied by a detachment of the Sixth Roman Legion (Legio VI Ferrata). The 50 fragments of this statue were found in a building which stood at the centre of the camp, perhaps in the principia (the headquarters tent or building).

The statue probably portrays Hadrian in the pose of the supreme military commander greeting his troops (adlocutio) or as a conqueror stepping on a defeated enemy (a head of a youth was found next to the statue), though it’s far from certain that the head and the cuirass originally belong together. Nevertheless, the Jerusalem bust is one of the finest bronze portraits to survive from antiquity.

In ancient Rome equestrian statues of emperors would not have been uncommon sights in the city—late antique sources suggest that at least 22 of these “great horses” (equi Magni) were to be seen—as they were official devices for honoring the emperor for singular military and civic achievements. The statues themselves were, in turn, copied into other media, including coins, for even wider distribution.

Few examples of these equestrian statues survive from antiquity, however, making the Equestrian Statue of Marcus Aurelius a singular artifact of Roman antiquity, one that has borne quiet witness to the ebb and flow of the city of Rome for nearly 1,900 years.

A gilded bronze monument of the 170s C.E. that was originally dedicated to the emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus, referred to commonly as Marcus Aurelius (reigned 161-180 C.E.), the statue is an important object not only for the study of official Roman portraiture but also for the consideration of monumental dedications.

The statue is an over-life-size depiction of the emperor elegantly mounted atop his horse while participating in a public ritual or ceremony; the statue stands approximately 4.24 meters tall. A gilded bronze statue, the piece was originally cast using the lost-wax technique, with horse and rider cast in multiple pieces and then soldered together after casting.

Commodus as Hercules, also known as The Bust of Commodus as Hercules, is a marble portrait sculpture created sometime in early 192 AD It is housed in the Capitoline Museums in Rome, Italy. Originally discovered in 1874 in the underground chambers of Horti Lamiani, it has become one of the most famous examples of Roman portraiture to date.

Commodus (31 August 161 AD – 31 December 192 AD) was a Roman emperor from 180 to 192 and the son of the previous emperor, Marcus Aurelius. During his sole reign, he came to associate himself with the Greek hero, Herakles (whose myths were adopted in Rome under the name Hercules), eventually having a bust depicting him as the hero created near the end of his reign.

Here, the Roman Emperor has taken on the guise of the mythological hero, Hercules. He has been given the attributes of the hero: the skin of the Nemean lion placed over his head, the club in his right hand, and the golden apples of the Hesperides in his left. Each of these objects has been placed as a reminder of the hero's accomplishments, as well as allowing the Emperor to associate and refer to himself as the Roman Hercules.

At the base of the sculpture, carved into the globe are the zodiacal signs of Taurus, Capricorn, and Scorpio. The meaning behind these symbols has been somewhat debated since the discovery of the sculpture, with interpretations ranging from purely astrological to calendric

Bust of Maxentius

Religious and Funerary Sculpture

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Religious art was also popular if the less unique form of Roman sculpture. An important feature of a Roman temple was the statue of the deity to whom it was dedicated. Such statues were also erected in public parks and private gardens. Small devotional statuettes of varying quality were also popular for personal and family shrines. These smaller works, when commissioned for the wealthier upper classes, might involve ivory carving and chryselephantine works, wood carving, and terracotta sculpture, sometimes glazed for color.

As Rome turned from cremation to burial at the end of the 1st century CE, stone coffins, known as sarcophagi, were much in demand: the three most common types being Metropolitan Roman (made in Rome), Attic-style (made in Athens) and Asiatic (made in Dokimeion, Phrygia). All were carved and usually decorated with sculpture - in this case, reliefs. The most expensive sarcophagi were carved from marble, though other stone was also used, as was wood and even lead. In addition to a range of different depictions of the deceased - such as Etruscan-style full-length sculptural portraits of the person reclining on a sofa - popular motifs used by sculptors included episodes from Roman (or Greek) mythology, as well as genre and hunting scenes, and garlands of fruit and leaves. Towards the end of the Roman Empire, sarcophagi became an important medium for Christian-Roman Art (from 313 onwards).

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Copies of Ancient Greek Sculpture

Although the wholesale replication of Greek statues indicated a hesitancy and lack of creativity on the part of Roman artists, the history of art could not be more grateful to them, for their efforts. Indeed, it is fair to say that one of the greatest contributions of Rome to the history of art, lies in its replication of original Greek statues, 99 percent of which have disappeared. Without Roman copies of the originals, Greek art would never have received the appreciation it deserves, and Renaissance art (and thus Western Art in general) might have taken a very different course.

Painting

The greatest innovation of Roman painters was the development of landscape painting, a genre in which the Greeks showed little interest. Also noteworthy was their development of a very crude form of linear perspective.

In their effort to satisfy the huge demand for paintings throughout the empire, from officials, senior army officers, householders, and the general public,

Roman artists produced panel paintings (in encaustic and tempera), and large and small-scale murals (in fresco), and mastered all the painting genres, including their own brand of "triumphal" history painting. Most surviving Roman paintings are from Pompeii and Herculaneum, as the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 helped to preserve them. Most of them are decorative murals, featuring seascapes and landscapes, and were painted by skilled 'interior decorators' rather than virtuoso artists - a clue to the function of art in Roman society.

Triumphal Paintings

Roman artists were also frequently commissioned to produce pictures highlighting military successes - a form known as Triumphal Painting. This type of history painting - usually executed as a mural painting in fresco - would depict the battle or campaign in meticulous detail, and might incorporate mixed-media adornments and map designs to inform and impress the public. Since they were quick to produce, many of these triumphal works would have influenced the composition of historical reliefs like the Column of Marcus Aurelius.

Murals

Roman murals - executed either "al fresco" with paint being applied to wet plaster, or "al secco" using paint on dry walls - are usually classified into four periods, as set out by the German archaeologist August Mau following his excavations at Pompeii.

• The First Style (c.200-80 BCE)

Also known as incrustation or masonry style, it derived from Hellenistic palaces in the Middle East. Using vivid colors it simulates the appearance of marble.

• The Second Style (c.80 BCE - 100 CE)

This aimed to create the illusion of extra space by painting pictures with significant depth, such as views overlooking a garden or other landscape. In time, the style developed to cover the entire wall, creating the impression that one was looking out of a room onto a real scene.

• The Third Style (c.100-200)

This was more ornamental with less illusion of depth. The wall was divided into precise zones, using pictures of columns or foliage. Scenes painted in the zones were typically either exotic representations of real or imaginary animals or merely monochromatic linear drawings.

• The Fourth Style (c.200-400)

This was a mixture of the previous two styles. Depth returned to the mural but it was executed more decoratively, with greater use of ornamentation. For example, the artist might paint several windows which, instead of looking out onto a landscape or cityscape, showed scenes from Greek myths or other fantasy scenes, including still lifes.

Art Styles From the Roman Empire

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The Roman Empire incorporated a host of different nationalities, religious groups, and associated styles of art. Chief among them, in addition to earlier Etruscan art of the Italian mainland, were forms of Celtic culture - namely the Iron Age La Tene style (c.450-50 BCE) - which was accommodated within the Empire in an idiom known as Roman-Celtic art, and the hieratic style of Egyptian art, which was absorbed into the Hellenistic-Roman idiom.

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Late Roman Art (c.350-500)

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During the Christian epoch, the division of the Roman Empire into a weak Western Roman Empire (based in Ravenna and Rome) and a strong Eastern Roman Empire (based in Constantinople), led to changes in Late Roman art.

While wall painting, mosaic art, and funerary sculpture thrived, life-size statues and panel painting dwindled.

In Constantinople, Roman art absorbed Eastern influences to produce the Byzantine art of the late empire, and well before Rome was overrun by Visigoths under Alaric (410) and sacked by Vandals under Gaiseric, Roman artists, master-craftsmen and artisans moved to the Eastern capital to continue their trade.

The Church of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, for instance, one of the most famous examples of Roman dome architecture, provided employment for some 10,000 of these specialists and other workmen. Commissioned by Emperor Justinian (527-565), the Hagia Sophia, together with the shimmering mosaics of Ravenna, represented the final gasp of Roman art.

Cubiculum (bedroom) from the Villa of P. Fannius Synistor at Boscoreale

ca. 50–40 BCE

Wall painting on black ground: Aedicula with small landscape, from the imperial villa at Boscotrecase

last decade of the 1st century BCE

Wall painting from Room H of the Villa of P. Fannius Synistor at Boscoreale

ca. 50–40 BCE

Wall painting: Polyphemus and Galatea in a landscape, from the imperial villa at Boscotrecase

last decade of the 1st century BCE

Wall painting from Room H of the Villa of P. Fannius Synistor at Boscoreale

ca. 50–40 BCE

From the villa of Agrippa Postumus at Boscotrecase, the Mythological Room (19)

Landscape with Perseus and Andromeda

This fresco from the Imperial villa at Boscotrecase depicts two consecutive events from the myth of Perseus and Andromeda. Perseus is about to rescue Andromeda from the ketos, a snaky sea monster painted in a brilliant blue-green palette. The creature raises his head with gigantic open jaws and frightful teeth toward Andromeda, who stands with outstretched arms in the center of the panel. One hand appears to be chained to the crag; the other elegantly placed on the rocks. Perseus flies in from the left with his lyre in one hand, winged shoes on his feet, and a windblown cloak over his shoulder. In the upper right portion of the fresco, he is greeted by Andromeda's grateful father, a scene that alludes to the myth's happy ending–the marriage of hero and princess.

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The fortunes of love and the ever-present sea are the themes that link this fresco and that of Polyphemus and Galatea (20.192.17) from the same cubiculum at Boscotrecase. The translucent blue-green background of both frescoes also unifies the disparate episodes combined in each painting, and must have brought a sense of coolness to the room.

Wall painting from Room H of the Villa of P. Fannius Synistor at Boscoreale

ca. 50–40 BCE

Wall painting from the west wall of Room L of the Villa of P. Fannius Synistor at Boscoreale

ca. 50–40 BCE

This large painting fragment comes from the west wall of the exedra (Room L), opening off the rear of the villa's peristyle. A sacrificial bull's head (boukranion) originally occupied the center of the wall, from which an opulent garland of fruits and leaves is suspended to the left and right against a brilliant wall of simulated masonry. Preserved are parts of four of the original five red slabs of the central zone, separated by golden bands and crowned by white molding. There follows a course of alternating green and golden blocks that bears an elaborate entablature consisting of a white architrave, a purple frieze decorated with brackets in the form of bearded horned snakes with interlacing tails, and a white cornice. Hanging from a red cord tied in the bull's mouth is a wicker basket, the cista Mystica, its lid removed to reveal a snake uncoiling from a bed of ivy. Suspended from the garland also in red cords are a cymbal and a satyr mask.

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