In General Art During the Late Roman Empire Became

Roman Art and Architecture

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

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

The Romans originated in central Italian republic, influenced by other local Italian cultures, notably those of Etruria, but from the 5th century they came into contact with the Greeks and from then onwards, the Roman commonwealth absorbed many aspects of kickoff Classical and then Hellenistic art. Nonetheless it never lost its distinctive character, especially notable in such fields as architecture, portraiture, and historical relief. From nigh the 1st century BC, the rapid expansion of the Roman Empire brought Graeco-Roman fine art to many parts of Europe, North Africa and nearer Asia allowing the development of myriad provincial arts, ranging eventually from Northern Britain to the Sahara and from Kingdom of spain to Arabia.

The architectural legacy of Rome is especially widespread. Across the traditional nature of the Roman temple, characterised by its high podium with prominent entrance at i terminate but, Roman compages is characterised by its ready adoption of Hellenistic planning and a daring employ of new materials, such every bit brick and especially physical leading to the stupendous structures such as the neat Thermae of Rome and indeed in the provinces, the Pantheon in Rome, and ultimately Justinian's church of Sancta Sophia in Constantinople.

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

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

Correct: Didrachm of Rome, silver, 7.41 gm, 7:00, 18.v mm, Roman, c. 300–280 BC (New Oasis: Yale Academy Art Gallery, Ruth Elizabeth White Fund, accession ID 2011.80.1); image © Yale Academy Art Gallery. Left: Sarcophagus depicting the triumph of Dionysos and the seasons, Phrygian marble, overall: 34 10 85 x 36 i/4 in. (86.iv ten 215.ix ten 92.1 cm), ca. Ad 260–270 (New York, Metropolitan Museum of Fine art, Buy, Joseph Pulitzer Heritance, 1955, Accession ID:55.11.5); photograph © The Metropolitan Museum of Art

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

Right: Wall painting from Room F of the Villa of P. Fannius Synistor at Boscoreale, fresco, 73 1/2 x 73 one/2in. (186.7 x 186.7cm) , Roman, Late Republican, c. 50–40 B.C. (New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rogers Fund, 1903, Accession ID: 03.14.v); image © The Metropolitan Museum of Fine art. Left: Wall painting from Room F of the Villa of P. Fannius Synistor at Boscoreale, fresco, h. 76 in. (193.04 cm.) width 44-three/iv in. (113.7 cm.), Roman, Belatedly Republican, c. 50–40 B.C. (New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rogers Fund, 1903, Accession ID: 03.xiv.12); prototype © The Metropolitan Museum of Fine art

Roman interiors were lavishly painted and stuccoed. For the 1st century BC and 1st century AD, the largest body of testify comes from the Campanian cities and suburban villas destroyed by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in Ad 79 (for example, Pompeii and Herculaneum). 4 'styles' take been distinguished, the offset based on rendering panels of coloured marble in painted imitation, the second opening up the wall to illusionistic mythological or landscape painting, and the later styles adding more decorative and imaginative motifs to emphasise the artifice of the project. In fact the outset 2 styles in particular were taken from the Hellenistic globe, as can be shown by comparing Campanian work with paintings from Hellenistic palaces and tombs. Nonetheless, when taken individually, such exquisite works of art as the garden paintings from Livia's house at Prima Porta outside Rome and the fantasy conceits which ornamented Nero'southward Golden House show considerable originality. Moreover, painting continued to develop in the Mediterranean world and in the provinces, where archaeology continues to increase our knowledge of later Roman painting. Paintings from the Roman catacombs (Christian, Jewish and heathen), the Constantinian ceiling paintings from Trier, and the row of Christian praying figures (orantes) from the villa at Lullingstone, Kent in England demonstrate a tendency for figurative paintings to become more formal and anticipatory of Byzantine icons.

Mosaic Fragment with a Dionysiac Procession, mosaic: limestone and glass tesserae, late 2nd–early tertiary century Ad, 67.3 x 67.9 cm (New Haven: Yale Academy Art Gallery, Ruth Elizabeth White Fund, accession ID 2004.2.2); epitome © Yale University Fine art Gallery

Mosaics are often regarded as quintessentially Roman, but they too originated in Greece and specially the Hellenistic world. Many Roman mosaics are geometric in the manner of rugs and carpets, but a vast range of figurative subjects were produced, ranging from mythological and religious scenes to landscape and marine mosaics to scenes of gladiatorial combat and wild beast fights. Different styles and workshops and differences in repertoire are recognisable throughout the Empire. In North Africa for example nosotros find many realistic representations of the Roman arena, while in Greece and Britain such scenes are largely eschewed in favour of mythology. The early fourth century mosaic of the Cracking Hunt at Piazza Armerina in Sicily is a technically superb mosaic depicting violent conflict between animal and fauna and human and man, while the contemporary and equally imposing mosaic at Woodchester, Gloucestershire, England is far more than vibrant in terms of design and in the imaginative stylisation of animals which circle peacefully effectually Orpheus only perhaps lacks the technical finesse of the Sicilian mosaic.

The then-called minor arts were of groovy importance in the highly acquisitive Roman society. The rich vied with each other in displays of gilded jewellery and services of silver plate, which became e'er more impressive in the late Roman period. Engraved gems were caused from the known globe, including sapphires and emeralds from Bharat, rock crystal from the Alps, and amber from the Baltic. Difficult stones were carved equally intaglios to serve as seals or as cameos. Some of these were signed by famous artists such as Dioskourides, who is known to take carved the emperor Augustus' signet ring. Softer stones such equally amber and fluorspar were fashioned into the form of small vessels.

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

The range of Roman art is vast, and its diversity renders it hard to classify. Just its influence on the arts of the Renaissance and the Neo-Classical age and thus of our own time renders it strangely familiar to us in most if not all its aspects.

Farther reading in Grove

Subject essays

Ancient Rome

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

Rome

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

• Architectural Orders
• Ancient Almost East
• Baths: Ancient Greece and Rome
• Bust: Ancient Origins
• Classical Apparel: Rome
• Concrete: Ancient
• Dome, History: Origins
• Early on Christian and Byzantine Art
• Façade Decoration, Sculpture: Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome
• Gardens: Aboriginal Rome
• Gem Engraving: Roman
• Herculaneum
• Istanbul
• Italy
• Landscape Painting: Classical
• Laokoon
• Late Antiquity
• Armed services Architecture and Fortification: Rome
• Mosaic: Aboriginal Rome
• Narrative Art: Greece and Rome
• Ornament and Pattern: Ancient Rome
• Palace: Rome
• Pediment: Rome
• Pompeii
• Relief sculpture: Ancient Rome
• Sarcophagus: Roman Empire
• Stele: Greece and Rome
• Withal-life: Classical Earth
• Temple: Rome
• Theatre, Classical World: Rome
• Tomb: Italy and the Roman Empire
• Triumphal Curvation: Rome
• Villa: Roman

Biographies

Rulers and Patrons

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

Artists, Architects, and Writers

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

Cyberspace resources

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

General resources

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

Select journals bachelor online

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

Select museum collections online

• The British Museum
• The Louvre
• The Country Hermitage Museum
• Metropolitan Museum of Art
• Cleveland Museum of Art
• Walters Art Museum
• The Brooklyn Museum
• Academy of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
• J. Paul Getty Museum
• Roman museums in the Google Art Project

Back to all Subject Guides

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

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