Roman art

The art of the Roman Empire or Roman art is the art produced in the territories of Ancient Rome, from the foundation of Rome to the fall of the Western Roman Empire. Relatively poor in origin, it rose following contact with Greece, and found new influences in the areas subjugated by the Empire. It encompasses the artistic practices of Roman sculpture, pottery, and painting.

Early influences

The development of Roman art was strongly influenced by Etruscan and Ancient Greek art. As Rome's rule on the ancient world grew it was influenced by other countries like Ancient Egypt and the Sassanid Empire.

General Style

The Romans were a practical people; their original works, observation was key; portrait sculptures (or at least, the heads of) are often meticulously detailed and unidealized. The Romans also depicted warriors and heroic adventures, in the spirit of the Greeks who came during and before them. Indeed, the Romans often borrowed, copied, or even literally stole from Greek precedents (much of the Greek sculpture we know of today is in the form of Roman marble copies).

Much of their art shows the foundation and rise of, and the Romans' intense pride in, the city of Rome (the legend of Romulus and Remus is a recurrent theme), as well as their complex relations to the gods, which developed as the empire went on.

Painting

Our knowledge of Roman painting relies in large part on the preservation of artefacts from Pompei and Herculanum after the eruption of Vesuvius in 79. CE. Nothing remains of the Greek paintings imported to Rome during the 4th and 5th centuries, or of the painting on wood done in Italy during that period. Pliny explicitly states Pliny, Natural History online at the Perseus Project (XXXV, 36) around 69-79 CE that the only true painting was painting on wood and that this had nearly disappeared by his time, to the benefit of the muralists, which was more indicative of the wealth of the owners than their artistic tastes.

It is necesarry to differentiate between the Hellenistic tradition and the Roman tradition. The Hellenistic tradition - followed by Greek painters - progressively faded, to be replaced by the Roman. Coming from this mediterranean tradition, it copied the Greek repertoire "less and less effectively" Ranuccio, Bianchi, Bandinelli, ROME, le centre du pouvoir, L'univers des formes, Gallimard (p. 114) until the 2nd century CE. Starting in the 3rd century CE, a new civilization brings a new set of themes. Indirect evidence of this appears in the resurgence of mosaics and the first Byzantine miniatures.

Mural painting

Roman mural painting is generally distinguishged by four periods, as originally described by the German archaeologist August Mau.

First style

The First style - also referred to as incrustation and masonry style, was evident from the 2nd century BCE until 80 BCE. It is characterised by the simulation of marble and the use of vivid colour. This style was a replica of that found in the Ptolemaic palaces of the near east, where the walls were actually inset with stones and marbles. Mural reproductions of Greek paintings are also found.

Second style

In the second style - or the architectonic period, which dominated the 1st century BCE, walls were decorated with architectural features and trompe l'oeil compositions. This technique consists of highlighting elements to pass the off as three-dimensional realities; columns for example. The method was widely ued by the Romans. During the reign of Augustus, the style evolved. False architectural elements opened up wide expanses in which to paint artistic compositions. A structure inspired by stage sets is developed; whereby one large central tableau is flanked by two smaller ones. In this style, the illusionist tendency continued, with a 'breaking up' of walls with painted architectural elements or scenes.

Third style

The Third style was the result around 20 - 10 BCE of a reaction to the austerity of the previous period. It leaves room for more figurative and colourful decoration, with overal a more ornamental feeling, and often presents great finess in execution. It was found in Rome until 40 CE and in the Pompei area until 60 CE.

Fourth style

Finally, the Fourth style - or fantastic style - appeared from 60 - 63 CE and formed a synthesis between Second style illusion and Third style figure. Falling back to the perspective style, it also incorporates an abundance of ornament. A typical feature of this style is the use of figures detached from the context of a scene, and integrated into an architecture resembling that of stage sets.

This fourth style had great importance in the history of art. After the fire of Rome in 64, Nero built a large palace called the Domus Aurea. Following his suicide in 68, the grounds requisitioned for the palace were returned by the senate for public use and new buildings were built, which incorporated some rooms of the palase. These rooms, which became buried, were rediscovered in the Renaissance, and artists copied the murals. Because of their underground origin, these works were referred to as "Grotesques" and their strangeness changed the meaning of the word.

Pliny the Elder presents AmuliusGiven by some sources as Fabullus; Smith (Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology) argues that Amulius is the more likely. as one of the principal painters of the domus aurea.

"More recently, lived Amulius, a grave and serious personage, but a painter in the florid style. By this artist there was a Minerva, which had the appearance of always looking at the spectators, from whatever point it was viewed. He only painted a few hours each day, and then with the greatest gravity, for he always kept the toga on, even when in the midst of his implements. The Golden Palace of Nero was the prison-house of this artist's productions, and hence it is that there are so few of them to be be seen elsewhere." (Chap 37, p6272)

In this succession of styles it is important to note the tension between the illusionist tendency from Greece, and the decorative tendency which is the reflection of Italian tradition and Eastern influence.

Variety of subjects

Roman painting provides a wide variety of themes: animals, still life, and scenes form everyday life. During the Hellenistic period, it evoked the pleasures of the countryside and represented scenes of shepherds, herds, rustic temples, rural mountainous landscapes and country houses.

The main innovation of Roman painting compared to Greek art was trhe developmetn of landscapes, in particular incorporating techniques of perspective. The art of the ancient East would have known the landscape only in terms of civil or military scenes. according to Ernst Gombrish. This theory, defended by Franz Wickhoff, is debatable. It is possible to see evidence of Greek knowledge of landscape portrayal in Plato's Critias (107b-108b):

"...and if we look at the portraiture of divine and of human bodies as executed by painters, in respect of the ease or difficulty with which they succeed in imitating their subjects in the opinion of onlookers, we shall notice in the first place that as regards the earth and mountains and rivers and woods and the whole of heaven, with the things that exist and move therein, we are content if a man is able to represent them with even a small degree of likeness..."Plato. Critias (107b-108b), trans W.R.M. Lamb 1925. at the Perseus Project accessed 27 June 2006

Triumphal paintings

From the 3rd century BCE, a specific genre known as Triumphal Paintings appeared, as indicated by Pliny (XXXV, 22). These were paintings which showed triumphal entries after military victories, represented episodes from the war, and conquered regions and cities. Summary maps were drawn to highlight key points of the campaign. Josephus describes the painting executed on the occasion of Vespasian and Titus's sack of Jerusalem:

"There was also wrought gold and ivory fastened about them all; and many resemblances of the war, and those in several ways, and variety of contrivances, affording a most lively portraiture of itself. For there was to be seen a happy country laid waste, and entire squadrons of enemies slain; while some of them ran away, and some were carried into captivity; with walls of great altitude and magnitude overthrown and ruined by machines; with the strongest fortifications taken, and the walls of most populous cities upon the tops of hills seized on, and an army pouring itself within the walls; as also every place full of slaughter, and supplications of the enemies, when they were no longer able to lift up their hands in way of opposition. Fire also sent upon temples was here represented, and houses overthrown, and falling upon their owners: rivers also, after they came out of a large and melancholy desert, ran down, not into a land cultivated, nor as drink for men, or for cattle, but through a land still on fire upon every side; for the Jews related that such a thing they had undergone during this war. Now the workmanship of these representations was so magnificent and lively in the construction of the things, that it exhibited what had been done to such as did not see it, as if they had been there really present. On the top of every one of these pageants was placed the commander of the city that was taken, and the manner wherein he was taken." Josephus, The Jewish Wars VII, 143-152 (Ch 6 Para 5). Trans. William Whiston Online accessed 27 June 2006

These paintings have disappeared, but they likely ingfluenced the composition of the historical reliefs carved on military sarcophagi, the Arch of Titus, and Trajan's Column. This evidence underscores the significance of landscape painting, which sometimes tended towards being perspective plans.

Ranuccio also describes the oldest painting to be found in Rome, in a tomb on the Esquiline Hill:

"It describes a historical scene, on a clear background, painted in four superimposed sections. Several people are identified, such Marcus Fannius and Marcus Fabius. These are larger than the other figures...In the second zone, to the left, is a city encircled with crenellated walls, in front of which is a large warrior equipped with an oval buckler and a feathered helmet; near him is a man in a short tunic, armed with a spear...Around these two are smaller soldiers in short tunics, armed with spears...In the lower zone a battle is taking place, where a warrior with oval buckler and a feathered helmet is shown larger than the others, whose weapons allow to assume that these are probably Samnites." (p. 115)

This episode is difficult to pinpoint. One of Ranuccio's hypotheses is that it refers to a victory of the consul Fabius Maximus Rullianus during the second war against Samnites in 326 BCE. The presentation of the figures with sizes proportional to their importance is typically Roman, and finds itself in plebeian reliefs. This painting is in the infancy of triumphal painting, and would have been accomplished by the beginning of the 3rd century BCE to decorate the tomb.

Sculpture

Roman sculpture was heavily influenced by Greek examples, in particular their bronzes. It is only thanks to some Roman examples that we know of Greek originals which have since been lost. Another example of this is at the British Museum, where an intact 2nd century CE Roman copy of a statue of Venus is displayed, while a similar original 500 BCE Greek statue at the Louvre is missing her arms. Contrary to the belief of early archaeologists, many of their sculptures were large polychrome terra-cotta images, such as the Apollo of Veii (Villa Givlia, Rome), but the painted surface of many of them has worn away with time. Romans were nearly unique in the mixures of materials (e.g. marble and porphyry) used both for painting and sculptures themselves, largely due to cost.

While inspired by the Greeks, Romans also developed some of their own innovations, such as the bust and the democratization of the portrait.

Notes

External links

Ancient Rome Art History Resources

Sources

Benton, Janetta Rebold and DiYanni, Robert. Arts and Culture. Volume 1. Prentice-Hall, 1998. New Jersey, United States.
Marceau, Jo. Art: A World History. DK Publishing, 1998. New York, New York.
Montverdi, Mario. The Book of Art. Volume 1: The Origins of Western Art. Grolier 1967. Milan, Italy.
Nuttgens, Patrick. The World's Great Architecture. Excalibur, 1981. New York, New York.
Turner, Jane. The Dictionary of Art. Volumes 26 and 27. Macmillan, 2002. Hong Kong.

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