Roman Art Study Guide
Roman Art Study Guide
Etruscan Art
 High point of the Etruscans is contemporary with Archaic Greece
 Much of their art was discovered in their necropolises (large burial areas)
 Etruscan statues such as Apollo have Archaic features
 The Etruscan statue of Apollo was placed on the roof of a temple
 Etruscan temples differ from Greek temples because they were placed on a high
podium accessible by only a single stair case
 Etruscan temple design will influence Roman temples
 Etruscan sculptors during the Archaic period used TERRACOTTA (clay)
 Statue of Apollo and Sarcophagus of a Reclining Couple were made from
TERRACOTTA
 A SARCOPHAGUS is a coffin
Roman Art
Temple of Portunus
 Roman temple from 75 BCE
 Combines Etruscan with Greek elements into an eclectic mix.
 Temple of Portunus (Roman harbor god) is a pseudo-peripteral temple, meaning
the engaged columns along the side are supposed to make the temple look like a
peripteral temple – with columns all the way around
Temple of Vesta in Tivoli, Italy
 Dedicated to Vesta, goddess of the hearth
 Has a centralized plan
 Resembles a tholos
Repulican Portrait Busts
 Rebublic-era (509 – 27 BCE)
 Patrician families kept deceased portrait busts a record of their ancestry
 Displayed during funeral processions
 The busts have veristic qualities (very realistic even showing imperfections)
 They also display gravitas (a stern and serious facial expression to show that
Romans were dutiful people)
Augustus Primaporta
 Depicts Augustus as a victorious general
 Based closely on Polykleitos’s Doryphoros - he stands in contrapposto and is
idealized
 Portrays Augustus as eternally youthful and powerful
 Functioned as his official portrait around the empire
 Intended to mold public opinion
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Roman Art Study Guide
Ara Pacis
 Monument dedicated to Caesar Augustus giving him the credit for the Pax
Romana
 Divided into registers which contain relief sculpture that express the social and
political agenda of Augustus
 Image of Aeneas offering a sacrifice refers to Augustus’ divine lineage
 Image of Tellus with putti and animals symbolizes peace and prosperity in the
Roman world
 Imperial procession scene encourages men and women to start families
Vitruvius
 Roman architect during the Augustan age whose work was rediscovered during
the Renaissance period (1400’s)
Pont-du-Gard Aqueduct
 Carried water to the town of Nimes in France from a mountain source 82 miles
away
 Each round arch is made of interlocking stones called voussoirs.
Pompeii and Herculaneum
 Roman towns buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE aka the first
century
 Pompeii had an amphitheater, forum, and many homes.
 Typical Roman homes had an atrium as a welcoming hall for guests.
 The atrium contained an opening in the ceiling and a pool for collecting water
below that opening called an impluvium.
 On the sides of the atrium, were cubicula (bedrooms).
 The end of the atrium led to a peristyle courtyard often with a garden in the
center.
Still-life of Peaches and Glass of Water
 Fresco from a home in Herculaneum
 First example of a still-life painting
 Has great interest in realism, based off careful observation of a scene, includes
shadows and light to make scene look realistic.
Cubiculum from Home of Publius Fannius Synistor
 Part of a home buried when Vesuvius erupted
 Contains Second-Style painting which depicts realistic architectural scenes with
a sense of depth and attempted perspective
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Roman Art Study Guide
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Colosseum – used for public spectacles, exterior decoration includes arches and
engaged columns, originally called Flavian Amphitheater, built by Vespasian
Arch of Titus – commemorates when Titus’s led the Roman Army in the conquest of
Jerusalem in 70 CE, famous relief shows Roman soldiers taking the treasures of the
Temple in Jerusalem
FAIYUM portraits – portraits of Roman citizens discovered in FAIYUM, Egypt.
Faiyum portraits were painted in ENCAUSTIC (painting with melted wax) onto
wooden panels and fastened over the head of a mummy case. These painted
portraits began to replace death masks (ex. King Tut’s). Faiyum portraits are
renowned for their naturalism such as the modeling of the human face with shadow
and light.
Trajan’s Forum – a FORUM was a civic center, Trajan’s Forum was the biggest,
designed by Apollodorus of Damascus, included a basilica, Temple of Trajan,
marketplace, and Trajan’s Column
Trajan’s Column – 625 foot frieze shows Trajan’s campaigns against the Dacians,
base of the column functions as Trajan’s tomb (holds his and his wife’s ashes)
Pantheon – built by Hadrian, includes a ROTUNDA (dome and drum), COFFERS
(recessed panels in the ceiling), and an OCULUS (opening in the dome for light),
made of CONCRETE, influenced Renaissance and later period architecture:
Palladio’s Villa Rotunda in Italy, Chiswick House in England, and Monticello in
Virginia
Equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius – saved because it was believed to be a
portrait of Constantine, the Roman emperor who legalized Christianity
Baths of Caracalla – large Roman bathhouse, included FENESTRATED GROIN
VAULTS to provide light for the interior
Tetrarchs – four rulers of the late Roman Empire under Diocletian, statue shows the
emperors as anonymous by united leaders
Palace of Diocletian at Split – Diocletian founder of the TETRARCHY retired and
built a fortress-home. The plan of Diocletian’s Palace at Split resembles the plan of
a CASTRUM, a Roman military city, and contains strong walls and watchtowers.
The Palace of Diocletian also contained an early design of a round arch resting on
top of columns (see a similar example in the portico of the Temple of Venus at
Baalbek, Lebanon). This was used as the entrance to the royal residence and
Diocletian would probably stand under the arch to be glorified when he had guests.
Colossal head of Constantine – legalized Christianity, credited Christian God for
helping him win control of the Roman Empire, image shows him as eternally
youthful, powerful image of authority for the Roman Empire, placed in the
BASILICA NOVA (BASILICA was a Roman city-hall which had courtrooms and
government offices)
ROLLING REVIEW:
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Roman Art Study Guide
o Palette of Narmer – stone work of art that contained registers, used hierarchical
scale, and recorded the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt through
force.
o Step Pyramid of Djoser – designed by Imhotep, part of the mortuary precinct at
Saqqara, functions only as his tomb, resembles a series of mastabas of diminishing
size
o Hatshepsut – first great female pharaoh whose name was recorded, her mortuary
temple designed by Senmut contained painted reliefs of her accomplishments,
colonnaded terraces, but did not contain any pyramids
o Pylon – a monumental entrance to an Egyptian temple
o Akhenaton – New Kingdom pharaoh whose reign had a short but emphatic impact
on ancient Egyptian art
o Cycladic figures are stylized and schematized sculptures usually depicting females
o Tholos – Mycenaean (Greek) tomb that influenced other buildings such as the
Roman Temple of Vesta (circular-plan temple)
o Mycenaean builders created a relieving triangle over entrances using the corbelled
arch
o New York Kouros – Archaic statue of a young man, used as a gravemarker
o A peripteral Greek temple has columns all the way around. A DIPTERAL (note
that DI- means two) has another row of columns going around. A PSUEDOPERIPTERAL temple does not have columns all the way around but has engaged
columns to look like it (ex. Roman Temple of Portunus)
o Greek theater at Epidauros – used for plays on religious holidays, known for its
harmonious proportions, is in the shape of a semi-circle (tip – think of how our
desks were arranged in class)
o Caryatid – female shaped column
o Battle of Issus (Alexander Mosaic) – discovered decorating the floor in the House of
the Faun in Pompeii, based off a Hellenistic painting, shows Alexander defeating the
Persian king Darius III
o Nike of Samothrace (Winged Victory) and Seated Boxer are Hellenistic works of art
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