Roman Ornamentation
ERICA DAWN NELSON
Differences Between Greek and Roman
 Greece was a number of city states held together
mainly by language, religion, and race.
 Rome, on the other hand, was a single state of many
languages, religions, and races, held together by a
powerful and highly organized military.
 Before the Romans conquered the Greeks, their
artwork came mainly from the Etruscans, showing
Asiatic influences.
 The arch and bronze were the main Etruscan
influences.
Etruscan Influence
The Etruscans made their buildings out of wood, but their
decoration, as seen here in these borders, detail work, and pilaster
were made of terra-cotta.
Greek Influence
 When Greece was absorbed into the Roman empire, its
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architecture, art, and ornamentation came along with it.
Roman building made originally with brick, terra-cotta,
and wood began to add stone and marble to the
structure.
Construction was mainly of coarse materials.
Finer materials were used in detail, such as stucco,
mosaic, marble wainscot or veneer, or facings of cut
stone, with moldings, panels, friezes, cornices, carving,
sculpture and the like,
Some pieces like key structural features and adjuncts as
columns, porticoes and porches were wholly made of the
finer materials.
Pilasters
Fresco wall painting
in a cubiculum
(bedroom) from the
Villa of P. Fannius
Synistor at
Boscoreale, ca. 40–30
b.c.; Late Republican
One of Rome’s most
famous structures also
shows the work of
pilasters.
At the top of the
structure, we see basic
rectangular pilasters,
while the center and
bottom feature rounded
pilasters in Ionic and
Corinthian styles.
Roman Coliseum
Artwork in Pilasters
Pilaster fragment in Villa Medici,
Rome
Pilaster fragment with double
rinceau, in Palazzo Fano, Rome
In architecture, a
rinceau is “a decorative
border or strip, featuring
stylized vines with leaves
and often with fruit or
flowers. It first appears
as a decorative motif in
Classical antiquity.
Roman rinceaux most
often consisted of an
undulating double vine
growing from a vase.
Branches, vines, and
thistles are mixed
together in Gothic
rinceaux, and in
Renaissance examples
tiny animals or human
heads appear.”
Rinceaux
Anthemion is “a design
consisting of a number of
radiating petals, developed
by the ancient Greeks from
the Egyptian and Asiatic
form known as the
honeysuckle or lotus
palmette. The anthemion
was used widely by the
Greeks and Romans to
embellish various parts of
ancient buildings. The
Greeks originally decorated
only pottery with the motif,
but they soon adapted it to
ornament architecture. The
single-palmette form
appears on acroteria
(decorative pedestals),
antefixes (roof or cornice
elements), and the top of
vertical stelae. The
continuous pattern of
alternating lotus and
palmette springing from
connecting spirals decorates
especially the cyma recta
molding of the cornice.”
Anthemion
More Anthemia
Ornate legs on Roman Furniture, side and front view
Sources
 Hamlin, A. D. F. A History of Ornament: Ancient and Medieval.
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Century: 1916. p 127-68.
http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=6414590
http://etc.usf.edu/clipart/galleries/Arts/roman_ornament.php
http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/dgkeysearchresult.cfm?w
ord=Architectural%20decorations%20%26%20ornaments%20-%20Rome&s=3&notword=&f=2
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/ho/04/eust/ho_03.14.13ag.htm
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Roman_Colosseum_Wit
h_Moon.jpg
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/503911/rinceau
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/27277/anthemion