Periods Etruscan kingdom (753 to 509) Republic (509 to 27) Empire to the split of west and east (27 to 399 AD) Empire to the collapse of the west and transition to Byzantine in the east (395 to 476).
Characteristics (Etruscan and Roman kingdom) Volutes, Arcades, spiral and line motifs (fur, hair, clothing folds, leaves, etc), abstracted objects (axes, pots, plants, rope, animals, etc). Sculpture could be psychologically complex and heavily individualistic. Painting, murals, etc were often abstracted, almost Egyptian in form, although not as static, had more instantaneous motion, more interaction between figures and figure elements. (Republic) Attained completely individualistic and naturalistic statues, almost all for propaganda purposes. Facade patterns: concrete courses, smaller mud brick courses, registers with balanced, interlocking and rhythmic natural and idealistic figures. Hellenistic influence on architecture, mature classic on statue and relief work. Strong use of natural, artificial, curved and geometric forms to complement subject matter as patterns, motifs, scene and register dividers. Contrast "urbanity" with nature, (eg villas, atriums). (Imperial, architecture) Colossal scale, elegant, daylight and airy. Facades become increasingly complicated, and one may be reminded of the Baroque era. (Mosaics) Many are illusionistic, still life works used for inspiration centuries later can be found. Some non-propaganda work can be found.
Roman arch In use by the Egyptians, Greeks and Near Eastern cultures, but the Romans are the first to make widespread use of it. A keystone holds wedge-shaped voussoirs in place. The downward thrust of gravity is distributed along the voussoirs down to the supporting jambs and to the ground.
Vitruvius (1st BC or AD) Wrote Ten Books of Architecture, the only surviving complete literature on this subject from classical antiquity.
Pliny the Elder (23 to 79 AD) Author Naturalis Historia
Pausanias (2nd AD) Greek traveler who wrote about his travels.
Ovid (43 to 17 AD) Poet. For example, wrote Art of Seduction which might've led to his banishment.
Plotinus (205 to 270) Philosopher.
Plutarch (49 to 119) Greek who wrote about art and artist.
Vergil (70 to 19) Poet, stated "Greeks practice the arts, Romans practice statecraft".
Roman orders Composite (of Corinthian), Tuscan (based on Doric), Etruscan and Roman orders included pedestals.
Oligarchy Rule of the few.
Sanctuary of Fortuna Primigenia, Palestrina, Italy (b.100 BC) Grander than any building in Rome at the time, a seven-story layered complex with a crowning tholos dedicated to the goddess of fate and chance. Colossal scale, concrete with veneer, exedrae (circular indentations in a wall), arcades, colonnades. Similar in tone to the Egyptian pharaoh Hatshepsut's temple at Deir el-Bahri.
Imperial Procession, Ara Pacis, south side relief (13 to 9 bc) Works of the upcoming Christian-dominated eras will resemble closely this example in terms of form, tone, and other attributes.
Tesserae cube-like glass or stone pieces used to create mosaics.
Emblemata Floor mosaic panels.
Spoils From the Temple of Solomon Jerusalem, Arch of Titus, passageway relief (81) Dedicated to Titus by Domitian out of guilt because he probably was responsible for Titus' death. Contrast to the balance and figure organization of the Ara Pacis. The position of the viewer is carefully considered (below the procession). Through analysis of elements, Menorah is center of focus (isolated and above). Similar to Ara Pacis in how figures are arranged in terms of depth and how depth is treated. ie, nearer figures are in high relief, distant figures in low.
Syncretic To combine artistic styles or conventions in a single image, sculpture, or other work.
Tetrarchs, Porphyry (c.300, 51") An example of late Roman shift from natural/realism to the abstraction that would characterizes the eras to come. The impression of unity in leadership takes on more importance than representing optical reality. Symbolic representation used.
chi rho (XP, ie christos) The greek emblem of Constantine, used on his soldiers shields, during the battle of the Milvian bridge.
Basilica of Maxentius and Constantine, Rome (306 to 13) Originally Basilica Nova, commissioned by Maxentius, the plan of which would be adopted by early Christian architects. The original axis led to the apse from the nave (like all basilicas), but Constantine later added an entrance perpendicular to this axis so he could lay claim to it.
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