Wednesday, May 4, 2016

Roman Art and Greek influence.

After my reflection on Greek sculpture, here is another cogitation on the subject of Art History. In this essay, I describe Roman Art, especially compare and contrasting it with its Greek influence. 

As Rome expanded its dominance over Greece, Greek art had a stronger and stronger influence over Roman artists and architects. In Greece, the gods were the driving force behind any major architecture of the Hellenistic period. As a matter of fact, a large percentage of the ancient Greek architecture that we still know of today are temples, because the Greeks built beautiful architecture mostly for the worship of their gods. This was obvious in the ornate exteriors of the buildings; in the pediments and metopes and the relative drabness of the interiors. In a sense, the Greek designed buildings as a sculpture, with all of the beauty to be viewed from the outside.
Roman architectural style turns this around. Although their buildings are beautiful on the outside, the inside is equally beautiful, with the many colored walls and paintings, and a use of space concerned with the lighting of the room so that the interior decorations could be seen clearly. Also, while the Romans did build temples to their gods, their style was more predominantly seen in public dwellings and social gathering areas, such as basilicas and forums, than in their temples. 
Unarguably, a revolutionary architecture was the biggest contribution to art history by the Romans. Very importantly, the Romans revolutionized architectural design by developing concrete construction. In addition to being much cheaper to use than the Greek marble (which also had to be imported), the use of concrete allowed to design and construct new shapes that were not achievable before. We are talking about huge vaults (like barrel vaults and groin vaults) and hemispherical domes that needed not internal supports. 
The most impressive and innovative use of concrete during the Republic was in the Sanctuary of Fortuna Primigenia, the goddess of good fortune, in Palestrina, southeast of Rome. While the design featuring terraces is typical of Hellenistic Greek architecture, the construction method is original and distinct. In fact, the use of barrel vaults allows to support the terraces exploiting the natural strength of this kind of shape/construction. Later on, the use of concrete allowed for the construction of amphitheaters, colossal constructions resembling a Greek theater (the word amphitheater means “double theater”) but standing on their own rather than being resting on the side of a natural hill. The earliest amphitheater known is the one in Pompeii, dating around 70 BCE, while the most famous is the Colosseum, in Rome, dating around 70 CE, during the Early Imperial period, under the Flavians. A fun fact is that the Colosseum, which is huge (it can hold more than 50,000 spectators) didn't take its name from its colossal dimensions, but from a statue that used to be next to the Colosseum. That statue, which was also huge, was the Colossus of Nero. The Colosseum was different from the amphitheater in Pompeii, reflecting the technological advances in the use of concrete. Rather than finding support on an artificial earthen mound, the Colosseum has a concrete skeleton made of barrel-vaulted corridors to hold up the enormous oval seating area. The exterior of the colosseum is largely gone because the material has been used for construction of houses and other buildings. Three sets of vaults support the skeleton, each decorated with a different style— tuscan, ionic, and corinthian, respectively, from the lower band to the third one.
Another revolutionary building, the Pantheon was built by Hadrian during the High Empire. Curiously, the Pantheon has the largest dome in the ancient’s world, measuring 142 feet both in height and in diameter. At the top, an open oculus lets a beam of sunlight pass through and move across the dome as the sun moves across the sky. 
Like architecture, a good deal of Roman sculpture was created to serve a purpose— to impress the public and communicate the power and majesty of Rome. In its important works there was a constant expression of seriousness, with none of the Greek conceptualism or introspection. The mood, pose and facial features of the Roman statue of an Emperor, for instance, was typically solemn and unsmiling. As Rome grew more confident from the reign of Augustus (31 BCE - 14 CE), its leaders might appear in more magnanimous poses, but gravitas and an underlying sense of Roman greatness was never far from the surface. Another important characteristic of Rome's plastic art was its realism. The highly detailed reliefs on Trajan's Column and the Column of Marcus Aurelius, for instance, are perfect illustrations of this focus on accurate representation, and have been important sources of information for scholars on many aspects of the Roman Legion, its equipment and battle tactics.
Among the many portraits of Roman sculpture, the Augustus of Prima Porta and the Equestrian Statue of Marcus Aurelius are the two best representations of the two types of Roman sculptures, which were the standing figure and the mounted figure. The Augustus of Prima Porta is based on the Doryphorus, a famous antique statue by Polykleitos portraying the ideal human proportions of an Athenian athlete. The depiction of Augustus portrays him as a victorious general making a speech. He is posed in the traditional contrapposto manner: his right leg is placed firmly forward while his left leg is bent and the heel slightly-raised. Augustus’ right arm is stretched out in a noble and controlled Roman gesture, which we can see in the equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius, too. In this statue, the emperor— who possesses a superhuman grandeur and is much larger than any normal human would be in relation to his horse— stretches out his right arm in a gesture that is both a greeting and a sign of clemency.

So, while much of Roman art is inspired by Hellenistic art or based on Greek standards, Roman art and architecture had been influenced by the Etruscan, too, and has introduced several innovative features as well, resulting in a revolutionary addition to the fine arts. 

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