Transcript Pantheon Cont’d - Western Faculty of Education

The Pantheon
 The Pantheon is perhaps Rome’s second most famous
building after the Colosseum
 The word Pantheon comes from the Greek words “pan”
and “theion” meaning “all the gods”
 It was literally a place for Romans to worship all the gods
in their religion
THE PANTHEON
The Pantheon Cont’d
 The Pantheon is the largest unreinforced solid
concrete dome in the world
 It was built around 126 AD by the emperor
Hadrian
Pantheon Cont’d
 The Oculus (8 metres wide) is
the only source of light into the
temple
 The inside of the dome is
covered with coffers, which are
decorative inset squares
 The coffers were meant to
lessen the weight of the ceiling
(a heavy dome would have
collapsed)
Pantheon Cont’d
 The Pantheon feature many
elements borrows from the
Greeks
 Greek style pediments were
placed over the interior
columns
 Corinthian capitals were also
placed on the columns, which
were originally designed by
Greek artists and architects
Pantheon Cont’d
 The front of the Pantheon was inspired by Greek
architecture and featured a portico in the post and lintel
style found in many Greek and early Roman temples
 The floor on the inside of the Pantheon featured a floor
that was slightly slopped to allow draining (water made
its way in from the oculus)
The Roman Empire:
Sculpture
Roman Sculpture
 The Romans preferred
sculptures that were more
realistic than the idealized
sculptures of the Greeks
 Human sculptures were
often busts of important
people (like emperors)
Emperor Augustus
 One of the most famous
sculptures of a Roman
emperor
 Augustus was the first Roman
emperor, and took Rome from
a republic to an empire
 This sculpture is from the 1st c.
AD
Roman Sculpture Cont’d
 Roman sculpture borrowed a lot from the Greeks
 More often than not, Greek artists either worked
in Rome or were hired to copy Greek works of
art
 Most of today’s surviving examples of Greek art
are actually Roman copies made by Greek and
Roman artists
Some Examples
Examples
 If you look closely you can notice one major similarity in
all the sculptures
 All of these examples are made of marble
 The original Greek works were likely made of bronze
 In order for the marble copies to stand upright and not
break they needed something to lean against, which is
why most of the figures are standing next to a tree stump
(or something similar)
Roman Sculpture Cont’d
 In summary, Roman sculpture was very similar
to that of the Greeks
 Greek artists continued to thrive in Roman
society, as the Romans were very impressed
with the Greeks
 Roman sculpture tended to be more realistic
rather than ideal, which is why figures are seen
with wrinkles and appear aged
Roman Sculpture Cont’d
GREEK
Compare
 Roman sculptures
tended to show age,
whereas Greek
sculptures idealized the
human body and made
figures appear
muscular and youthful
ROMAN
The End
 The Romans borrowed a lot from the Greeks, especially
their art and architecture
 They did however innovate and invent many of their own
things (the arch, concrete, etc.)
 The Roman empire was at one point the largest empire
in the world and spanned from Great Britain to the
Middle East and North Africa
 Their language, Latin (which again was influenced by
Greek) became the basis for many European languages
(French, Italian, Spanish)