Transcript Roman Art_AugustusofPrimarporta

Roman Art
Augustus of Primaporta
C. 20 B. C. Marble, 6”8”.
Vatican Museums, Rome.
Augustus of Primaporta
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Introduction: The Italians, another
Indo-European people, began to occupy
this peninsula when the Greeks started
invading the Peloponnesus. They had
complete possession of it by around
1000 B.C.
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Among them, the best known and most
important tribe were the latins, who settled
near the mouth of the river Tiber. Later they
founded Rome.
The Romans rose in power when the brilliant
civilization of classical Greece began to
decline, after the 5th century B.C.
Gradually expanded into a vast empire.
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Sculpture:
Roman architecture surpassed its sculpture.
In the beginning they had little appreciation
for the art of sculpture.
Towards the end of the republic, after the
sack of Corinth in 146 B.C., and the defeat of
Athens in 86 B.C., they brought back to
Rome shiploads of Greek statues.
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It became a fashion for the rich to own them;
but there were not sufficient originals, many
copies were made, and it is through these
that many originals, now lost, are still known
to us.
Many Greek sculptures migrated from their
desolated country to serve their new
overloads.
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Even the Roman statues of this time
reflect strong Greek influence. Gradually
this gave place to more indigenous
work.
The portrait was the greatest Roman
contribution to sculpture.
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Their sense of realism helped them to excel
in this art.
In contrast to Greek idealism and
generalization, they aimed at reproducing
physical features truthfully, even if they were
ugly.
Their custom of keeping in their home wax
masks of their ancestors aided them in
developing this naturalistic tendency.
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As we approach the rein of the Emperor
Augustus (27 – B.C. – 14 A.D.) , we find
a new trend in Roman portraiture that
reaches its climax in the images of
Augustus himself, as, for example, in
the splendid statue from Primaporta.
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At first glance, we may well be
uncertain of whether it represents a
god or a human being; this doubt is
entirely appropriate, for the figure is
meant to be both.
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Here, on Roman soil, we meet a concept
familiar to us from Egypt and the ancient
Near East: that of the divine ruler. It had
entered the Greek world in the 4th century;
Alexander the Great had made it his own,
and so did his successors, who modeled
themselves after him.
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The later, in turn, transmitted it to Julius
Caesar and the Roman emperors, who
at the first encouraged the worship of
themselves only in the eastern
provinces, where belief in divine ruler
was a long – established tradition.
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The idea of attributing superhuman
stature to the Emperor, thus enhancing
his authority soon became official
policy, and while Augustus did not carry
it as far as his successors, the
Primaporta statue clearly shows him
enveloped in an air of divinity.
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Still, despite its heroic, idealized body, the
statue has an unmistakably Roman flavor; he
is pointing his right arm in the direction
towards which he is looking, and holding a
scepter in his left; the costume, including the
rich allegorical program on the breastplate,
has a concreteness of surface texture that
conveys the actual touch of cloth, metal, and
leather.
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The head, too, is idealized, or, better perhaps,
“Hellenized”; small physiognomic details are
suppressed, and the focusing of attention on
the eyes gives it something of the “inspired”
look we find in portraits of Alexander the
Great.
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Nevertheless, the face is a definite likeness,
elevated but clearly individual, as we can
determine by comparison with the numerous
other portraits of Augustus.
Every Roman would have recognized it
immediately, for he knew it from coins and
countless other representations
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In fact, the Emperor’s image soon came
to acquire the symbolic significance of a
national flag. As a consequence of such
mass production, artistic quality was
rarely very high, except when portraits
were produced under the ruler’s
patronage. That must have been true of
the Primaporta statue, which was found
in the villa of Augustus’ wife, Livia.