Transcript Compares Greece and Rome

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Is it
GREEK
Or is it
?
ROMAN
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GREEK
ROMAN
Preferred Structure:
Temples to Glorify
Gods
Civic Buildings to
honor Empire
Walls:
Made of cut stone
blocks
Concrete with
Ornamental facing
Trademark Forms:
Rectangles, Straight
Lines
Circles, Curved Lines
Support System:
Post and Lintel
Rounded Arch
Column Style:
Doric & Ionic
Corinthian
Sculpture:
Idealized Gods &
Goddesses
Realistic (Verism)
humans, idealized
officials
Painting:
Stylized figures
floating in Space
Realistic images with
perspective
Subject of Art:
Mythology
Civic Leaders, military
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triumphs
Temple of Athena Nike
Classical Greek
Temple of Portunus
Rome, Italy - ca. 75 BC
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PARTHENON
Greek
PANTHEON
Rome
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Athena and Alcyoneus
frieze from the Altar of
Zeus at Pergamon, c.180
BCE.
HELLENISTIC GREEK
Spoils from the Temple of
Solomon, Jerusalem.
Relief on the Arch of Titus
EARLY EMPIRE ROME
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Republic Rome
Temple of Portunus
Rome, Italy - ca. 75 BC
A superb example of Roman eclecticism
is the Temple of Portunus, the Roman
god of harbors.
Follows the Etruscan pattern:
•High podium is accessible only at the
front, with its wide flight of steps.
•Freestanding columns are confined to
the deep porch.
•The structure is built of stone overlaid
originally with stucco in imitation of the
white marble temples of the Greeks.
•The columns are Ionic, complete with
flutes and bases.
Model of a typical Etruscan Temple
6th Century BC
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Republic Rome
Temple of “the Sibyl” or of “Vesta”
Tivoli, Italy - early first century BC
The Romans’ admiration for the
Greek temples they encountered
in their conquests also led to the
importation of the round temple
type.
The travertine columns are
Corinthian.
In contrast with Greek practice,
the cell wall was constructed not
of masonry blocks but of a new
invention: concrete.
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Republic Rome
Aulus Metellus
Late 2nd - early 1st century BC
Artists of the Republican Period
sought to create very realistic
images of their rulers. Dressed in
the traditional draped toga, Aulus
Metellus poses with authority and
persuasiveness.
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Republic Rome
Funerary Relief with Portraits of the Gessii
Rome (?), Italy - ca. 30 BC
The surviving sculptural portraits of prominent Roman Republican figures are uniformly literal
reproductions of individual faces. Although their style derives to some degree from Hellenistic and
Etruscan portraits, Republican portraits are one way the patrician class celebrated its elevated
status. Slaves and former slaves could not possess such portraits, because, under Roman law,
they were not people but property. Yet when freed slaves died, they often ordered portraits for
their tombs - in a style that contrasts sharply with that favored by freeborn patricians. This image
depicts former slaves who have gained their freedom and right to have their portraits created.
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Republic Rome
Octavian Caesar (the great-nephew and
adopted ‘son’ of Julius Caesar) became
the first Roman Emperor in 44BC. By 27
BC, the Senate conferred him the title
‘Augustus’
The inclusion of Venus’ son, Cupid, is a
reminder of Augustus’ divine descent
(related to Goddess Venus).
Furthermore, this depicts the return of
Roman military standards by the
Parthians. The marble statue was
originally painted.
Augustus of Primaporta,
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Early 1st Century BCE
Republic Rome
Augustus Caesar was elevated to
Divine Status after his death (as
memorialized with the Ara Pacis)…
Here is an onyx cameo of the
‘crowning’ of Augustus as Jupiter –
King of the Gods. His adopted
son, Tiberius, holds a lance and
steps out of the chariot on the left,
ready to be the next Emperor.
This piece combines:
• The idealized heroicism of
Classical Greek Art
• The dramatic action of
Hellenistic Art
• The Roman realism and
depiction of historical events
ca
1st
Gemma Augustea, Onyx
Century AD, Republic Rome
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Republic Rome
Republican patrician portraits :
Head of a Roman patrician, from Otricoli,
Italy, ca 75-50 B.C.
Mostly men of advanced age (generally these
elders held the power in the state)
One of the most striking of these so-called
veristic (superrealistic) portraits is of an
unidentified patrician.
We are able to see this man’s personality:
serious, experienced, determined- virtues
that were admired during the Republic.
Kresilas, Pericles
Classical Greece
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Pompeii & the
Cities of Vesuvius
Aerial view of the amphitheater, Pompeii,
Italy, ca 80 B.C.
The forum was an oasis in the heart of
Pompeii - an open, airy plaza.
At the southern end of the town,
immediately after the Roman colony was
founded in 80 B.C., Pompeii’s new
citizens erected a large amphitheater.
It is the earliest such structure known and
could seat some twenty thousand
spectators.
The word- amphitheater means “double
theater”, and the Roman structures
closely resemble two Greek theaters put
together, although the Greeks never built
amphitheaters.
Arena is Latin for “sand”, which soaked up the
contestants’ blood. Instead of refined performances,
the Amphitheater held mostly bloody gladiator
combats.
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Pompeii & the
Cities of Vesuvius
Dionysiac mystery frieze
Pompeii, Italy, ca. 60-50 B.C.
Especially striking is how some of the figures interact across the corners of the room. Nothing comparable
to this existed in Hellenistic Greece. Despite the presence of Dionysos, satyrs, and other figures from
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Greek mythology, this is a Roman design.
Pompeii and the Cities of Vesuvius
Portrait of a husband and wife;
Pompeii,Italy AD 70-79
Originally formed part of a Fourth Style wall
of an exedra, recessed area on the opening
of the atrium of a Pompeian house.
Standard attributes of Roman marriage
portraits are displayed here with the man
holding a scroll and the woman holding a
stylus and a wax writing tablet. These
portraits suggested high education even if it
wasn’t true of the subjects.
The heads are individualized to the subject’s
features, not simply standard types.
This is the equivalent of modern wedding
photographs.
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