Roman Art and Architecture

• Began around the eighth century BC (early 700’s BC)

•Highly sophisticated society

•The Romans were the most powerful civilization and eventually dominated the Western world

•The Romans created an empire, and absorbed the cultures from those they conquered

•In painting and sculpture, the Romans often borrowed from and imitated the Greeks (whom they conquered)

ArchitectureRomans made some of their greatest contributions in architecture, especially the invention and use of arches.

•The development of the arch eliminated the need for columns

•Therefore buildings had vast interior spaces

•Buildings were impressive because of their size and practicality (rather than aesthetic feeling)

Colosseum- Rome (72-80 AD) •Created to hold spectacles (shows), such as battles between animals and gladiators

This building could hold 50,000 Romans in the marble seated interior

Vespasianus built the Colosseum for spectacular events in 72 AD. He did this, because he wanted to impress and because he wanted to make the citizens happy. With help of a large army of slaves and removable stagings, he built the Colosseum 10 years.

Why does it look like this (a ruin):

•Later citizens and architects damaged the colosseum by using the marble from this building to construct other buildings

•It has experienced many earthquakes

•Damaged by pollution especially acid rain

Just like in the movie ‘The Gladiator’ the Colosseum had elaborate bloodthirsty events:

•Gladiator matches-the gladiators were often slaves or criminals, who were trained to fight to each other on life and death. They also fought against lions and tigers.

•Elaborate staged performances of battles.

•Navel battles were staged and the lower vaults were flooded- they built smaller versions of the ships and had mock battles

•Celebrations of Roman victories where captured people and goods were displayed in pomp and ceremony

•Chariot races

•Boxing-matches, archery-matches

•The last bloodthirsty event was in 523 A.D.

A heavy wooden floor covered the cells below, which contained the gladiators and the animals. The floor was made of wood. There was sand on the that floor, so the blood could easily be taken away. The word arena is descended of the Latin word for sand or beach.

•The outer wall is as high as a 16 story building, and went around the whole structure

•The exterior wall is divided into four horizontal bands; large arched openings piercing the lower three.

•This building contains three types of columns: Doric (first band), Ionic (second band), Corinthian (third band)

•Statues filled the arched niches ( a recess or hollowed out area in the wall) and arches

•Concrete arches, walls and vaults (which were covered in marble) made up several kilometres of passageways

barrel vault or tunnel vault: The simplest form of a vault, consisting of a continuous surface of semicircular or pointed sections. It resembles a barrel or tunnel which has been cut in half lengthwise

groin vault: A vault produced by the intersection at right angles of two barrel (tunnel) vaults. Sometimes the arches of groin vaults may be pointed instead of round.

Pantheon, Rome (118-125) •Built to honour all the gods

•Floor space is 144 feet in diameter, and the top of the dome is 144 feet above the floor

•On the outside, a colonnade of Corinthian columns, cut from single blocks of stone, support a Greek style pediment Setting for Angels and Demons, Dan Browns

book before The DaVinci Code

   A single "eye" or oculus, 8.23 m (30 feet) in diameter in the top of the dome provides the interior’s only source of light, rainfall is carried away by an elaborate underground drainage system.

•Concrete dome is thin at the top and thicken as it meets the walls (43.4 m inside diameter)

•The dome is decorated with a series of recessed (hollowed out) rectangular panels.

• As the marble inlay floor patterns indicate, the Pantheon is built on an interplay of circles and squares. The interior of the drum area is decorated with marble columns and coloured marble panels.

•Walls are over 20 feet thick, faced with brick, are massive enough to support the tremendous weight of the dome

The Pantheon (from Greek Pantheion, meaning "Shrine of all the Gods") is a building in Rome which was originally built as a temple to the seven deities of the seven planets in the state religion of Ancient Rome, but which has been a Christian church since the 7th century. It is the best-preserved of all Roman buildings and the oldest important building in the world with its original roof intact. (en.wikipedia.org/)

The Baths of Caracalla, Rome (215) •Spanned over 30 acres and had a bathhouse measuring 750 feet by 380 feet.

•Contained several pools of various temperatures

•Also consisted of libraries, offices, meeting rooms, conversation rooms and spaces for recreation

The interior of the concrete structure was roofed with vaults that spanned enormous spaces

MODEL OF THE BATHS

Theatre of Herodes Atticus, Athens (2nd century AD) •The performance was given from the stage, and important spectators were seated in the orchestra (stage area)

•The seating was a semi circle, built on the side of the Acropolis in Athens

•Could seat up to 5000 people

Still used today – the 2004 Olympic Games had concerts there and the marathon finished at the theatre.

The Arch of Constantine, Rome (312-312 AD)

•Triumphal arches are known from about 200 BC. They were intended as imposing free-standing portals through which paraded the victors and victims of Rome. This arch, one of the largest built, celebrates Constantine’s assumption of power

•It is a large structure with three arches through it

Covered in detailed bas relief sculptures, many of the statues on it came from other monuments in Rome

Pont du Gard (1rst century BC) LOCATION (FRANCE)

•Made up of arches and vaults

•The pont-du -guard is a triple-storied aqueduct built of stone (without mortar)

•Bridges the gorge of the Gard River, first level is a road, third level an water carrier

It ran for about 30 miles and supplied Nimes daily with 22,000 tons of water.

PETRA"... match me such a marvel, save in Eastern clime

A rose-red city, half as old as time.["Petra", Dean Burgen]

•Petra is located in modern day Jordan- its called the Hidden City

• first established sometime around the 6th century BC, by the Nabataean Arabs, a nomadic tribe who laid the foundations of a commercial empire that extended into Syria.

•largely in Nabataean hands until around 100AD, when the Romans took over.

Petra lies about 3-5 hours south of modern Amman, about 2 hours north of Aqaba, on the edges of the mountainous desert of the Wadi Araba. The city is surrounded by towering hills of rust-coloured sandstone which gave the city

some natural protection against invaders.

Entranceway The Siq

Monastery

The Khazneh (~first century BCE)- (site of the Indiana Jones movie) The name means 'treasury‘- comes from the legend that it was used as a hiding place for treasure. In practice, it seems to have been something between a temple and a tomb, possibly both at once.

•carved their temples and tombs into the sandstone

Royal tombs

The first tomb in line is the Urn Tomb , a well-preserved monument that faces out over an open terrace fronted by a double row of vaults. A colonnaded cloister runs along the northern side of the terrace. The elaborate facade fronts a single, unadorned room, this one measuring nearly 20 metres on each side

Roman Amphitheatre-8,000-seat.

Some distance away from the Royal Tombs, to the north, there is one more tomb, which was built in AD 130 for the Roman governor of the city under Hadrian, Sextius Florentinus

Further sites on Petrahttp://www.raingod.com/angus/Gallery/Photos/MiddleEast/Jordan/Petra/index.html

http://www.panoramaproductions.net/tr_petra.htm

http://www.petraphotos.com/

http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/petra/

Roman Sculpture Greeks Romans

•Preferred idealistic portraits•Likes public monuments

•Romans wanted realistic portraits•Romans served private needs•Believed a person’s character could best be shown with facial features.•Often commissioned people’s heads -busts

•They borrowed heavily from the Greeks  

•However, they also created original portraits to honour their emperors and emphasized their greatness

•Often it was only the head and upper torso which were depicted

Bust of Augustus, Meroe, Sudan (C. Julius Caesar Octavianus), emperor of Rome, 27 BC-14 AD. Upon defeating Anthony and Cleopatra in 31 BC. (Julius Caesar’s nephew))

•Made of bronze and has eyes of glass paste

•Realistic appearance and individualized expression

•Not an idealized figure; the Romans were interested in showing what their rulers looked like.

•This bust was discovered in Meroe (southern Sudan), apparently having been plundered from imperial estates in Egypt.

Portrait of a Roman, c. 80 BC, marble, life-size, Palazzo Torlonia, Rome

•objective realism

•.the sculptor’s aim was to reveal character and strength in figures of authority.

•The characteristics of sternness ruggedness and nobility can be contrasted to the idealism and serenity of Greek Classical sculpture.

Equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius Rome (161-180 AD)

•Equestrian statue (horse and rider)

•over life size, realistic detail

•Made of bronze

•It’s about 1800 years old and the only such bronze to survive in such good condition

•The size of the figure is large in comparison to the horse

Lacoon and his Sons•Roman copy of a Greek Hellenistic original from c. 200 BCE

•marble, height 1.84 m, Vatican.

•Trojan priest Laocoön and his two sons are attacked at by giant serpents.

•.The date of the Laocoön is controversial, some scholars arguing for the late second century BCE, others for c. 50 BCE.

Roman Painting -Fresco•The Romans used paintings to decorate and colour the interiors of houses

•Still life's, portraits, landscape, and mythological subjects are found on walls in Pompeii and other excavated sites

•Often landscapes and architectural scenes were painted to serve as an “open widows” to provide a feeling of greater space in small rooms.

•All Roman paintings were done in frescos which is a method of painting wet plaster with pigment.

•Entire plaster-covered walls were frescoed to look like marble and wood paneling, or were gaily decorated with flowers and vines, almost like wall paper

•Portraits were sometimes painted on walls to record how members of the family looked.

Portrait of a Young Girl, Pompeii (79AD) Fresco.

•She is holding a stylus to her lips as if thinking about what to write.

•This painting many be a girl who died young and whose family wished to remember her.

Mosaics•Romans excelled in this art.

•Small bits of marble were cut, polished, and fitted together to make an image

•The sizes were approximately 1 to 2 cm across

•Extremely small stones were used to create wall mosaics many less than a millimetre in diameter

When done, the entire image was polished to feel like a smooth sheet of glass

Young Women Exercising, Roman villa at Piazza Armerina (early 4th century AD)

•They almost seem to be involved in an ancient aerobic class or gym work out.