Art History Test 2 Information
TETRARCH
Early 4th Century CE Late Empire
Hellenistic
-Artists of the Hellenistic period developed visions discernibly distinct from those of their Classical Greek predecessors. Where earlier artists sought to codify a generalized artistic ideal, Hellenistic artists shifted focus to the individual and the specific. They turned increasingly from the heroic to the everyday, from aloof serenity to individual emotion, and from decorous drama to emotional melodrama. Their works appeal to the senses through luscious or lustrous surface treatments and to our hearts as well as our intellects through expressive subjects and poses. Although such tendencies are already evident during the Late Classical period of the fourth century bce, they became much more pronounced in Hellenistic art. Hellenistic sculptors produced an enormous variety of work in a wide range of materials, techniques, and styles. The period was marked by two broad and contrasting trends. One (sometimes called anti-Classical) abandoned Classical strictures and experimented freely with new forms and subjects. This radical style was practiced in Pergamon and other eastern centers of Greek culture. The other trend emulated earlier Classical models. Sculptors selected aspects of favored works by fourth-century bce sculptors—especially Praxiteles and Lysippos—and incorporated them into their own works.
APHRODITE OF MELOS
110 BCE Hellenistic This nostalgic interest in Late Classical style is exemplified by the APHRODITE OF MELOS (FIG. 5-39), found on the Aegean island of Melos by French excavators in the early nineteenth century. This sculpture was intended by its maker to recall the Aphrodite of Knidos by Praxiteles (see fig. 5-34), and indeed the head, with its dreamy gaze, suggests the lost Praxitelean work. But the twisting stance and strong projection of the knee, as well as the rich, three-dimensional quality of the drapery, are typical of Hellenistic art. Moreover, the juxtaposition of soft flesh with the crisper texture of drapery, especially since it seems to be slipping off the figure, adds an insistent note of erotic tension that is thoroughly Hellenistic.
COLUMN OF TRAJAN
113 CE Roman Imperial Behind the Basilica Ulpia stood twin libraries built to house the emperor's collection of Latin and Greek texts. These buildings flanked an open court, the location of a grand column that became Trajan's tomb (FIG. 6-26). The COLUMN OF TRAJAN was carved with dense reliefs depicting his victorious campaign against the Dacians (102-106 ce). This long, spiraling narrative strip almost 625 feet if laid out straight—includes more than 2,500 individual figures, linked by landscape and architecture, punctuated by the recurring figure of Trajan.
DOME OF THE PANTHEON
118 CE Roman Imperial Trajan's well-educated and widely traveled successor, Hadrian, was responsible for the most remarkable ancient building surviving in Rome, one of the marvels of world architecture in any age. This temple to the Olympian gods, known as the PANTHEON ("all the gods"), was built between 118 and 128 ce (FIGS. 6-27 and 6-28). The entrance porch, made to resemble the façade of a typical rectangular Roman temple, was all that original viewers could see since their approach was controlled by an enclosed courtyard (see fig. 6-24). The actual circular shape of the building was concealed. This theatrical presentation allowed the soaring and enclosing space of the giant rotunda (circular room) surmounted with a huge, bowl-shaped dome, 143 feet in diameter and 143 feet from the floor to its summit, to be a surprise encountered by viewers only after they passed through the rectilinear and restricted aisles of the portico toward the huge main door. Even without the controlled court-yard approach, encountering this glorious space today is still an overwhelming experience—for many of us, one that is repeated even on successive visits to the rotunda.
EXTERIOR VIEW AND PLAN OF THE PANTHEON
118 CE Roman Imperial Trajan's well-educated and widely traveled successor, Hadrian, was responsible for the most remarkable ancient building surviving in Rome, one of the marvels of world architecture in any age. This temple to the Olympian gods, known as the PANTHEON ("all the gods"), was built between 118 and 128 ce (FIGS. 6-27 and 6-28). The entrance porch, made to resemble the façade of a typical rectangular Roman temple, was all that original viewers could see since their approach was controlled by an enclosed courtyard (see fig. 6-24). The actual circular shape of the building was concealed. This theatrical presentation allowed the soaring and enclosing space of the giant rotunda (circular room) surmounted with a huge, bowl-shaped dome, 143 feet in diameter and 143 feet from the floor to its summit, to be a surprise encountered by viewers only after they passed through the rectilinear and restricted aisles of the portico toward the huge main door. Even without the controlled court-yard approach, encountering this glorious space today is still an overwhelming experience—for many of us, one that is repeated even on successive visits to the rotunda.
ATHENA ATTACKING THE GIANTS
150 BCE Hellenistic Greek he Greek gods fight here not only with giants, but also with grotesque hybrids emerging from the bowels of the earth. In one section, the goddess Athena has forced a winged monster to his knees (FIG. 5-45). Inscriptions along the base of the sculpture identify her foe as Alkyoneos, son of the earth goddess Ge, who rises from the ground on the right, pleading for her son's life. At upper right, a winged Victory reaches to crown the victorious Athena.
MARCUS AURELIUS
176 CE Roman Imperial Hadrian's successor, MARCUS AURELIUS, was renowned both for his intellectual and his military achievements. In a gilded bronze equestrian statue, the commanding emperor wears a tunic and short, heavy cloak (FIG. 6-32). The raised foreleg of his horse is poised to trample a defeated foe (now lost), but the emperor wears no armor and carries no weapons. Like Egyptian kings, he conquers effortlessly by divine will. And like his illustrious predecessor Augustus (see fig. 6-12), he reaches out to those around him in a conventional rhetorical gesture of address. In a lucky error or twist of fate, this statue came mistakenly to be revered during the Middle Ages as a portrait of Constantine, the first Christian emperor. Consequently, it escaped being melted down, a fate that befell many other bronze statues from antiquity.
COMMODUS AS HERCULES
191 CE Roman Imperial Marcus Aurelius was succeeded by his son Commodus, a man without political skill, administrative competence, or intellectual distinction. During his unfortunate reign (180-192 ce), Com-modus devoted himself to luxury and frivolous pursuits. He did, however, sponsor some of the finest artists of the day. In a spectacu- lar marble bust (FIG. 6-33), the emperor is presented as Hercules, adorned with references to the hero's legendary labors—his club, the skin and head of the Nemean lion, and the golden apples from the gardens of the Hesperides. Commodus' likeness emphasizes his family resemblance to his more illustrious and powerful father (see fig. 6-32), but this portrait also captures well his vanity through the grand pretensions of his costume and the Classical idealization of his body type.
House of the Silver Wedding in Pompeii
1st Century CE Roman Imperial Luxurious Pompeian townhouses usually consisted of small rooms laid out around one or two open courts, the atrium and the peristyle (FIG. 6-15). People entered the house through a vestibule and stepped into the atrium, a large space with a pool or cistern for catching rainwater. Farther into the house was the peristyle, a planted courtyard enclosed by columns. Private areas—the family dining and sitting rooms, as well as bedrooms (cubicula) and service areas, such as the kitchen and servants' quarters—could be arranged around the peristyle or the atrium. Off the peristyle was a formal reception room where the head of the household conferred with clients. The mild southern climate permitted gardens to flourish year-round in Pompeii, so the peristyle was often turned into an outdoor living room with painted walls, fountains, and sculpture, as in the House of the Vettii (FIG. 6-16), built by two brothers wealthy freed slaves A. Vettius Conviva and A. Vettius Restitutus.
MARKET WOMEN
1st century Hellenistic -The Late Classical normative beauty of the Aphrodite of Meloscontrasts sharply with the seemingly unvarnished portrayal of an elderly woman carrying a basket of vegetables and a chicken, also carved in the second century bce (FIG. 5-40). At first glance she seems to be simply an old peasant woman doing her marketing. However, the disarray of her elegantly designed dress and her unfo- cused stare suggest that she represents an aging, dissolute follower of the wine god Dionysos, struggling on her way to make an offering. Such representations of people from all levels of society, as well as a taste for unusual physical types, became popular during the Hellenistic period. -Devote of wine God. The fact that she has changes her image. -When does freedom of religion start becoming a burden. -Too real, not beautiful, not an ideal. -Reflects something bad
AUGUSTUS OF PRIMAPORTA
20 BCE Roman Imperial After Julius Caesar's death in 44 bce and a period of renewed fighting, his 19-year-old great-nephew and adopted son, Octavian, assumed power. Although Octavian kept the forms of Republican government, he concentrated real authority in himself, and his accession marks the end of the Republic. By 27 bce the Senate had conferred on him the title of "Augustus" (meaning "exalted," "sacred"), and as emperor, he began to use portraiture as political propaganda. An over-life-size statue discovered in the villa of his wife Livia, the AUGUSTUS OF PRIMAPORTA (FIG. 6-12), shows Augustus as he wanted to be seen and remembered. His image is inspired by heroic Greek figures such as the Spear Bearer (see fig. 5-30) and portrays him in the physical prime of his youth rather than the advanced age idealized in the coin portrait of Julius Caesar. At the same time the emperor's head is rendered with sufficient naturalistic detail to make him easily recognizable. Augustus wears a cuirass (body armor) that portrays defeated barbarians and scenes of his military victories. His bare feet have led some scholars to propose that the work was made after his death to commemorate his apotheosis, or elevation to divine status.
Epigonos (?) DYING GALLIC TRUMPETER
220 BCE Hellenistic The sculpture is known today only from Roman marble copies. One figure, with the name Epigonos inscribed on its base, shows the agonizing death of a wounded Celtic soldier-trumpeter (FIG. 5-43). His wiry, lime-spiked hair, mustache, and neck ring or torc (reputedly the only item of dress the Gauls wore in battle), identify him as a "barbarian" (the ancient Greek term for all foreigners, whom they considered uncivilized), and this portrayal conveys his dignity and heroism in defeat, inspiring in viewers both admiration and pity for this fallen warrior. There is a sense of arrested motion as the trumpeter supports himself on his right arm, struggling to remain upright.
TEMPLE OF PORTUNUS
2nd Century BCE Roman Republic Architecture during the Republic reflected both Etruscan and Greek traditions. In religious architecture, the Romans favored urban temples set, in the Etruscan manner, in the midst of congested commercial centers, rather than isolated temples in sacred precincts as preferred by the ancient Greeks. An early example is a small, rectangular temple on a podium (raised platform) built in Rome during the late second century bce, perhaps dedicated to Portunus, the god of harbors and ports (FIG. 6-10). It uses the Etruscan system of a rectangular cella (interior room) and a colonnaded porch at one end reached by a broad, inviting staircase. The Romans adopted the Greek Ionic order here, but in contrast to Greek temples, only the columns on the porch are free-standing and structural. Around the cella, engaged half-columns were applied to articulate the load-bearing wall. In another departure from the Greek tradition—which had encouraged viewers to walk around temples, exploring their uniformly articulated sculptural mass—Roman temples are defined in relation to interior spaces, which viewers are invited to enter through one opening along the longitudinal axis of a symmetrical plan.
Heraklitos THE UNSWEPT FLOOR
2nd Century CE Roman Imperial Mosaics, already used widely in Hellenistic times, were popular in wealthy Romans' homes. Mosaic designs were created with pebbles or small cubes of colored stone or glass called tesserae, which were pressed into a soft cement called grout to hold them in place and fill the spaces between them. Some highly skilled mosaicists copied well-known paintings, employing very small tesserae to create subtle shadings and color changes. The "Alexander mosaic" ( S EE F I G. 5-36), once the floor of a house in Pompeii, is a superb example. And in an "unswept floor" mosaic ( F I G. 6-17), Heraklitos adapted the trompe l'oeil ("fool the eye") representation of a floor littered with table debris by an earlier Hellenistic painter named Sosos. Heraklitos' mosaic version, made three centuries later—including a mouse among the table scraps—portrays the refuse of a lavish meal—bones of fish and fowl, shells and nuts, fruits and twigs—in meticulous detail, even showing the shadows these modeled, three-dimensional objects cast on the floor.
ALEXANDER THE GREAT CONFRONTS DARIUS III AT THE BATTLE OF ISSOS
310 BCE Hellenistic After establishing an empire that stretched from Greece south to Egypt, and as far east as India, Alexander died of a fever in Babylon at age 33 in 323 bce. His untimely end left his vast empire with no administrative structure and no appointed successor. Almost immediately, his generals turned against one another, and local leaders tried to regain their lost autonomy. By the early third century bce, three of Alexander's generals—Antigonus, Ptolemy, and Seleucus-had carved out kingdoms. The Antigonids controlled Macedonia and mainland Greece; the Ptolemies ruled Egypt; and the Seleucids controlled Anatolia, Syria, Mesopotamia, and Persia. Each of these regions followed a different political course, but they were unified artistically and culturally by Greek ideas and Greek art. This Hellenistic world would last until the rise of Rome in the second and first centuries bce.
Lysippos MAN SCRAPING HIMSELF (APOXYOMENOS)
325 BCE Late Classical -The other major sculptor of the fourth century bce whose name and fame come down to us is Lysippos. We know Alexander the Great commissioned an official portrait from Lysippos, who portrayed the ruler with head slightly turned and raised upward toward the sky, as if waiting to receive divine advice. But this sculpted portrait does not survive, nor do any of Lysippos' original statues. -There are, however, Roman copies of his famous portrayal of a man scraping himself (Apoxyomenos) (FIG. 5-35). This typically Classical subject—a nude male athlete—recalls the work of Polykleitos (see fig. 5-30), a sculptor Lysippos admired greatly. But Lysippos' figure reflects a different canon of proportions, and stands in a different posture, swaying with a pronounced curve. As in the contemporary work of Praxiteles, there is an implied narrative here—a young man caught cleaning up after his workout, removing oil and dirt from his body with a scraping tool called a strigil. Perhaps more significantly, in contrast to the compact frontal mass of Polykleitos' Spear Bearer, Lysippos' Man Scraping Himself reaches out into the surrounding space, inviting viewers to move around the statue in order to absorb its full impact. -s one of the conventional subjects of ancient Greek votive sculpture; it represents an athlete, caught in the familiar act of scraping sweat and dust from his body with the small curved instrument that the Romans called a strigil.
ERECHTHEION
406 BCE High Classical Period -On one side of the parthenon. Its more elegant, oldest building. -second important temple erected on the Acropolis under Perikles' building program -The Erechtheion stands on the site of the mythical contest between the sea god Poseidon and Athena for patronage of Athens. During this contest, Poseidon struck a rock with his trident (three-pronged harpoon), bringing forth a spout of water, but Athena gave an olive tree and won the contest. The Athenians enclosed what they believed to be this sacred rock, bearing the marks of the trident, in the Erechtheion's north porch. Another area housed a sacred spring dedicated to Erechtheus, a legendary king of Athens, during whose reign the goddess Demeter was said to have instructed the Athenians in the arts of growing crops and other plants. It also housed the venerable wooden cult statue of Athena that was the focus of the Panathenaic festival. -six caryatids (female figures acting as columns) support the entablature of yet another porch. -Taller and more slender in proportion than the Doric, the Ionic order also has richer and more elaborately carved decoration.
PARTHENON
432 BCE High Classical Period A huge temple constructed in Athens to worship the goddess Athena. -The Parthenon itself replaced an older temple of Athena, which historians call the Pre-Parthenon or Older Parthenon, that was destroyed in the Persian invasion of 480 BC. The temple is archaeoastronomically aligned to the Hyades.[5] Like most Greek temples, the Parthenon was used as a treasury. For a time, it also served as the treasury of the Delian League, which later became the Athenian Empire. In the 5th century AD, the Parthenon was converted into a Christian church dedicated to the Virgin Mary. -A temple on the Athenian Acropolis, Greece, dedicated to the maiden goddess Athena, whom the people of Athens considered their patron -They added it for political reasons. -Used for spiritual events, -he temple's main function was to shelter the monumental statue of Athena that was made by Pheidias out of gold and ivory. -The viewers never entered a temple and could only glimpse the interior statues through the open doors. The Parthenon was conceived in a way that the aesthetic elements allow for a smooth transition between the exterior and the interior that housed the chryselephantine statue of Athena. -According to Greek mythology, Athena, goddess of wisdom and civilization, claimed Athens as her city, and this new temple, dedicated to the Virgin Athena (Athena Parthenos in Greek), would proclaim this association, rising triumphantly over the city. The Parthenon, designed and built by the architects Kallikrates and Iktinos, was meant to dominate the other structures on the hilltop site (FIG.5-25). The builders used the finest white marble throughout even on the roof, replacing the customary terracotta tiles. -Persians had destroyed the site's earlier buildings and statues in 480 bce, and Perikles promoted and organized the rebuilding of its monuments, beginning with the Parthenon in 447 bce. -It follows the traditional cella and peristyle plan, and to counteract the optical illusions that would distort its appearance when seen from a distance
LAPITH FIGHTING A CENTAUR
432 BCE High Classical Period Originally, the Parthenon's white marble columns and inner walls supported bands of brightly painted low-relief sculpture. The exterior Doric frieze included 92 carved metopes with scenes of victory. On the south side, they depicted the fight between half-human centaurs and a legendary Greek tribe known as the Lapiths. The Lapith victory over the centaurs represented the triumph of reason over animal passions. In one relief (FIG. 5-28), what should be a death struggle seems more like a choreographed, athletic ballet, displaying the Lapith's muscles and graceful movements against the implausible backdrop of his carefully draped cloak. -According to class: Lapith fighting a centaur. The Centaur goes to the Lapidth's party, they drink and their animal instinct takes over. Moral is that thinking and reasoning takes over animals and drunks. The smart people always win. -Impossible to be done by one person, because they were carved.There had to be a team of sculptors.
Polykleitos SPEAR BEARER (DORYPHOROS)
440 BCE High Classical Period In most cases they stood in a solid stance with their weight bearing down on both feet rather than the Spear-Bearer's one. As for their arms, they normally stood at their sides or crossed over their chest, but the Spear-Bearer has his arms in a relaxed position seemingly swinging at his sides. To me, all of this points to the obvious fact that in Classical times, the sculptures were more interested in reality than anything else. Just as in the Kritios Boy, Doryphoros is said to show the natural, perfect male body. -Greek sculptors sought an ideal for representations of the human body. Studying human appearances closely, the sculptors of the Classical period selected those attributes they considered most desirable and beautiful, such as regular facial features, smooth skin, and particular body proportions, then combined them into a single ideal. -The best-known art theorist of the Classical period was the sculptor Polykleitos of Argos. About 450 B C E he developed a set of rules for constructing what he considered the ideal human figure, which he set down in a treatise called "The Canon" (kanon is Greek for "measure," "rule," or "law"). To illustrate his theory, Polykleitos created a larger-than-life bronze statue of a man carrying a spear—perhaps the hero Achilles (F I G. 5-30). Neither the treatise nor the original statue has survived, but both were widely discussed in the writings of his contemporaries, and later Roman artists made marble copies of the Spear Bearer (Doryphoros). By studying these copies, scholars have tried to determine the set of measurements that defined the ideal proportions in Polykleitos' canon. -perfectly balanced figure. -contrapposto -male athlete, perfectly balanced, with the whole weight of the upper body by the straight right leg. -Reminds us of Kritios Boy
KRITIOS BOY
480 BCE Early Classical Period Acropolis, Athens; 480 BCE; Marble; Carved by Kritos?; how a human really stands; tilted head; severe style- showing emotion, contrapposto
THEATER OF EPIDAUROS
4th century BCE Late Classical/Hellenistic -In ancient Greece, the theater offered more than entertainment; it was a vehicle for the communal expression of religious beliefs through music, poetry, and dance. During the fifth century BCE, the plays were primarily tragedies in verse based on popular myths and were performed at festivals dedicated to Dionysos. The three great Greek tragedians—Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides—created works that defined tragedy for centuries. -Because ancient theaters were used continuously and frequently modified, none have survived in their original form. The largely intact theater at Epidauros, however, which dates from the fourth century BCE, is a characteristic early example (FI G. 5-38). A semicircle of tiered seats built into a hillside overlooked a circular performance area, called the orchestra (from the Greek orkhestra, meaning "to dance"), at the center of which was an altar to Dionysos. Rising behind the orchestra was a two-tiered stage structure made up of the vertical skene (scene)—an architectural backdrop for performances that also screened the backstage area from view—and the proskenion (proscenium), a raised platform in front of the skene that was increasingly used over time as an extension of the orchestra. Ramps connecting the proskenion with lateral passageways provided access to the stage for performers. Steps gave the audience access to the 55 rows of seats and divided the seating area into uniform wedge-shaped sections. -At Epidauros, the tiers of seats above the wide corridor, or gangway, were added at a much later date.) This design provided uninterrupted sight lines and excellent acoustics, and allowed for the efficient entrance and exit of 12,000 spectators—a basic plan not greatly improved upon since.
HERMES AND THE INFANT DIONYSOS
4th-century BCE original Late Classical Praxiteles or his followers -Indeed, there is a hint of human narrative: Hermes teases the infant god of wine with a bunch of grapes. But the soft modulations in the musculature, the deep folds in the draperies, and the rough locks of hair create a sensuous play of light and shadow over the figure's surface, emphasizing textural distinctions found in nature. -Remarkably, Greek art continued to evolve during this tur- bulent period. In their restless search for an ideal human form, sculptors, most notably Praxiteles and Lysippos in the fourth century bce, developed a new canon of proportions for figures. Polykleitos' fifth-century bce canon called for figures 61⁄2 or 7 times the height of the head. Praxiteles, who worked in Athens from about 370 to 335 bce or later, created figures about 8 or more "heads" tall. A marble sculpture of HERMES AND THE INFANT DIONYSOS (FIG. 5-33)—probably a Hellenistic or Roman copy but so fine that generations of scholars believed it to be an original statue by Praxiteles—has a smaller head and a more sensual and sinuous body than Polykleitos' Spear Bearer. -Its off-balance, S-curve pose contrasts sharply with that of the tenser earlier work. And the subject is less detached
Master Sculptor Vulca (?) APOLLO
500 BCE Etruscan Etruscan artists excelled at making monumental sculpture not out of stone, but with terracotta. It required great technical and physical skill to prevent these works from collapsing under their own weight while the raw clay was still heavy with moisture. It was also challenging to regulate kiln temperatures during the long firing process. This life-size terracotta figure of APOLLO (FIG. 6-2) was made about 510-500 bce. Its well-developed body and "Archaic smile" demonstrate that Etruscan sculptors knew the work of their Archaic Greek counterparts (see fig. 5-20). But the Etruscans did not represent their gods in the nude; Apollo is partly concealed by a rippling robe. His dynamic stride imparts a vigor that contrasts with the rigid stance of Archaic Greek kouroi. The sense of purpose-ful movement that characterizes his pose is a prominent feature of Etruscan sculpture and painting. This Apollo was originally placed on the roof ridge of an Etruscan temple at Veii as part of a four-figure narrative scene depicting a labor of Hercules that involved fighting with Apollo for possession of a deer sacred to Diana, goddess of the moon and hunting.
WALL PAINTING IN THE "IXION ROOM"
62 CE Roman Imperial A complex combination of painted fantasies fills the walls of a reception room off the peristyle garden (FIG. 6-18). At the base of the walls is a lavish simulated frieze of colored-marble revetment, imitating the actual stone veneers that are found in some Roman residences. Above this "marble" dado (the lower part of a wall) are broad areas of pure red or white, onto which are painted pictures resembling framed panel paintings, swags of floral garlands, or unframed figural vignettes. The framed picture seen here portrays a Greek mythological scene from the story of Ixion, who was bound by Zeus to a spinning wheel as punishment for attempting to seduce Hera. Between these pictorial fields, and along a long strip above them that runs around the entire room, are fantastic architectural vistas with multicolored columns and undulating entablatures that recede into fictive space through the use of fanciful linear perspective (see "Starter Kit," p. xvi). The fact that these architectural renderings are occupied here and there by volumetric figures only enhances their sense of three-dimensionality.
PERISTYLE GARDEN
62 CE Roman Imperial Luxurious Pompeian townhouses usually consisted of small rooms laid out around one or two open courts, the atrium and the peristyle (FIG. 6-15). People entered the house through a vestibule and stepped into the atrium, a large space with a pool or cistern for catching rainwater. Farther into the house was the peristyle, a planted courtyard enclosed by columns. Private areas—the family dining and sitting rooms, as well as bedrooms (cubicula) and service areas, such as the kitchen and servants' quarters—could be arranged around the peristyle or the atrium. Off the peristyle was a formal reception room where the head of the household conferred with clients. The mild southern climate permitted gardens to flourish year-round in Pompeii, so the peristyle was often turned into an outdoor living room with painted walls, fountains, and sculpture, as in the House of the Vettii (FIG. 6-16), built by two brothers wealthy freed slaves A. Vettius Conviva and A. Vettius Restitutus.
COLOSSEUM
72 CE Roman Imperial Architecture Romans were huge fans of sports events, and the Flavian emperors catered to their taste by building splendid facilities, notably the Flavian Amphitheater (FIG. 6-20), Rome's greatest arena, begun in 72 ceduring the reign of Vespasian and dedicated by Titus in 80 ce. This building came to be known as the "Colosseum," because a gigantic statue of Nero, called the Colossus, stood next to it. The Flavians erected the arena to bolster their popularity in Rome, and in this enormous entertainment center, audiences watched blood sports and spectacles including animal hunts, fights to the death between gladiators or between gladiators and wild animals, and perform- ances by trained animals and acrobats. The opening performance in 80 ce lasted 100 days, during which time, it was claimed, 9,000 wild animals and 2,000 gladiators died for the amusement of the spectators. For its ease of crowd movement and unobstructed views, the design of the Colosseum, which held about 50,000 spectators, has never been improved upon. The Colosseum was built entirely of travertine and tufa blocks and of concrete faced with stone. Eighty barrel vaults built to cover corridors and stairs radiate from the arena's center, forming groin vaults where they intersect the barrel ring vaults that cover the passageways around the perimeter (see "Arch and Vault," p. 137). These complex curved shapes could be formed of concrete faster and more cheaply than from stone blocks, which had to be cut by trained masons. The concrete consisted of stone rubble (caementa) in a binder made from volcanic sand and water. This rough but strong core was faced with finer, worked stone.The curving outer wall of the COLOSSEUM consists of three levels of arcades surmounted by a wall-like top, or attic story (FIG.6-21). Every arch is framed by engaged columns, which support friezes that mark the division between levels. Each level uses a different architectural order, and the levels become increasingly decorative as they rise. At ground level are columns in the Tuscan order (see "Roman Architectural Orders," p. 146); the Ionic order is used on the second level, the Corinthian on the third, and flat Corinthian pilasters adorn the fourth. These are purely decorative elements, serving no structural function. The systematic use of stacked orders in a logical sequence from sturdy Tuscan to delicate Corinthian follows a Hellenistic architectural tradition and is still popular today as a way of articulating and organizing the façades of large buildings.
AULUS METELLUS
80 BCE Roman Republic The convention of emphasizing the effects of aging in portraits that appear to be accurate and faithful descriptions of actual individuals may have derived from the practice of making and displaying death masks of deceased relatives (see "Roman Portraiture," p. 135). During the Republican period, patrons clearly admired such seemingly realistic portraits and often turned to skilled Etruscan artists to execute them. The life-size bronze portrait of AULUS METELLUS (FIG. 6-8)—the Roman official's name is inscribed on the hem of his garment in Etruscan letters—depicts the man addressing a gathering, his arm outstretched and slightly raised, a pose expressive of rhetorical persuasiveness. The orator wears sturdy, laced leather boots and a folded and draped toga, the characteristic garment of Roman senators. According to Pliny the Elder, large statues like this were often placed atop columns as memorials.
Gemma Augustea
Early 1st century CE Roman Imperial The Gemma Augustea is divided into two registers that are crammed with figures and iconography. The upper register contains three historical figures and a host of deities and personifications. Our eyes immediately gravitate towards the center of the upper register and the two large enthroned figures, Roma (the personification of the city of Rome) and the emperor Augustus. Roma is surrounded by military paraphernalia while Augustus holds a scepter, a symbol of his right to rule and his role as the leader of the Roman Empire. At his feet is an eagle, a symbol of the god Jupiter and so we quickly realize that Augustus has close ties to the gods. Augustus is depicted as a heroic semi-nude, a convention usually reserved for deities. Augustus is not only stating that he has connections to gods, he is stating that he is also god-like.
PORTRAIT OF A MARRIED COUPLE
Mid-First Century CE Roman Imperial Portraits were also popular in wall painting. In this arresting double portrait of a young husband and wife from Pompeii (FIG. 6-31), the couple looks out from their simulated spatial world through the wall and into the viewers' space within the room. The swarthy, wispy-bearded man addresses us with a direct stare, holding a scroll in his left hand, a con- ventional attribute of educational achievement seen frequently in Roman portraits. Though his wife over- laps him to stake her claim to the foreground, her gaze out at us is less direct. Like him, she holds fashionable attributes of literacy—the stylus she elevates in front of her chin and the folding writing tablet on which she would use the stylus to inscribe words into a wax infill. This picture is comparable to a modern studio portrait—perhaps a wedding photograph—with its careful lighting and retouching, conventional poses and accoutrements. But the attention to physiognomic detail—note the differences in the spacing of their eyes and the shapes of their noses, ears, and lips—makes it quite clear that we are in the presence of actual human likenesses.
YOUNG FLAVIAN WOMAN
Roman Imperial 90 CE The development of art in Rome depended on private as well as public patronage, and private Roman patrons continued to expect recognizable likenesses in their portraits. This did not preclude idealization. The portrait of an unidentified YOUNG FLAVIAN WOMAN (FIG. 6-29) is idealized in a manner similar to the Augustus of Primaporta (see fig. 6-12). Her well-observed, recognizable features—strong nose and jaw, heavy brows, deep-set eyes, and long neck—contrast with the smoothly rendered flesh and soft, sensual lips. Her hair is piled high in an extraordinary mass of ringlets following the latest court fashion. Executing the head required skillful chiseling and drillwork, a technique for rapidly cutting deep grooves with straight sides used here to render the holes in the center of the curls. The overall effect, especially from a distance, is quite lifelike. The play of natural light over the more subtly sculpted marble surfaces simulates the textures of real skin and hair.
Praxiteles APHRODITE OF KNIDOS
350 BCE Late Classical -Around 350 bce, Praxiteles created a daring statue of Aphrodite, the goddess of love, for the city of Knidos in Asia Minor (FIG. 5-34). -For the first time, a well-known Greek sculptor depicted a goddess as a completely nude woman. The original sculpture is lost, but many Roman copies survive. As with the statue of Hermes, Praxiteles has incorporated a sense of narrative. -The goddess is preparing to take a bath. Her right hand is caught in a gesture of modesty that actually calls attention to her nudity. Her strong and well-toned body leans forward slightly with one knee bent in a seductive pose that emphasizes the swelling forms of her thighs and abdomen. - According to an old legend, Aphrodite herself journeyed to Knidos to see Praxiteles' statue and cried out in shock, "Where did Praxiteles see me naked?" -
PHOTOGRAPHIC MOCK-UP OF THE EAST PEDIMENT OF THE PARTHENON
432 BCE High Classical Period The statues of the east pediment above the entrance to the cella are the best preserved of the two groups (FIG. 5-27). Originally over 90 feet long, the pediment lacks its central part, amounting to about 40 feet, probably destroyed in the fifth century when Christians turned the Parthenon into a church and built an apse at the east end. The ensemble illustrated the birth of Athena.
WARRIOR
450 BCE Early Classical Period Greek -illustrates the developing skill of ancient Greek sculptors in depicting the male nude figure -It's got an X pattern (well balanced), more relaxed. -The man held a shield (parts are still visible) on his left arm and a spear in his right hand. He may have been part of a monument commemorating a military victory, perhaps against the Persians. -Bronze with bone and glass eyes, silver teeth, and copper lips and nipples. -may have either been thrown from a sinking ship by sailors trying to lighten the load or been lost in a shipwreck. The figure illustrated here reveals a striking balance between the idealized smoothness of "perfected" anatomy con-forming to Early Classical standards and the reproduction of details observed from nature, such as the swelling veins on the backs of the hands. Contrapposto is even more evident than in the "Kritios" Boy, and the toned musculature suggests a youthfulness inconsistent with the maturity of the heavy beard and almost haggard face. The lifelike quality of this bronze is further heightened by inserted eyeballs of bone and colored glass, silver plating on the teeth, copper inlays on lips and nipples, and attached eyelashes and eyebrows of separately cast strands of bronze.
PONT DU GARD
Late First Century BCE Roman Imperial -The three arcades of the aqueduct rise 160 feet (49 m) above the river. They exemplify the simplest use of the arch as a structural element. The thick base arcade supports a roadbed approximately 20 feet wide. The arches of the second arcade are narrower than the first and are set at one side of the roadbed. The narrow third arcade supports the water channel, 900 feet long on 35 arches, each of which is 23 feet high. -Roman invention to supply water to cities. It's a bridge of arches where the water was carried across the river. It took advantage of simple gravity flow and manipulated it to take about 100 gallons of water a day to every person in Nimes, France, which is where the aqueduct is found. From the late 1st century BCE. Built out of concrete. -As city dwellers, Romans also devoted their ingenuity and resources to secular architecture. In fact, it was public building projects related to the transport and storage of food and water that made Roman cities viable. Many impressive examples of Roman engineering still stand. A stunning example is the PONT DU GARD in southern France (FIG. 6-11), designed to carry water over the Gard River to the Roman city of Nîmes. This aqueduct—a structure with water conduits—was part of a system that used gravity to transport water from springs 30 miles to the north, providing 100 gallons of water a day for every person in Nîmes.
BASILICA ULPIA
113 CE Roman Imperial -A large rectangular building. Often with a clerestory, side aisles seperated from the center of the nave by colonades, and an apse at one or both ends. Roman centers for admin, later adapted to Christ and Church use. -The BASILICA ULPIA, one of the largest components of the Forum of Trajan (FIG. 6-25), was dedicated as a court of law in 113 ce. It was a grand, rectangular building partitioned into a large central area called a nave, flanked by two lower colonnaded aisles and entered through several doors on the long side of the building that faced the Forum's open square. Apses (rounded extensions) at each end provided imposing settings for judges when the court was in session.
MARSHALS AND YOUNG WOMEN
432 BCE High Classical Period - detail of the precession, from the lonic frieze on the east side of the parthenon. -The maidens in this detail, who walk with such grace and dignity, represent the Greek ideal of young womanhood, just as the muscular but poised marshals idealize manhood. The procession they participate in is an ideal one, outside time and place. The marble sculpture of the frieze was originally painted in dark blue, red, and ocher, and details such as the bridles and reins of the horses were added in bronze. To compensate for the dim lighting inside the peristyle, the top of the frieze band is carved in slightly higher relief than the lower part, tilting the figures outward to catch reflected light from the pavement. The procession of maidens attended by parade marshals, although only a fragment of the architectural decoration, epitomizes the extraordinary quality characterizing every detail of the temple.
