chapter 7 The Roman Empire

concrete was much less costly, fashion concrete shapes without internal supports.

Advantages of concrete

Domitian built this arch on the road leading the Roman Forum to honor his brother, the emperor Titus, who became a god after his death. Victories fill the spandrels (the area between the arch's curve and the framing columns and entablature) of the arcuated passageway

Arch of Titus

revived the classical style (Periclean Athens) - idealized portraits depicted him as an idealized youth and ambitious building program made lavish use of marble

Augustan Art style?

an extension of a simple arch, creating a semi-cylindrical ceiling over parallel walls. Can be illuminated only by light entering at either end of the tunnel, Roman builders could place windows at any point in a barrel vault, because once the concrete hardened, it formed a seamless sheet of "artificial stone" in which the openings do not lessen the vault's structural integrity, more stable. Barrel vaults require buttressing (lateral support) of the walls below the vaults to counteract their downward and outward thrust.

Barrel Vaults

• A complex system of concrete barrel vaults once held up the seats in the world's largest amphitheater, where 50,000 spectators could watch gladiatorial combats and wild animal hunts.

Colosseum

- stone temple employs the Ionic order, but has a staircase and free standing columns only in the front. - follow Etruscan pattern with a high podium and a flight of steps only at the front. - temple ratio of length to width is close to that of greek temples' - ionic colums, complete with flutes and bases and matching ionic frieze

Compare how the temple mixes etruscan and greek features

Constantinople

Constantine ac 300ce ended the persecution of Christians, and transferred the capital from Rome to ?

Artists revealed the anxiety and insecurity of the emperors in moving portraits.

During the chaotic era of the soldier emperors, artists revealed what in the emperors portraits.

27BCE-96 CE

Early Empire

a series of groin vaults covers an interior hall, a fenestrated (with openings or windows) sequence of groin vaults has advantage over a timber clerestory. Concrete vaults are relatively fireproof.

Fenestated sequence of groin vaults

the aim was to imitate costly marble panels using painted stucco relief. The style is Greek in origin and another example of the Hellenization of Republican architecture.

First style murals

formed by the intersections at right angles of two barrel vaults of equal size. appearing lighter than barrel vault and needs less buttressing. thrust is concentrated along the groins, the lines at the juncture of the two barrel vaults. Buttressing is needed only at the points where the groins meet the vault's vertical supports, usually (piers). The system leaves the area between the piers open, enabling light to enter. Builders can construct groin vaults using stone blocks, but stone groin vaults have the same structural limitations as stone barrel vaults do compared to their concrete counterparts.

Groin Vaults

emulating Greek statesmen and philosophers, was the first emperor to wear a beard. He built the Pantheon, a triumph of concrete technology.

Hadrian

rested on concrete cylindrical drums. a rounded arch rotated around the full circumference of a circle. concrete domes can be opened up even at their apex with a circular oculus (eye), enabling light to reach the vast spaces beneath

Hemispherical domes

new compositional schemes in relief sculptures; decursio- ritual circling of the imperial pyre psychological element in portraiture; imperial equestrain portrait exposing the ruler's character, thoughts, and soul. appeared weary, saddened, and even worried; strain of constant warfare on the frontiers and the burden of ruling a worldwide empire show in the portraits face

High Empire change in art

96-192 CE

High Empire time period

defeated Cleopatra and Mark Anthony at Actium in 31 BCE. This brought the last civil war of the republic to an end

How did Augustus become the first Emperor? and how did the roman empire begin?

in 509, the Romans overthrew the last Etruscan kings, and established a constitutional government (senate "a council of elders"), patricians were all leaders wealthy land owners and plebeians class of small farmers, later merchants and free slaves. A dictator appointed for the army during crisis.

How did the Republic period begin

- depicted the four co-rulers as nearly identical partners in power, not as distinct individuals. - idealism, naturalism, individuality, and personality have disappeared.

In group portraits, like the four tetrarchs, the artist depicted what?

- In the art of the Severans, Non naturalistic style; no sense of rushing motion, has a stately stillness, embraced by sculptors in the emperor's employ they had a long afterlife, represented the emperor as a central frontal figure disengaged from the action around him. Called more abstract style the late antique style

In the art of the Severans, what was the style?

193-337 CE

Late Empire period

753-509BCE

Monarchy time period

one of the world's most famous archaeological sites, which owes its preservation today to the devastating volcanic eruption of Mount Vesuvius. Before the Vesuvian eruption, the forum was the center of civic life at Pompeii. Two story colonnades on 3 sides of the long and narrow plaza. The capitolum was the main temple at the north end, a temple shrine for Jupiter. The basilica was the law court at the southwest corner. "Living city of the dead".

Pompeii

portraits characteristically realistic likeness - Portraiture was one way the patrician class celebrated its elevated position in society - reflecting importance that Patricians placed on genealogy - holds two heads that are likeness of his father and grandfather - heads may reproductions of wax or terracotta portraits

Republic Roman ancestor portraits

509-27 BCE

Republic time period

after 80 BCE, in most respects the antithesis of the first style. Wanted to dissolve a room's confining walls and replace them with the illusion of an imaginary three-dimensional world. Linear perspective was a favored tool to transform the usually windowless walls of Roman houses into "picture-windows" vistas that expanded the apparent space of the rooms. Atmospheric perspective; to suggest recession, the illusion of depth is achieved by the increasingly blurred appearance of objects in the distance.

Second style murals

Distinctively Roman

The design combine Etruscan and Greek elements, the resultant mix is?

Effort to approximate a peripteral Greek temple yet maintain the basic Etruscan plan, the architect added a series of engaged Ionic half columns to the sides and back of the cella

The result of pesudoperipteral temple

(super-realistic) portraits of old men from distinguished families were the norm during the Republic. The sculptor of this head painstakingly recorded every detail of the elderly man's face. Almost exclusively men of advanced age, for generally only elders held power in the Republic. Images memorializing their distinctive features in the tradition of the treasured household imagines.

Verism:

a changing recipe of lime mortar, volcanic sand, water, and small stones (caementa)- cement

What did the Roman builders mix to make concrete?

stucco or marble revetment (facing)

What did the Romans usually cover the coarse concrete surfaces with?

The abstract formality of Constantinian art paved the way for the iconic art of the middle ages.

What did the formality of Constantinian art do?

- New forum; Trajan, -markets; multilevel complex to house both shops and administrative offices, -pantheon

What helped transform Rome?

Concrete

What invention did the Romans develop that revolutionized architectural design?

pseudoperipteral stone temple

What kind of temple is the Portunus by mixing etruscan and greek elements

established the tetrarchy to bring order to the Roman world.

What was the purpose of the tetrachy for the Roman world?

Pompeii disaster

What was the result of the Mont Vesuvius eruption

Flavian emperors build the Colosseum, Rome's first and largest amphitheater, and arches and other monuments celebrating their victory in Judaea.

Who built the Colosseum, what was its significance and why did they build it?

• Celebration the emperor's most significant achievement, the establishment of peace. • Augustus sought to present his new order as a Golden Age equaling that of Athens under Pericles. • Figural reliefs and acanthus tendrils adorn the altar's marble precinct walls. Four panels on the east and west ends depict carefully selected mythological subjects • The connection between Augustus and Aeneas (a god) was a key political ideology strategy for him.

describe the ara pacis augustae

• The column of Trajan is the only part of the forum of Trajan preserved in anything approaching its original form. • The spiral frieze of trajan's column tells the story of the Dacian wars in 150 episodes. The reliefs depict all aspects of the campaigns, from battles to sacrifices to road and fort construction.

describe the column of trajan

• The house of the Vettius brothers was of the later Hellenized type with a peristyle garden behind the atrium. The impluvium below the open roof collected rainwater for domestic use. • Display endless variations of the same basic plan of the roman house, dictated by the owners' personal tastes and means, the size and shape of the lot, all Roman houses of this type were inward-looking in nature • The design shut off the street's noise and dust, and all internal activity focused on the brightly illuminated atrium at the center of the residence. • Garden framed by a peristyle, behind the Etruscan-style house, The axial symmetry of the plan meant that on entering the fauces of the house, a visitor has a view through the atrium directly into the colonnaded garden, which often boasted a fountain or pool, marble statuary, mural paintings, and mosaic floors. • Private homes of this type were typical of Pompeii and other Italian towns, only patricians could have acquired, rare in Rome.

describe the house of the Vettii

• The coffered dome of the pantheon; revealed full potential of concrete, both as a construction material and as a means for shaping architectural space. is 142 ft in diameter and 142 ft high. Light entering through its oculus forms a circular beam that moves across the dome as the sun moves across the sky • Built up the cylindrical drum level by level using concrete of varied composition. • The temple of all the gods • Divided into three zones: lowest-7 inches in walls, middle-contained the 12 zodiac signs, dome- opening called oculus.

describe the interior of the pantheon

a taste for illusionism returned, becoming popular in the 50s CE. The views of buildings are irrational fantasies, mythological paintings. Often multicolored, crowded, and confused compositions with a mixture of architectural views, framed mythological panels, and First and Third style motifs

fourth style murals

the artist conceived the human figure in iconic terms; representing the power-sharing nature of the tetrarchy (rule by four)

how did the artist conceive the human figure in the portrait of the four tetrarchs ?

painted portraits replaced the traditional masks, encaustic (colors mixed with hot wax)

mummy portraits

architects mix Hellenistic and Etruscan features for their temples. temples have the etruscan plan but the columns of the greek orders.

republic architects style

Roman painters decorated walls with delicate linear fantasies sketched on monochromatic (one color) backgrounds. Roman patrons began to favor mural designs that reasserted the primacy of the wall surface. Mythological paintings

third style murals

sculptures in the round, not masks

wax imagines

Concrete

what construction material did the Romans make the best use of?

to mold public opinion; reminding people everywhere that the emperors were the source of peace and prosperity.

what purpose did the Romans portraiture serve?

stucco in imitation of greek marble

what was overlaid originally? and why?

Concrete domes

where would an oculus be found?