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REPUBLIC
At its greatest extent, the Roman Empire stretched from Mesopotamia in the
east to Spain in the west, and from North Africa in the south to Britain in the
north. The Roman Empire was a "multicultural" entity.
From village to world capital:
The village founded by Romulus on April 21, 753 BCE grew over a period of
900 years to become the capital of the greatest empire the world had ever
known.
Roman art and architecture has influenced the Modern World. A major Roman
building innovation was concrete construction.
10-1: Colosseum
(Flavian Amphitheater), Rome, Italy, ca. 70-80: CE.
- various views
- exterior
- exterior
- entrance
- entrance
- interior
- various views
- exterior
- exterior
- exterior
- detail
- interio
10-2: Model of the city of Rome during the
early fourth century CE. Rome, Museo della Civiltà Romana.
- Model
- Model
- Model
- Model
- Model
Kings, senators, and consuls:
A Republic was established following the expulsion of the Etruscan kings in
509 BCE. Power was vested mainly
in a senate and in two elected consuls.
The craze for Greek art:
During the Republic, the Romans developed a special interest in and taste
for Greek art.
Architecture
Eclecticism on the Tiber:
Eclecticism is the primary characteristic of the Republican temple on the
east bank of the Tiber.
Roman Temple architecture shows a blending of Etruscan and Greek features,
and emphasizes the front of the building. |
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10-3: Temple of Fortuna
Virilis" (Temple of Portunus), Rome, Italy, ca. 75 BCE
- several views
- more images
- more images
Tivoli's temple on a Cliff:
The Romans' admiration for the Greek temples they encountered in their
conquests also led to the importation into Republican Italy of a temple type
unknown in Etruscan architecture - the round, or tholos, temple.
10-4: Temple
of Vesta (?), Tivoli, Italy, early first century BCE.
- temple
- temple
- temple
Concrete transforms a hillside:
The Sanctuary of Fortuna Primigenia at Palestrina is an impressive example
of concrete construction on a massive scale.
10-5: Reconstruction
drawing of the Sanctuary of Fortuna Primigenia, Palestrina, Italy, late second
century BCE.
- model
- model
- model
- model
- Praeneste
10-6: Roman concrete construction. (a) barrel vault, (b) groin vault, (c) fenestrated sequence of groin vaults, (d) hemispherical dome with oculus (John Burge).
- barrel vault
- barrel vault
- groin vault
- hemispherical dome
Sculpture
Portraits and society:
Roman Republican sculpture is noted for its patrician portraits employing a
verism derived from the patrician cult of ancestors and the practice of making
likenesses of the deceased from wax death-masks. In the funerary relief,
figures are shown bust-length (cut off at the base of the chest) in the
Etruscan tradition.
10-9: Funerary
relief with portraits of the Gessii, from Rome(?), Italy, ca. 30 BCE. Marble,
approx. 2' 1 1/2" high. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
- similar example
- similar example
10-10: Relief
with funerary procession, from Amiternum, Italy, second half of first century
BCE. Limestone, approx. 2' 2" high. Museo Nazionale d'Abruzzo, L'Aquila.
- relief
- relief
- related
Republican
verism:
The
surviving portraits of prominent Roman Republican figures appear to be literal
reproductions of individual faces.
Although their style derives to some degree form Hellenistic and
Etruscan, and perhaps even Ptolemaic Egyptian, portraits, Republican portraits
are one way the patrician class celebrated its elevated position in society. These patricians did not ask sculptors
to make them appear nobler than they were. Instead, they requested brutally realistic images of
distinctive features.
10-7: Head of an old man, from Osimo, mid first century BCE. Marble, life size. Palazzo del Municipio, Osimo.
Old heads on young bodies:
It was also the practice in sculpture during the Republican period to place
portrait heads on youthful, heroic bodies.
10-8
Portrait of a Roman general, from the Sanctuary of Hercules, Tivoli, Italy, ca.
75-50: BCE. Marble, approx. 6' 2" high. Museo Nazionale Romano-Palazzo Massimo
alle Terme, Rome
- portrait
- portrait
- portrait
Caesar breaks the rules:
The portrait of Julius Caesar appears on a silver denarius inscribed with
his newly acquired title, dictator perpetuus.
10-11: Denarius
with portrait of Julius Caesar, 44 BCE. Silver, diameter approx. 3/4". American
Numismatic Society, New York.
- Denarius
- Denarius
- Denarius
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