History of Art: Roman

Welcome
back to our series on art history! From Ancient Greece we move on to a
rather familiar culture in Ancient Rome! From pottery to sculpture to
architecture, Roman art was heavily influenced by Greek, Etruscan,
and Egyptian art. Let’s run through some of the major contributions
and themes found in Roman art.

Sculpture

The
major reason we see such influence from Greece is on account of
Rome’s military prowess. As you’ll find throughout history, when an
area or people are conquered, their culture has a tendency to
influence their conquerors. As the Romans conquered the Hellenistic
world, Hellenistic sculptural styles began appearing in Rome. Another
interesting and pretty terrible note about this influence is that by the
2nd Century BCE, the sculptors working and living in Rome were Greeks
enslaved by the Roman military.

Original
Roman design is seen in the tombs of middle-class Romans. The main
focus was portraits and busts, something that the Romans excelled at
and that we’ll discuss more when we get to their paintings. Very few
sculptures of this type and from this era have survived through the
centuries.

One
bust, however, that’s attributed to this time (we’re at around 4th or 3rd century BCE) depicts Lucious Junius Brutus, the founder of the Roman
Republic himself. Sculpted in bronze, the bust has eyes carved and
inlaid from a different material, which isn’t terribly common for
surviving artwork, either due to separate pieces breaking, gems and
other materials (such as ivory or marble) being stolen, or eyes being
sculpted or cast and simply painted if defined at all.

Stone,
relief sculpture, and other types of the art form were created
throughout this time until the 2nd century CE or so, when Roman art’s classical style was abandoned.
What once showed off a fantastic understanding of anatomy, spatial
awareness, and skill in creating art itself, was replaced by giant
eyes and harsh forms and angles. The Arch of Constantine shows off
this change in some of its relief sculpture (while still mixing in
Greco-Roman influence throughout).

Painting

The
Romans were big into painting and excelled at the art form. Sadly,
however, a great deal of Roman painting hasn’t survived thanks to
natural disasters (Pompeii being the most notable), war, and the
ravages of time itself. From the body of work that has survived,
however, we have a wide variety of subject matter: landscapes,
portraiture, still lifes, and a variety of genre scenes.

Paintings
of landscapes are a Roman invention. It’s funny how simple and
commonplace landscape and vista paintings may be considered today;
they were revolutionary in Ancient Rome! 

It’s thanks to the
development of perspective (nowhere near what we can create today)
that an interest in landscapes as art began. While inaccurate in
terms of space and rendering, landscape paintings showed everything
from urban scenes of the time to mythological landscapes from popular
stories of the day.

Roman
portraits, especially those on panels, were considered higher forms
of art than wall paintings (which were often quite a bit more
popular, lining the walls of many Pompeian buildings in the homes of
well-to-do residents). 

Few wood panel paintings exist today, but
those that do show off the fashion sense and features of their subjects wonderfully. A Fayum mummy portrait, a painted panel that was
attached to mummies during the Coptic period in Egypt (around 3rd and 4th centuries during Roman rule), shows a fashionable woman, painted in a
naturalistic style, with ringlet curls and jewelry.

A
painting technique we haven’t yet discussed in this series of art
history articles is that of gold glass. Also known as gold sandwich
glass, this technique involved fixing a layer of gold leaf between
fused layers of glass. Interestingly, most designs using this
technique were rather small, having been made from the bottoms of
cut-off wine glasses or cups. These gold glass circles were used to
adorn graves in the Catacombs of Rome.

Genre
scenes were another subject for paintings. Whether depicting the
military triumphs of the day or showing Romans in their leisure time,
the surviving paintings or even descriptions of them in old
texts are incredibly interesting for focusing on mostly human matters
(though some paintings did depict gods in leisure activities as
well).

Architecture

It’s
cities that the Romans excelled at creating most. Concrete was used
to great success by the Romans in many of their great buildings, like
the Pantheon. Roman architecture was durable, unlike a lot of art
forms up to this point. Many Roman buildings were converted to
churches or for other uses over time.

These
buildings, with their impressive arches and construction, weren’t
simply made of concrete, however. They were covered in a variety of
materials, including marble, plaster, brick, stone, and more.
Decorative features such as sculpture or gold-gilded details made
these buildings a marvel to behold in their day. 

Like many valuable
creations throughout time, however, these materials were pilfered,
leaving only the concrete skeleton to remain. A famous example of this
is the Basilica of Constantine.

Minor Arts

Our
final subject for this quick look at the art of Ancient Rome is that
of the “minor arts” or the hodge-podge of other art forms that
weren’t as widespread or came from other cultures. These were mostly
decorative arts that were considered luxuries, though some things
such as terracotta figurines were more commonplace. Roman pottery was
decorated with molded relief pieces, unlike the painted vessels of
their Greek counterparts.

Some
luxury arts included glass making, including cameo glass which aimed
to look like engraved gems and stone carvings. Wonderfully, the style
of cameo glass has been carried on throughout the ages. In the Roman
era, designs were created by etching a design through fused layers of
glass. This was done with white opaque glass, giving it the distinct
cameo style.

Mosaics
were considered a minor Roman art until the late 4th century CE, when Christians preferred it for large religious wall
pieces. For the Romans, however, mosaics covered floors, walls
(especially those that were going to get wet, such as bathhouses), or
ceilings. 

Interestingly, most of the signed mosaic pieces had Greek
names affixed to them. This typically means they were created by
Greek artists or slaves in Roman workshops. As much as I want to
celebrate art, it’s important to note the history of that art, and
how many artists were not creating art for art’s sake as you or I do
today.

Conclusion

Like
the Egyptians and Greeks before them, the Romans contributed heavily
to the world of art, and to many modern-day cultures. We will see
shades of Rome and Greece in eras to come, for sure. In the meanwhile,
I hope you learned a bit more about Roman art. 

Check out some links
below for further reading, and join me next month when we discuss
Islamic and Byzantine art.

• Roman Art and Architecture (World of Art)
• Roman Art (6th Edition)
• A History of Roman Art
• Roman Art
• A History of Roman Art, Enhanced Edition

Article sources include the following:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_art
• http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/roman-art.htm
• https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/ancient-art-civilizations/roman/beginners-guide-rome/a/introd…