From Seven Hills to Three Continents: The Art of Ancient Rome
  
       
  Republic :: Pompeii And The Cities Of Vesuvius :: Early Empire :: High Empire :: Late Empire   Images courtesy of
Saskia Ltd.
       
       
  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.

7-1: Model of the city of Rome during the early fourth century CE. Rome, Museo della Civiltà Romana.
  1. Model
  2. Model
  3. Model
  4. 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.		    
       
  7-2: Temple of "Fortuna Virilis" (Temple of Portunus), Rome, Italy, ca. 75 BCE
  1. several views
  2. several views
  3. more images
  4. 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.		  
       
  7-3: Temple of Vesta (?), Tivoli, Italy, early first century BCE.
  1. temple
  2. temple
  3. temple
  4. temple
Concrete transforms a hillside:

The Sanctuary of Fortuna Primigenia at Palestrina is an impressive example of concrete construction on a massive scale.

7-4: Reconstruction drawing of the Sanctuary of Fortuna Primigenia, Palestrina, Italy, late second century BCE.
  1. model
  2. model
  3. model
  4. model
  5. Praeneste
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.

7-5: 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.
  1. similar example
  2. similar example
  3. similar example
7-6: Relief with funerary procession, from Amiternum, Italy, second half of first century BCE. Limestone, approx. 2' 2" high. Museo Nazionale d'Abruzzo, L'Aquila.
  1. relief
  2. relief
  3. 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.

7-7: Head of a Roman patrician, from Otricoli, Italy, ca. 75-50: BCE. Marble, approx. 1' 2" high. Museo Torlonia, Rome.
  1. head
  2. head
Old heads on young bodies:

It was also the practice in sculpture during the Republican period to place portrait heads on youthful, heroic bodies.

7-8 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
  1. portrait
  2. portrait
  3. portrait
  4. portrait
  5. portrait
Caesar breaks the rules:

The portrait of Julius Caesar appears on a silver denarius inscribed with his newly acquired title, dictator perpetuus.

7-9: Denarius with portrait of Julius Caesar, 44 BCE. Silver, diameter approx. 3/4". American Numismatic Society, New York.
  1. Denarius
  2. Denarius
  3. Denarius
  4. Denarius
  
 
 
       
       
  Republic :: Pompeii And The Cities Of Vesuvius :: Early Empire :: High Empire :: Late Empire