Roman Art: Episode #9 – Design History

Posted by Sipi Sagar in Articles

Hi viewers, readers and visitors a hearty welcome to animhut’s historic episodic post – Design history.
In this episode we are going to see about Rome Art which was one of the highly influencial art and existed for a very long time and had a very big impact in the design industry.

Introduction:-

Two thousand years ago, Rome was a crowded, noisy, busy city with large temples and public buildings. The Coliseum was a great building for holding their chariot races. The Romans were also fierce soldiers. Rome took over many countries. Rome once ruled over the whole world for 500 years! They built roads all over the empire that just led to Rome.

Christians worshiped one God, but Romans, who worshiped many gods, did not like this. They tried to stamp out Christianity. For many years, Christians had to worship in underground passageways. Romans honored all of their gods in their art and architecture. Roman Art was at its highest from 750 BC to 410 AD.

Influence:-

Roman Art was influenced by many things. They were influenced by some countries that they ruled over, like Greece, Egypt, and Africa. The Romans often mixed the best styles of those cultures. Romans believed in gods and goddesses as their religion. They also were influenced by their emperors. Romans sculpted their masters and leaders.

Art Forms:-

Romans had many different art forms. One of the art forms were murals, large wall paintings. Many Roman Emperors had murals on their walls of their palace.

Architecture was another type art form. The Triumphal Arch of Tibias was made with arches and columns of different shapes and sizes to make it more beautiful and interesting. Buildings and bridges were also made as a form of architecture.

They made statues and portraits too. Statues were life-like and of gods, goddesses, emperors, and important people. Many statues are just the head and shoulders of an emperors. They were called portraits. Other art forms were paintings, poetry, tombstones, domes, and vaults.

Style:-

Art and architecture were used to proclaim an important person’s power. They were signs of the Roman’s power over the lands that they ruled. Roman Art usually showed images of emperors, gods, and goddesses, and common people. The Romans did not have perfect human shapes in their art. In some of their sculptures, they would have people with long noses. The Greeks, who only sculpted perfect human bodies, would never have done that.

Romans had four styles of optical illusion paintings that tricked the eye. The first style was when they painted walls to look like they were made of marble or copies of Greek styles of decoration. A second style was when they painted realistic looking scenes that looked like views through the window. The third style was less realistic, but delicate looking images. The fourth method of tricking the eye was a combination of the second and third styles.

Materials/Subject:-

The Romans made paint brushes, and paint out of many natural materials. Paint brushes were made from twigs, wood, reeds, or rushes. Shaped wood or ivory was used for writing. Paints were made from ground rocks and powdered plants. Red and yellow came from ochre. White came from chalk. Green came from green soil, and black was from soot. Blue was a mixture of copper and glass. But purple was made from a special seashell.

Two thousand years later, Rome is still a crowded, noisy and busy city with large temples and public buildings. Even though the Roman Empire does not exist, their art is still there.

Genre scenes:-

Roman genre scenes generally depict Romans at leisure and include gambling, music and sexual encounters. Some scenes depict gods and goddesses at leisure.

Triumphal paintings:-

From the 3rd century BC, a specific genre known as Triumphal Paintings appeared, as indicated by Pliny[21] (XXXV, 22). These were paintings which showed triumphal entries after military victories, represented episodes from the war, and conquered regions and cities. Summary maps were drawn to highlight key points of the campaign. Josephus describes the painting executed on the occasion of Vespasian and Titus’s sack of Jerusalem.

Portrait sculpture:-

Roman portraiture was one of the most important currents in ancient Roman art.

Portrait sculpture from the Republican era tends to be somewhat more modest, realistic, and natural compared to early Imperial works. A typical work might be one like the standing figure “A Roman Patrician with Busts of His Ancestors”.

By the imperial age, though they were often realistic depictions of human anatomy, portrait sculpture of Roman emperors were often used for propaganda purposes and included ideological messages in the pose, accoutrements, or costume of the figure. Since most emperors from Augustus on were deified, some images are somewhat idealized. The Romans also depicted warriors and heroic adventures, in the spirit of the Greeks who came before them.

Images Credits:-

• globalgallery.com
• mosaicartsource.com
• fineartprintsondemand.com