Roman Realism
While we think of the art of ancient Rome we tend to connect it to the influence of Greek art, there was a strong naturalistic trend in Roman art that would have appalled Greek artists. This pilfered art decorated public places and homes of rich and wealthy Romans. In Roman society artists were less respected than in Greek society. Although there are few famous Roman artists that are known by us.
Greek artists were always stressed to have a perfect figure or portrait when they were working when Roman artists did not share the idea that physique was the most important thing in their work. Romans were jealous of the luxury the Greeks and Etruscan society's had. Famous Romans commissioned wax portraits heads, often death casts of ancestors that were displayed in public processions.
Typical of Roman Republican portraiture is a thriving to render the person's features with a map maker's faithfulness to the features.
Unlike the Greeks who strove to idealise everything, the Romans were pragmatic.
Roman sculpture did, however, begin to search for new avenues of artistic expression, moving away from their Etruscan and Greek roots,and,by the mid 1st century, Roman artists were trying to capture and create optical effects of light and shade for greater realism.
Towards the end of the Empire, sculpture of figures tended to lack proportion heads especially were enlarged, and figures were most often presented flatter and from the front, displaying the influence of Eastern art.
As with the Greeks, the Romans loved to represent their gods in statues.
Statues could also be used for decorative purposes in the home or garden and they could be miniatuzired , especially in precious metals such as silver. One type of statues that were famous in Roman culture was the Lares Familiares. These statues were usually made out of bronze and were representing the spirits which protected the home.
Realism once more returned with the Antonines. At that time there was a trend to polish the skin parts of the marble which then contracts, in particular, with the hair, which was carved deeply and left unpolished.
The portrait of Commodus as the Hero Hercules is an example of how elite portraiture in Roman art could be realistic and idealistic at the same time. The features of the emperor are distinctly recognisable and his expression shouts a self-assured inference of the on looker.
However, the artist too,has either intentionally or not, revealed something of the arrogance and weakness of this infamous emperor. In a powerful description by Mortimer Wheeler;
' The smooth and effeminate Emperor with weak arms, his flaccid feeble face in it's aureole of drilled and over-barbered hair, reeking of pomade, the property lion-scalp and club and the tiny 'apple of the Hesperides' in that tenuous manicured hand, is delicate but brutally expressive charade. No doubt it delighted
Greek artists were always stressed to have a perfect figure or portrait when they were working when Roman artists did not share the idea that physique was the most important thing in their work. Romans were jealous of the luxury the Greeks and Etruscan society's had. Famous Romans commissioned wax portraits heads, often death casts of ancestors that were displayed in public processions.
Typical of Roman Republican portraiture is a thriving to render the person's features with a map maker's faithfulness to the features.
Unlike the Greeks who strove to idealise everything, the Romans were pragmatic.
Roman sculpture did, however, begin to search for new avenues of artistic expression, moving away from their Etruscan and Greek roots,and,by the mid 1st century, Roman artists were trying to capture and create optical effects of light and shade for greater realism.
Towards the end of the Empire, sculpture of figures tended to lack proportion heads especially were enlarged, and figures were most often presented flatter and from the front, displaying the influence of Eastern art.
As with the Greeks, the Romans loved to represent their gods in statues.
Statues could also be used for decorative purposes in the home or garden and they could be miniatuzired , especially in precious metals such as silver. One type of statues that were famous in Roman culture was the Lares Familiares. These statues were usually made out of bronze and were representing the spirits which protected the home.
Realism once more returned with the Antonines. At that time there was a trend to polish the skin parts of the marble which then contracts, in particular, with the hair, which was carved deeply and left unpolished.
The portrait of Commodus as the Hero Hercules is an example of how elite portraiture in Roman art could be realistic and idealistic at the same time. The features of the emperor are distinctly recognisable and his expression shouts a self-assured inference of the on looker.
However, the artist too,has either intentionally or not, revealed something of the arrogance and weakness of this infamous emperor. In a powerful description by Mortimer Wheeler;
' The smooth and effeminate Emperor with weak arms, his flaccid feeble face in it's aureole of drilled and over-barbered hair, reeking of pomade, the property lion-scalp and club and the tiny 'apple of the Hesperides' in that tenuous manicured hand, is delicate but brutally expressive charade. No doubt it delighted