Roman Art and It's Importance

 Marble bust of a man, mid 1st century, marble, 14 3/8 inches (The Metropilitan Museum of Art) Picture: https://smarthistory.org/introduction-to-ancient-roman-art/

    Does this type of sculpture look familiar to you? If not, it should if you have seen art from both the Romans and Greeks. The Romans adapted a substantial amount of their art practices from the Greeks as the Roman empire spanned across the lands of Greece, Egypt and beyond. In fact we see Greek sculptures of Aphrodite, Apollo, Zeus and so many other using this same marble type material. 

    When viewing Roman art, it is important to note that they often copied popular sculptures from earlier artist! However it wasn't frowned upon by the people at this time for the artist to do so, they did not believe that a copy of a piece presented any less value than the original because they were more so variations rather then direct copies.    

    The Romans and their art introduced a new form of expression that we haven't seen up until this point. Their variations of famous sculptures would often be seen with a sense of humor added to the piece which to the Greeks, was an idea on the complete opposite side of the spectrum from their beliefs. Sculptures like the one pictured above were made to display certain characteristics of the man or women they were portraying. Bald heads, large noses, and extra wrinkles demonstrated they had spent their lives working for the republic as model citizens, showed their wealth and wisdom. To some these features can be seen as humorous, but the piece is still in honor of the deceased. It is also important to note that in this early era of the Roman culture, art was only produced in service of the state, detailing public sacrifices or celebrating victorious military campaigns.

Ludovisi Battle Sarcophagus: Battle of Romans and Barbarians, c. 250-260 C.E., preconneus marble, 150 cm high (Palazzo Altemps: Museo Nazionale Romano, Rome). Roman art was important for many reasons, one of those reasons being for the fact that Art was a chance for the common family to display their wealth, taste, and education to their visitors. Roman homes were regularly visited making their artwork have the upmost importance to them. Art such as wall paintings,mosaics, and sculptural displays were common amongst the Romans. Art like this with many figures sort of smashed together became very popular in the Roman land. They would often describe many different stories with the amount of figures they represented in these sculptures. Art  held a special place in arguably everyone's life, and was a necessity for families to have if they could.  



Source: https://smarthistory.org/introduction-to-ancient-roman-art/

Comments

  1. Ashley MSeptember 17, 2020 at 1:19 PM

    The greatest complement you can give an artist is copying his/her work. I think a lot of people give the Romans a hard time for doing this. I see it as paying homage. I like how you highlighted the fact that they didn't just copy, but they made adaptations and improvements. They put their own personalities and feelings into it. We currently live in a society that is a lot like Ancient Rome in that it's a cultural melting pot. How boring would our world be if we didn't share information, art, fashion, technology, etc with one another?

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  2. Amanda GarrettSeptember 18, 2020 at 4:21 PM

    In your blog post, I think that you did a great job explaining the meaning behind the first picture: the marble head. You explained that the bald head, large nose, and wrinkles expressed wealth and wisdom of the elderly. I also read that these sculptures were often made of those who served in the Roman republic. Next time, don't forget to add actual citations at the bottom of your blog post in Chicago Style. After all, that is one of the things our professor grades us on in these blog posts!

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