212 THE ROMAN EMPIRE
art forms. By drawing together certain traditions and stylistic conventions
already much employed in the late Republic, art in the Augustan period
provided a strong basis for this new and specifi c use of offi cial art as
propaganda. Works of art (whether sculpture or ‘minor arts’ such as
silverware and cameos) and architecture served to reinforce the emperor’s
own claims and purposes. The desired image of the emperor and his family
was carefully built up through portraiture. He was shown as idealized and
noble, and was depicted making sacrifi ce, extending clemency and carrying
out other particularly signifi cant acts. The contrasting themes of victory
and peace are conspicuous in the triumphal arches and commemorative and
decorative reliefs on buildings and the Ara Pacis, as well as on other ‘minor’
or ‘non- offi cial’ works of art. The Ara Pacis sums up all the themes of
Augustan propaganda, in its suggestion of continuity with the great
traditions of the past, and in its allegorical reference to the contemporary
role of the imperial family and to the general political and social situation.^7
The type of eclectic, classical style used for these offi cial purposes is
strongly refl ected in private art in Rome and elsewhere in Italy. It can be
seen, for example, in the decoration of certain houses belonging to the late
Pompeian ‘second style’ and early ‘third style’, such as the House of Livia on
the Palatine, the House of the Villa Farnesina at Rome, and the villa at
Boscotrecase outside Pompeii. The formal classicism of the ‘third style’ in
general may be linked with the prevailing tastes of Augustus and his circle.^8
Augustus’ successors were concerned to stress dynastic continuity through
the medium of art. The most probably posthumous Primaporta statue of
Augustus uses a basically classical pose (recalling the Doryphorus of
Polycleitus), enhanced by complex imagery on the cuirass, perhaps alluding
to the emperor’s diplomatic success at the expense of the Parthians, which
was dressed up as a victory. The Boscoreale silver cups have historical scenes
showing aspects of Augustus’ rule in war and peace, and Tiberius in triumphal
procession. Again, the Ravenna relief of Claudian date shows members of
the imperial family, including Augustus, in divine or heroic guise.^9
After Augustus, there was a resurgence of less hellenized forms, which
had been somewhat displaced by the idealized classical preferences of
Augustus. A constant progression of style in this tradition is the main feature
of both representational arts and architecture up to the early second century,
despite occasional renewed emphasis on the classical tradition. In sculpture
this is refl ected in the appearance of portraits that are more realistic and
vigorously modelled, in the increasing interest shown in chiaroscuro and
contrasting textures, and in the preference for bolder forms of relief. In wall-
painting this movement fi nds a parallel in the introduction of the ‘fourth
style’ that revives the idea of spatial recession, and in some individual
paintings which show the use of an impressionistic technique with less fully
modelled forms.
Augustus carried out a major programme of rebuilding and construction,
of which the Forum Augustum was the most striking achievement, and was