Captured Spoils From Jerusalem, relief panel in the passageway of the Arch of Titus (soon after A.D. 81). The two reliefs in the arch, which
represent the Emperor Titus' triumphal procession after the defeat of the Jewish Revolt in A.D. 70, have an unprecedented effect of bustle and
movement and of being excerpts from a much larger action.
The Chancellery reliefs, competently carved but overall rather dull, are still firmly shaped by the mould of Augustan classicism. By contrast the
lively reliefs on the Arch of Titus are brim-full of the excitement of a triumph in progress, especially in the procession of the spoils, where the
participants spring along past the spectator, placards waving, and wheel round through an archway into the distance. There is a new interest in the
handling of depth here, with the figures carved in higher or lower relief according to their distance from the spectator; but the illusion of life and
movement owes more, perhaps, to the Hellenistic tradition than to any immediately preceding Roman work, even though the subject matter is an
entirely Roman one.