Etruscan art provided a base that was mainly concerned with
realistic representation, whereas Greek art contributed ideas
of idealism and perfection. Th e combination of the two gave
Roman art its distinct style.
Roman art went through several historic phases, which
closely follow the history of Rome itself. During the Repub-
lic (509–27 b.c.e.) the arts of Rome were highly dependent
on Etruscan models, attitudes, and techniques, particularly
in portraiture. As the Roman Empire developed, the arts
took on a distinctive character that can be recognized as an
outgrowth of Etruscan art but with added characteristics
derived from Greek infl uences. In the third period, called
“Late Antique” (roughly 300–600 c.e.), art forms assumed
new styles and character, refl ecting the changes in the for-
tunes of the Empire and the addition of new attitudes and
religious beliefs.
Much of Roman art was meant to be essentially propa-
ganda, in the service of the state and the rulers. Th e word
propaganda is used today mainly in the negative sense of mis-
information, but in a broader defi nition it means information
intended to convey a special point of view. Th is was the pur-
pose of a great deal of the art of the Romans; it celebrated the
qualities the Romans accepted, especially as demonstrated by
the accomplishments of a strong emperor or a victorious mil-
itary leader. As a consequence, Roman art provided a mirror
and inspiration for a strong government and state.
Th e various art forms employed by Roman artists and
craft smen included sculpture, painting, plaster and mosaic
work, pottery, metalwork, weaving, jewelry making, wood-
working, and glassmaking. Of these mediums, sculpture is the
best-known art for us today, partly because of the widespread
use of statues for propaganda purposes but also due to the
chances of preservation. Roman sculpture was made in a large
variety of materials, ranging from marble and other kinds of
stone to bronze, copper, and even silver and gold, as well as
terra-cotta (fi red clay). Wood was also used but is seldom pre-
served. Of all these materials, the most important works were
done in bronze, an alloy of copper and tin. Bronze statues fre-
quently were copied in marble, and it is in those versions that
many famous compositions have come down to us, because the
metal originals were oft en melted down for other purposes.
Th e Etruscan heritage on which Roman art was founded
is particularly evident in terra-cotta, a material favored by the
Etruscans. Clay images were used extensively for the decora-
tion of temples and other buildings. Th e Etruscans were also
very able workers in bronze and passed this tradition on as
well. However, the Roman artists used techniques and ma-
terials in their own way for decoration, information, and vo-
tive purposes. Sculpture is generally divided into two major
types. Sculpture “in the round” involves three-dimensional
statues meant to be seen from all sides; sculpture “in relief ”
includes designs carved against a fl at background. Th e fi rst
requires the artist to visualize how the work will be seen as
the observer moves around it. With the second the artist must
be able to suggest roundness and depth in a shallow space.
Both types were used by the Romans for appropriate pur-
poses. Th ree-dimensional statues decorated public areas and
private dwellings. Relief sculpture enlivened the surfaces of
buildings and monuments.PORTRAIT ART
Th e Roman use of realism in portraits lets us see the ancient
Romans as they saw themselves, or at least as they wanted to
be seen. During the time of the Republic portrait sculptors
attempted to be very realistic. Th e portrait of the typical pa-
terfamilias (male head of the household), for example, while
intended to show him as a strong personality who shared with
his family the Roman virtues of wisdom, strength, steadfast-
ness, and loyalty, might convey these desirable characteris-
tics and indicate experience and achievement by depicting
him at advanced age, oft en bald and wrinkled. With grow-
ing infl uence from the arts of classical Greece came more of
an attempt to create an ideal and somewhat ageless vision of
the individual. A good example is the statue of the emperor
Augustus created around 20 b.c.e. and found at the villa of
his wife Livia at Primaporta in Rome. In this sculpture the
fi gure and likeness of the emperor are idealized to suggest
that he is not an ordinary person but has qualities that as-
sociate him with the gods of Rome and make him more than
human. (In fact the Julio-Claudian family traced their line
back to the goddess Venus/Aphrodite.) A similar example is
the equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius (161–180 c.e.) that
depicts the emperor as a philosopher-king rather than as a
conquering military commander. Th is idealization in the
arts was learned or copied from Greek art; even the pose of
the statue of Augustus imitates a Greek original. Th e love of
Greek customs and art was especially strong under the em-
peror Hadrian (117–137 c.e.), an ardent admirer of Greek cul-
ture who encouraged the imitation classical style.
Th e Romans continued to look to Greece, particularly
Greece of the fi ft h century b.c.e., for inspiration and for
models in the arts. Th ey imported Greek art and even Greek
artists to decorate their public buildings and homes. A fa-
vored practice was the copying of famous originals to adorn
homes and gardens, much as one might have a copy of a fa-
mous painting on the wall today. Th is penchant resulted in
numerous Roman copies that today give us our only knowl-
edge of the lost Greek originals. One example of such a lost
original is the Venus Genetrix type, an image of Aphrodite
adapted by the Romans. It is known from more than 70 pre-
ser ved copies or variants, suggesting that it was ver y famous
in the Roman world.
Many portraits of famous Romans have been preserved,
particularly of the emperors and their families. We can recog-
nize the nobility of Augustus or the decadence of Nero in the
images made of them because of the abilities of artists to cap-
ture such qualities in addition to surface appearances. Portrai-
ture is probably one of the greatest art forms developed by the
Romans. It also exemplifi es the combination of Etruscan and
Greek sources that came together to infl uence Roman art.114 art: Rome