Romanesque art is the art of Europe from approximately 1000 AD to the rise of the Gothic

style in the 12th century, or later, depending on region. The preceding period is known as
the Pre-Romanesque period. The term was invented by 19th-century art historians,
especially for Romanesque architecture, which retained many basic features of Roman
architectural style – most notably round-headed arches, but also barrel vaults, apses,
and acanthus-leaf decoration – but had also developed many very different characteristics.
In Southern France, Spain and Italy there was an architectural continuity with the Late
Antique, but the Romanesque style was the first style to spread across the whole of Catholic
Europe, from Sicily to Scandinavia. Romanesque art was also greatly influenced
by Byzantine art, especially in painting, and by the anti-classical energy of the decoration of
the Insular art of the British Isles. From these elements was forged a highly innovative and
coherent style.
CharacteristicsEdit
Outside Romanesque architecture, the art of the period was characterised by a vigorous
style in both sculpture and painting. The latter continued to follow
essentially Byzantine iconographicmodels for the most common subjects in churches,
which remained Christ in Majesty, the Last Judgement and scenes from the Life of Christ.
In illuminated manuscripts more originality is seen, as new scenes needed to be depicted.
The most lavishly decorated manuscripts of this period were bibles and psalters. The same
originality applied to the capitals of columns: often carved with complete scenes with
several figures. The large wooden crucifix was a German innovation at the very start of the
period, as were free-standing statues of the enthroned Madonna. High relief was the
dominant sculptural mode of the period.
Master of Pedret, The Virgin and Child in Majesty and the Adoration of the Magi, apse fresco from Tredòs, Val
d'Aran, Catalonia, Spain, c. 1100, now at The Cloistersin New York City.

Colours were very striking, and mostly primary. In the 21st century: these colours can only
be seen in their original brightness in stained glass, and a few well-preserved
manuscripts. Stained glass became widely used, although survivals are sadly few. In an
invention of the period, the tympanums of important church portals were carved with
monumental schemes, often Christ in Majesty or the Last Judgement, but treated with more
freedom than painted versions, as there were no equivalent Byzantine models.
Compositions usually had little depth, and needed to be flexible to be squeezed into the
shapes of historiated initials, column capitals, and church tympanums; the tension between
a tightly enclosing frame, from which the composition sometimes escapes, is a recurrent
theme in Romanesque art. Figures often varied in size in relation to their importance.
Landscape backgrounds, if attempted at all, were closer to abstract decorations than
realism – as in the trees in the "Morgan Leaf". Portraiture hardly existed.
BackgroundEdit
During this period Europe grew steadily more prosperous, and art of the highest quality
was no longer confined, as it largely was in the Carolingian and Ottonian periods, to the
royal court and a small circle of monasteries. Monasteries continued to be extremely
important, especially those of the expansionist new orders of the period,
the Cistercian, Cluniac, and Carthusian, which spread across Europe. But city churches,
 those on pilgrimage routes, and many churches in small towns and villages were
elaborately decorated to a very high standard – these are often the structures to have
survived, when cathedrals and city churches have been rebuilt. No Romanesque royal
palace has really survived.
The lay artist was becoming a valued figure – Nicholas of Verdun seems to have been
known across the continent. Most masons and goldsmiths were now lay, and lay painters
such as Master Hugo seem to have been in the majority, at least of those doing the best
work, by the end of the period. The iconography of their church work was no doubt arrived
at in consultation with clerical advisors.
Summary

The first major movement of Medieval art, the style known as "Romanesque" can be used to cover all
derivations of Roman architecture in the West, from the fall of Rome (c.450 CE) until the advent of the Gothic
style around 1150. Traditionally, however, the term refers to the specific style of architecture, along with
sculpture and other minor arts that appeared across France, Germany, Italy and Spain during the 11th
century. Richer and more grandiose than anything witnessed during the era of Early Christian Art, the
Romanesque style is characterized by a massiveness of scale, reflecting the greater social stability of the new
Millennium, and the growing confidence of the Christian Church in Rome, a Church whose expansionism set in
motion the Crusades to free the Holy Land from the grip of Islam. Later, the success of the Crusaders and
their acquisition of Holy Relics stimulated further construction of new churches across Europe in the fully
fledged Romanesque style of architecture (Norman architecture in Britain and Ireland). In turn this building
program produced a huge demand for decorative religious art, including sculpture, stained glassand
ecclesiastical metalwork of all types. By the 12th century certain architects and sculptors had become highly
sought-after by ecclesiastical and also secular patrons.
Painting

It is difficult to form any comprehensive idea of Romanesque painting, and even harder in the case of the
minor arts. At the beginning of the thirteenth century the West was flooded with examples of the minor
Byzantine arts; but even before this, ecclesiastical respect for tradition had imposed the forms of early
Christian and Byzantine art. This idiom was very evident in Italy and the south of France; in Germany, the
north of France and England it was gradually superseded. It is often very difficult to decide what was due to
Byzantine influence and what to the individual, Nordic sense of form. For example, the coronation mantle of
Henry II is believed to be the product of a Bavarian convent. It was probably women's hands that gave the
figures their naively natural attitudes, in spite of the respect for tradition shown by the symmetry of the
design.

Murals

From the early 11th century, Romanesque Churches were painted throughout in order to guide their
predominantly illiterate congregations - an artistic evolution exemplified by the mural painting at Cluny (now
destroyed). After 1100, this form of decoration spread to Cologne, Bonn and other Rhineland areas of
Germany, as well as Spain, where Islamic influences created brighter, more colourful murals. The cloisters on
the Island of Reichenau, in Lake Constance, as early as the tenth century an active artistic centre, enable us
to form some notion, from the wall-paintings which are still preserved in the church of St George, at Oberzell,
of the permanent wall-decorations to be found in almost all the larger churches of the time. The paintings run
along the walls between wide borders of scrollwork, and on the mitres of the arches in the arcades the portrait
busts of saints, or of superiors of the Order, are set in medallions. Where the pictures are not easily
comprehensible they are elucidated by metrical inscriptions, tituli.
Illuminations

Romanesque illuminated manuscriptsdeveloped alongside murals. But most important was the increased
demand from the Cluniac, Cistercian and Benedictine Orders for religious books and Bibles, all of which had to
be made by hand. Important illuminated manuscripts included: the Moralia Manuscript(c.1110), Vita
Mathildis (c.1110), the St Albans Psalter (1120-30), the Pantheon Bible (c.1125), the Psalter of Henry de
Blois (1140-60), the Lambeth Bible (1150), and The Gospel Book of Henry the Lion (c.1170). Important
centres involved in the making of illuminated manuscripts included: Citeaux (the first Cistercian monastery),
Bury St Edmunds, Helmarshausen monastery, the Meuse river region, and Salzburg.

For Gothic-style book illuminations, see:Limbourg Brothers (fl.1390-1416).

General Decoration

We must not imagine Romanesque churches as bare, empty buildings. Even the floors and the flat wooden
ceilings were not without decoration. In the cathedral of Hildesheim, as in the crypt of St Gereon, in Cologne,
there are brightly-coloured mosaic floors. We have an excellent example of the paintings on the oldest ceilings
in Poeschel's work in the church of Zillis, in the Grisons. Embroidered carpets and wonderful tapestry
art adorned the floors and walls, the altars and stalls. The long, frieze-like Bayeux Tapestry, worked in
coloured wools on white linen, which described the conquest of England by the Normans, is one of the best-
known examples.

Stained Glass

Stained-glass windows soon began to replace the tapestries: as early as 1000 the Abbot of Tegernsee boasted
of their beauty. In Zurich, at Werden, on the Ruhr, and in many other monasteries, there were stained-glass
windows even earlier. It is less easy to say when they were first introduced into France and England, but in
the Early Gothic cathedral of Chartres are various medallions rescued from the old Romanesque cathedral,
which in their strictly linear designs, have retained a wonderfully luminous colouring. According to written
records, Saint Remy, in Reims, had stained-glass windows in the second half of the tenth century. After 1100
their use became general. The key centres for stained glass production during the Romanesque period were
located in the Rhineland area, in the Ile de France and Poitiers.

Ivory Carving

As well as sculpture and stone-carving, the art of ivory carving was practised with enthusiasm in the
Romanesque period. Ecclesiastical accessories of all kinds, in particular, reliquaries, which could be set up in
the house like little altars - or even carried by the owner when travelling and fine book-covers, and many
other treasures, have been preserved.

Metalwork

No less important, and no less assiduously practised since the time of the Saxon emperors, was the art
of metalwork, in gold, bronze and other precious materials. In Hildesheim, under Bishop Bernward, was a
school of bronze-casting, whose masterpieces, the Bernward pillars, the bronze doors of the cathedral, and
the font, show how greatly this art, originally of the Age of Migrations, had been refined in the Romanesque
period. At first the antique forms and Byzantine attitudes were adopted, but later on there was a new
refinement. By the end of the 11th century the peoples of the West had chosen to go their own way, even in
the minor arts. From the twelfth century onwards the Crusades, with their flocks of pilgrims, the merchants,
the craftsmen who wandered to and fro across the face of Europe, and the troops of stonemasons and
goldsmiths who travelled from place to place, were preparing the West for that secularization of art which
finally wrested it from the exclusive possession of the monks.

NOTE: An important regional school of Romanesque culture emerged in the valley of the River
Meuse, during the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries. Centred on the Bishopric of Liege, Belgium,
the school of Mosan art took enamelling to new heights, thanks to goldsmiths like Nicholas of
Verdun (1156-1232) and Godefroid de Claire (1100-73).

First of all, in the minor arts urban industries appeared which rid themselves of the last traces of Byzantine
influence, so that even where the church was still the employer, the popular taste had more scope. Gold was
replaced by copper and bronze; the process of enamelling on copper made possible a more independent and
fluid treatment of the metal base and the enamel than was possible with the more costly Byzantine technique.
One can see, even in the minor arts, the same sort of liberation that occurred in monumental architecture in
the thirteenth century; nothing more or less than the expression of a new spirit, a new taste: the Gothic.

Introduction

For several centuries Ancient Rome was the most powerful nation on earth, excelling all
others at military organization and warfare, engineering, and architecture. Its unique
cultural achievements include the invention of the dome and the groin vault, the
development of concrete and a European-wide network of roads and bridges. Despite this,
Roman sculptors and painters produced only a limited amount of outstanding original fine
art, preferring instead to recycle designs from Greek art, which they revered as far superior
to their own. Indeed, many types of artpractised by the Romans -
including, sculpture(bronze and marble statuary, sarcophagi), fine art painting (murals,
portraiture, vase-painting), and decorative art (including metalwork, mosaics, jewellery,
ivory carving) had already been fully mastered by Ancient Greek artists. Not surprisingly,
therefore, while numerous Greek sculptors (like Phidias, Kresilas, Myron, Polykleitos,
Callimachus, Skopas, Lysippos, Praxiteles, and Leochares, Phyromachos) and painters (like
Apollodorus, Zeuxis of Heraclea, Agatharchos, Parrhasius, Apelles of Kos, Antiphilus,
Euphranor of Corinth) were accorded great respect throughout the Hellenistic world, most
Roman artists were regarded as no more than skilled tradesmen and have remained
anonymous.

Of course it is wrong to say that Roman art was devoid of innovation: its urban architecture
was ground-breaking, as was its landscape painting and portrait busts. Nor is it true that
Roman artists produced no great masterpieces - witness the extraordinary relief sculpture
on monuments like Ara Pacis Augustae and Trajan's Column. But on the whole, we can say
that Roman art was predominantly derivative and, above all, utilitarian. It served a purpose,
a higher good: the dissemination of Roman values along with a respect for Roman power.
As it transpired, classical Roman art has been immensely influential on many subsequent
cultures, through revivalist movements like Neoclassical architecture, which have shaped
much European and American architecture, as exemplified by the US Capitol Building The
lesser-known Classical Revival in modern art(1900-30) led to a return to figure painting as
well as new abstract movements like CubismHistory of Roman Art

Origins

Although Rome was founded as far back as 750 BCE, it led a precarious existence for
several centuries. Initially, it was ruled by Etruscan kings who commissioned a variety
of Etruscan art (murals, sculptures and metalwork) for their tombs as well as their palaces,
and to celebrate their military victories. After the founding of the Roman Republic in 500
 BCE, Etruscan influence waned and, from 300 BCE, as the Romans started coming into
contact with the flourishing Greek cities of southern Italy and the eastern Mediterranean,
they fell under the influence of Greek art - a process known as Hellenization. Soon many
Greek works of art were being taken to Rome as booty, and many Greek artists followed to
pursue their careers under Roman patronage.

However, the arts were still not a priority for Roman leaders who were more concerned
about survival and military affairs. It wasn't until about 200 BCE after it won the first Punic
War against Hannibal and the Carthaginians, that Rome felt secure enough to develop its
culture. Even then, the absence of an independent cultural tradition of its own meant that
most ancient art of Rome imitated Greek works. Rome was unique among the powers of the
ancient world in developing only a limited artistic language of its own.

Cultural Inferiority Complex

Roman architecture and engineering was never less than bold, but its painting and sculpture was based on
Greek traditions and also on art forms developed in its vassal states like Egypt and Ancient Persia. To put it
another way, despite their spectacular military triumphs, the Romans had an inferiority complex in the face of
Greek artistic achievement. Their ultra-pragmatic response was to recycle Greek sculpture at every
opportunity. Greek poses, reworked with Roman clothes and accessories, were pressed into service to
reinforce Roman power. Heroic Greek statues were even supplied headless, to enable the buyer to fit his own
portrait head.

An example is the equestrian bronze statue of Emperor Marcus Aurelius (c.175 CE), whose
stance is reworked from the Greek statue "Doryphorus" (440 BCE). See: Greek Sculpture Made
Simple.

The reason for Rome's cultural inferiority complex remains unclear. Some Classical scholars have pointed to
the pragmatic Roman temperament; others, to the overriding Roman need for territorial security against the
waves of marauding tribes from eastern and central Europe and the consequent low priority accorded to art
and culture. To which we might add that - judging by the narrowness of Celtic art (c.500 BCE - 100 CE) -
Roman artists weren't doing too badly. Moreover, we should note that cities in Ancient Rome were less
provincial and far more powerful than Greek city-states, so that its art invariably played a more functional role
- not least because Roman culture was actually a melange of different beliefs and customs, all of which had to
be accomodated. Thus, for example, art quickly became something of a status symbol: something to enhance
the buyer's home and social position. And since most Romans recognized the intrinsic value of Greek artistry,
buyers wanted Greek-style works.

Realist Propaganda

Like the Romans themselves, early Roman art(c.510 BCE to 27 BCE) tended to be realistic and direct.
Portraits, both two-dimensional and three-dimensional, were typically detailed and unidealized, although later
during the age of Hellenistic-Roman art (c.27 BCE - 200 CE), the Romans became aware of the propaganda
value of busts and statuary, and sought to convey political messages through poses and accessories. The
same PR value was accorded to relief sculpture (see, for instance, the Column of Marcus Aurelius), and to
history painting (see, Triumphal Paintings, below). Thus when commemorating a battle, for example, the
artwork used would be executed in a realistic - almost "documentary" style. This realistic down-to-earth
Roman style is in vivid contrast to Hellenistic art which illustrated military achievements with mythological
imagery. Paradoxically, one reason for the ultimate fall of Rome was because it became too attached to the
propagandist value of its art, and squandered huge resources on grandiose building projects purely to impress
the people. Construction of the Baths of Diocletian (298-306), for instance, monopolised the entire brick
industry of Rome, for several years.

Types of Roman Art

Architecture

Rome's greatest contribution to the history of art is undoubtedly to be found in the field of architectural
design. Roman architectureduring the age of the Republic (knowledge of which derives largely from the 1st-
century Roman architect Vitruvius) discovered the round temple and the curved arch but, after the turn of the
Millennium, Roman architects and engineers developed techniques for urban building on a massive scale. The
erection of monumental structures like the Pantheon and the Colosseum, would have been impossible without
Rome's development of the arch and the dome, as well as its mastery of strong and low-cost materials like
concrete and bricks.

For a comparison with building design in Ancient Egypt, please see: Egyptian
Architecture (c.3000 BCE - 160 CE). In particular, please see: Late Egyptian Architecture (1069
BCE - 200 CE).

The Romans didn't invent the arch - it was known but not much used in Greek architecture- but they were the
first to master the use of multiple arches, or vaults. From this, they invented the Roman groin vault - two
barrel vaults set at right-angles - which represented a revolutionary improvement on the old Greek post-and-
lintel method, as it enabled architects to support far heavier loads and to span much wider openings. The
Romans also made frequent use of the semicircular arch, typically without resorting to mortar: relying instead
on the precision of their stonework.

Arches and vaults played a critical role in the erection of buildings like the Baths of Diocletianand the Baths of
Caracalla, the Basilica of Maxentius and the Colosseum. The arch was also an essential component in the
building of bridges, exemplified by the Pont du Gard and the bridge at Merida, and aqueducts, exemplified by
the one at Segovia, and also the Aqua Claudia and Anio Novus in Rome itself.

A further architectural development was the dome (vaulted ceiling), which made possible the construction and
roofing of large open areas inside buildings, like Hadrian's Pantheon, the Basilica of Constantine, as well as
numerous other temples and basilicas, since far fewer columns were needed to support the weight of the
domed roof. The use of domes went hand in hand with the extensive use of concrete - a combination
sometimes referred to as the "Roman Architectural Revolution". But flagship buildings with domes were far
from being the only architectural masterpieces built by Ancient Rome. Just as important was the five-storey
apartment building known as an insula, which accomodated thousands of citizens.

It was during the age of Emperor Trajan (98-117 CE) and Emperor Hadrian (117-138 CE) that Rome reached
the zenith of its architectural glory, attained through numerous building programs of monuments, baths,
aqueducts, palaces, temples and mausoleums. Many of the buildings from this era and later, served as models
for architects of the Italian Renaissance, such as Filippo Brunelleschi (1377-1446) designer of the iconic dome
of the cathedral in Florence, and both Donato Bramante (1444-1514) and Michelangelo (1475-1564),
designers of St Peter's Basilica. The time of Constantine (306-337 CE) witnessed the last great building
programs in the city of Rome, including the completion of the Baths of Diocletian and the erection of
the Basilica of Maxentius and the Arch of Constantine.
Famous Roman Buildings

Circus Maximus (6th century BCE - 4th century CE)

Dating back to Etruscan times, and located in the valley between the Aventine
and Palatine hills, this was the main Roman chariot racing venue in Rome,
Italy. Measuring roughly 2,000 feet in length (610 metres) and 400 feet in
width (120 metres), it was rebuilt in the age of Julius Caesar to seat an
estimated 150,000 spectators, and again during the reign of Constantine to
seat about 250,000. It is now a park.

Colosseum (72-80 CE)

Built in the centre of Rome by Vespasian to appease the masses, this elliptical
amphitheatre was named after a colossal statue of Nero that stood nearby.
Built to seat some 50,000 spectators, its intricate design, along with its model
system of tiered seating and spacious passageways, makes it one of the
greatest works of Roman architecture. The Colosseum was one of the key
sights on the Grand Tour of the 18th century.

The Arch of Titus (c.81 CE)

The oldest surviving Roman triumphal arch, it was built after the young
Emperor's death to celebrate his suppression of the Jewish uprising in Judea, in
70 CE. Standing on the Via Sacra, south-east of the Roman Forum, the Arch of
Titus was the model for Napoleon's Arc de Triomphe in Paris (1806-36).

Baths of Trajan (104-9 CE)

A huge bathing and leisure complex on the south side of the Oppian Hill,
designed by Apollodorus of Damascus, it continued to be used up until the early
fifth century, or possibly later, until the destruction of the Roman aqueducts
compelled its abandonment.

Pantheon (c.125 CE)

Built by Marcus Agrippa as a temple dedicated to the seven gods of Ancient

Rome, and rebuilt by Hadrian in 126 CE, the Pantheon is a daring early
instance of concrete construction. The interior space is based on a perfect
sphere, and its coffered ceiling remains the largest non-reinforced concrete
dome in the world. In the middle of its dome an oculus lets in a beam of light.

Baths of Caracalla (212-16 CE)

Capable of holding up to 16,000 people, the building was roofed by a series of

groin vaults and included shops, two gymnasiums (palaestras) and two public
libraries. The baths proper consisted of a central 185 x 80 feet cold room
(frigidarium) a room of medium temperature (tepidarium) with two pools, and
a 115-foot diameter hot room (caldarium), as well as two palaestras. The entire
structure was built on a 20-foot high base containing storage areas and
furnaces. The baths were supplied with water from the Marcian Aqueduct.

Baths of Diocletian (298-306)

These baths (thermae) were probably the most grandiose of all Rome's public
baths. Standing on high ground on the northeast part of the Viminal, the
smallest of the Seven hills of Rome, the baths occupied an area well in excess
of 1 million square feet and was supposedly capable of holding up to 3,000
people at one time. The complex used water supplied by the Aqua
Marcia and Aqua Antoniniana aqueducts.

Basilica of Maxentius (308-12 CE)

The largest building in the Roman Forum, it featured a full complement of

arches and barrel vaults and a folded roof. It had a central nave overlooked by
three groin vaults suspended 120 feet above the floor on four piers. There was
a massive open space in the central nave, but unlike other basilicas it didn't
need the usual complement of columns to support the ceiling, because the
entire building was supported on arches. Moreover, its folded roof reduced the
total weight of the structure thus minimizing the horizontal force on the outer
arches.
Sculpture: Types and Characteristics

Roman sculpture may be divided into four main categories: historical reliefs;
portrait busts and statues, including equestrian statues; funerary reliefs,
sarcophagi or tomb sculpture; and copies of ancient Greek works. Like
architecture, a good deal of Roman sculpture was created to serve a purpose:
namely, to impress the public - be they Roman citizens or 'barbarians' - and
communicate the power and majesty of Rome. In its important works, at least,
there was a constant expression of seriousness, with none of the Greek
conceptualism or introspection. The mood, pose and facial features of the
Roman statue of an Emperor, for instance, was typically solemn and unsmiling.
As Rome grew more confident from the reign of Augustus (31 BCE - 14 CE), its
leaders might appear in more magnanimous poses, but gravitas and an
underlying sense of Roman greatness was never far from the surface. Another
important characteristic of Rome's plastic art was its realism. The highly
detailed reliefs on Trajan's Column and theColumn of Marcus Aurelius, for
instance, are perfect illustrations of this focus on accurate representation, and
have been important sources of information for scholars on many aspects of
the Roman Legion, its equipment and battle tactics.

Nonetheless, as we have seen, Roman sculptors borrowed heavily from

the sculpture of Ancient Greece, and - aside from the sheer numbers of portrait
busts, and the quality of its historical reliefs - Roman sculpture was dominated
by High Classical Greek sculpture as well as by Hellenistic Greek sculpture.
What's more, with the expansion of Rome's empire and the huge rise in
demand for statuary, sculptors churned out endless copies of Greek statues.

For the effect of Roman sculpture on later styles of plastic art,

please see: Neoclassical Sculpture (1750-1850).

Historical Reliefs

Rome didn't invent relief sculpture - Stone Age man did. Nor was there any
particular genius in the skill of its carvers and stone masons: both the reliefs of
the Parthenon (447-422 BCE) and the frieze of the Pergamon Altar of
Zeus (c.166-154 BCE) outshone anything created in Italy. See also: Pergamene
School of Hellenistic Sculpture (241-133 BCE). What Rome did was to inject the
genre with a new set of aesthetics, a new purpose: namely, to make history.
After all, if an event or campaign is "carved in stone", it must be true, right?
The Greeks adopted the more "cultured" approach of recording their history
more obliquely, using scenes from mythology. The Romans were far more down
to earth: they sculpted their history as it happened, warts and all.

Trajan's Column (106-113 CE)

The greatest relief sculpture of Ancient Rome, Trajan's Column is a 125-foot

Doric-style monument, designed by the architect Apollodorus of Damascus. It
has a spiral frieze that winds 23 times around its shaft, commemorating the
Dacian triumphs of Emperor Trajan (98-117 CE). Sculpted in the cool, balanced
style of the 2nd century, its composition and extraordinarily meticulous detail
makes it one of the finest reliefs in the history of sculpture. A full-size cast
of Trajan's Column is on show at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and
the National History Museum of Romania, Bucharest.

Marcus Aurelius' Column (c.180-193 CE)

Second only to Trajan's monument, this 100-foot Doric column in the Piazza
Colonna also features a winding ribbon of marble sculpturecarved in low relief,
which illustrates the story of the Emperor's Danubian or Marcomannic wars,
waged by him during the period 166-180 CE. It includes the controversial "rain
miracle", in which a colossal thunderstorm saves the Roman army from death
at the hands of the barbarian Quadi tribes. The sculptural style of the column
differs significantly from that of Trajan's Column, as it introduces the more
expressive style of the 3rd century, seen also in the triumphal arch of
Septimius Severus (199-203 CE) by the foot of the Capitoline Hill. The heads of
the Marcus Aurelius figures are larger than normal, to show off their facial
expressions. A higher relief is used, permitting greater contrast between light
and shadow. Overall, much more dramatic - a style which clearly reflected the
uncertain state of the Roman Empire.

Other famous relief works of stone sculpturecarved by Roman artists include:

the processional marble frieze on the Ara Pacis Augustae (13-9 BCE) in the
Campus Martius, and the architectural relief sculpture on the Arch of Titus
(c.85-90 CE) and the Arch of Constantine (312-15 CE).

Portrait Busts and Statues

These works of marble and (occasionally)bronze sculpture were another

important Roman contribution to the art of Antiquity. Effigies of Roman leaders
had been displayed in public places for centuries, but with the onset of Empire
in the late 1st-century BCE, marble portrait busts and statues of the Emperor -
which were copied en masse and sent to all parts of the Roman world - served
an important function in reminding people of Rome's reach. They also served
an important unifying force. Roman administrators had them placed or erected
in squares or public buildings throughout the empire, and affluent citizens
bought them for their reception rooms and gardens to demonstrate loyalty. The
traditional head-and-shoulders bust was probably borrowed from Etruscan art,
since Greek busts were usually made without shoulders.

Roman statues and portrait busts are in many of the best art museums around
the world, notably the Louvre (Paris), the Vatican Museums (Rome), the British
Museum(London), the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York) the Getty
Museum (Los Angeles).

Famous Portraits of Roman Emperors

Famous busts and statues of Roman leaders include:

- Statue of Augustus (Ruled 27-14 CE) (Livia's Villa, Prima Porta)

- Statue of Tiberius in Old Age (14-37) (Capitoline Museum)
- Bust of Caligula (37-41) (Louvre)
- Statue of Claudius as the God Jupiter (41-54) (Vatican Museum)
- Head of Nero (54-68) (British Museum)
- Bust of Galba (68-69) (Capitoline Museum)
- Statue of Titus (79-81) (Vatican Museum)
- Bust of Trajan (98-117) (British Museum)
- Bronze Statue of Hadrian (117-138) (Israel Museum)
- Bronze Equestrian Statue of Marcus Aurelius (180) (Piazza del Campidoglio)
- Statue of Commodus as Hercules (180-192) (Capitoline Museum)
- Bust of Gordian II (238) (Capitoline Museum)
- Bust of Pupienus (238) (Capitoline Museum)
- Bust of Balbinus (238) (Capitoline Museum)
- Bust of Maxentius (306-312) (Museo Torlonia)
- Colossal Head of Constantine (307-337) (Basilica Nova)

Religious and Funerary Sculpture

Religious art was also a popular if less unique form of Roman sculpture. An
important feature of a Roman temple was the statue of the deity to whom it
was dedicated. Such statues were also erected in public parks and private
gardens. Small devotional statuettes of varying quality were also popular for
personal and family shrines. These smaller works, when commissioned for the
wealthier upper classes, might involve ivory carving and chyselephantine
works, wood-carving, and terracotta sculpture, sometimes glazed for colour.

As Rome turned from cremation to burial at the end of the 1st century CE,
stone coffins, known as sarcophagi, were much in demand: the three most
common types being Metropolitan Roman (made in Rome), Attic-style (made in
Athens) and Asiatic (made in Dokimeion, Phrygia). All were carved and usually
decorated with sculpture - in this case reliefs. The most expensive sarcophagi
were carved from marble, though other stone was also used, as was wood and
even lead. In addition to a range of different depictions of the deceased - such
as Etruscan-style full-length sculptural portraits of the person reclining on a
sofa - popular motifs used by sculptors included episodes from Roman (or
Greek) mythology, as well as genre and hunting scenes, and garlands of fruit
and leaves. Towards the end of the Roman Empire, sarcophagi became an
important medium for Christian-Roman Art (313 onwards).

Copies of Ancient Greek Sculpture

Although the wholesale replication of Greek statues indicated a hesitancy and

lack of creativity on the part of Roman artists, the history of art could not be
more grateful to them, for their efforts. Indeed, it is fair to say that one of the
greatest contributions of Rome to the history of art, lies in its replication of
original Greek statues, 99 percent of which have disappeared. Without Roman
copies of the originals, Greek art would never have received the appreciation it
deserves, and Renaissance art (and thus Western Art in general) might have
taken a very different course.

Painting

The greatest innovation of Roman painters was the development of landscape

painting, a genre in which the Greeks showed little interest. Also noteworthy
was their development of a very crude form of linear perspective. In their effort
to satisfy the huge demand for paintings throughout the empire, from officials,
senior army officers, householders and the general public, Roman artists
produced panel paintings (in encaustic and tempera), large and small-scale
murals (in fresco), and mastered all the painting genres, including their own
brand of "triumphal" history painting. Most surviving Roman paintings are from
Pompeii and Herculanum, as the erruption of Vesuvius in 79 helped to preserve
them. Most of them are decorative murals, featuring seascapes and
landscapes, and were painted by skilled 'interior decorators' rather than
virtuoso artists - a clue to the function of art in Roman society.

Panel Paintings

In Rome, as in Greece, the highest form of painting was panel painting.

Executed using the encaustic or tempera methods, panel paintingswere mass-
produced in their thousands for display in offices and public buildings
throughout the empire. Unfortunately, almost all painted panels have been lost.
The best surviving example from the art of Classical Antiquity is probably the
"Severan Tondo" (c.200 CE, Antikensammlung Berlin), a portrait of Roman
Emperor Septimus Severus with his family, painted in tempera on a circular
wood panel. The best example from the Roman Empire is the astonishing series
of Fayum Mummy portraits painted in Egypt during the period 50 BCE to 250
CE.

Triumphal Paintings

Roman artists were also frequently commissioned to produce pictures

highlighting military successes - a form known as Triumphal Painting. This type
of history painting- usually executed as a mural painting in fresco - would
depict the battle or campaign in meticulous detail, and might incorporate
mixed-media adornments and map designs to inform and impress the public.
Since they were quick to produce, many of these triumphal works would have
influenced the composition of historical reliefs like the Column of Marcus
Aurelius.

Murals

Roman murals - executed either "al fresco" with paint being applied to wet
plaster, or "al secco" using paint on dry walls - are usually classified into four
periods, as set out by the German archaeologist August Mau following his
excavations at Pompeii.

• The First Style (c.200-80 BCE)

Also known as incrustation or masonry style, it derived from Hellenistic palaces
in the Middle East. Useing vivid colours it simulates the appearance of marble.
• The Second Style (c.80 BCE - 100 CE)
This aimed to create the illusion of extra space by painting pictures with
significant depth, such as views overlooking a garden or other landscape. In
time, the style developed to cover the entire wall, creating the impression that
one was looking out of a room onto a real scene.
• The Third Style (c.100-200)
This was more ornamental with less illusion of depth. The wall was divided into
precise zones, using pictures of columns or foliage. Scenes painted in the zones
were typically either exotic representations of real or imaginery animals, or
merely monochromatic linear drawings.
• The Fourth Style (c.200-400)
This was a mixture of the previous two styles. Depth returned to the mural but
it was executed more decoratively, with greater use of ornamentation. For
example, the artist might paint several windows which, instead of looking out
onto a landscape or cityscape, showed scenes from Greek myths or other
fantasy scenes, including still lifes.

Art Styles From the Roman Empire

The Roman Empire incorporated a host of different nationalities, religious

groups and associated styles of art. Chief among them, in addition to earlier
Etruscan art of the Italian mainland, were forms of Celtic culture - namely the
Iron Age La Tene style (c.450-50 BCE) - which was accomodated within the
Empire in an idiom known as Roman-Celtic art, and the hieratic style of
Egyptian art, which was absorbed into the Hellenistic-Roman idiom.

Late Roman Art (c.350-500)

During the Christian epoch, the division of the Roman Empire into a weak
Western Roman Empire (based in Ravenna and Rome) and a strong Eastern
Roman Empire (based in Constantinople), led to changes in Late Roman art.
While wall painting, mosaic art, and funerary sculpture thrived, life-size statues
and panel painting dwindled. In Constantinople, Roman art absorbed Eastern
influences to produce the Byzantine art of the late empire, and well before
Rome was overrun by Visigoths under Alaric (410) and sacked by Vandals
under Gaiseric, Roman artists, master-craftsmen and artisans moved to the
Eastern capital to continue their trade. (See Christian-Byzantine Art.) The
Church of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, for instance, one of the most famous
examples of Roman dome architecture, provided employment for some 10,000
of these specialists and other workmen. Commissioned by Emperor Justinian
(527-565), the Hagia Sophia, together with the shimmering mosaics of
Ravenna, represented the final gasp of Roman art.