|
|
AUGUSTUS
Certain motifs from the Hellenistic-style imagery of Octavian remain
in official portraiture created after 27bc, when he was honoured
with the title of Augustus. However, these Greek influences are
tempered by the Roman preference for specific detail in portraiture.
This is typified in the impressive marble statue of Augustus from
Prima Porta, dating from after 17bc. which although based on a
classical model has been modified in order to capture the actual
features of the emperor. In Greece, among the many conventional
images, there is an extraordinary bronze statue, depicting Augustus
on horseback with military and religious attributes. Among these can
be seen the sheath of his sword and the lituus (a staff used for
divination) of the augurs on the mount of his ring — Augustus was
appointed Chief Pontiff in 12bc. His neck is long and the fringe of
hair is typically forked above the brow us in the earlier portraits.
The bodv is thin under the mantle, the face is bony, and the skull
irregularly broad. An air of defiance is suggested by the prominent
chin, the lips pursed by the nervous contraction of the cheeks, and
the tension in the eyes. The memory of youth contrasts with the
harsh truth of a man in advanced age. The principal representation
of Augustus and other images of him are cast aside by the artist,
who shows the disturbing truth, far removed from the image favoured
for propaganda purposes - the signs of an unhappy adolescence, the
mental turmoil of an ageing man who, behind the unyielding mask of
power, never reached full maturity.
|
Statue of Augustus,
Prima Porta, Rome.
Museo Chiaramonti, Vatican City |
Statue of Augustus,
Prima Porta, Rome.
Museo Chiaramonti, Vatican City |
Fragmentary equestrian statue of Augustus,
from the northern Aegean, bronze.
National Archaeological Museum, Athens |
|
| |
|
| |
THE HOUSE OF AUGUSTUS
Octavian, renamed Augustus in 27bc, originally lived near the Forum
but later moved to the Palatine, where he bought the house that
belonged to the orator Hortensius. After the victory over Semis
Pompeius (36bc), he purchased nearby buildings and had them
demolished, donating the land to the state for the Temple of Apollo.
On the ground floor of his house, in the western sector that was
intended for private use. the decorative paintings of the so-called
Room of the Masks still appear remarkably fresh and bright. The
walls represent, by means of skilful illusion, the outlines of a
theatre stage. The structure appears superimposed on the permanent
background of stone, which is enlivened by recesses and projections.
The central area reproduces the painted fabric curtain covering the
door to the stage, with a reference to the work being performed. On
the western wall is a sacred landscape that alludes to a
satirical play. The horizontal lines, which in reality come towards
the foreground, converge at a vanishing point set at the eye-level
of anyone entering the room, in accordance with the theory of
geometric perspective outlined by the Greek philosopher Democritus
in Aktinographia. Equally rigorous rules applied to the
depiction of shadows. In this "second style" decoration of the House
of Augustus, perspective of what was much later termed the
Brunelleschi type was generally superseded by a system of different
viewpoints for the three horizontal sections (plinth, central
fascia, and cornice) of the wall. In the Room of the Masks,
adherence to the theoretical model is attributed to a painter from
the court of Cleopatra, who followed the victorious Octavian from
Alexandria (28bc).
|
| |
Wall-painting of theatre scene,
from the Room of the Masks.
House of Augustus, Rome |
| |
|
| |
THE ARA PACIS
During the period from Sulla to Caesar (c.90-40bc). artists in Rome
from the Greek cities of southern Italy and Sicily had concentrated
on the revival of parts of ancient Greek culture. This trend
culminated in the Ara Paris, or Altar of the Augustan Peace, erected
in 13bc to celebrate the era of prosperity and security during the
rule of Augustus. The sculpture, which blends Hellenistic influence
with the universal message of Periklean Athens, is an Italic-style
realistic-record of the consecration ceremony and was dedicated on
30 January, 9bc. It shares the same formal treatment as Phidias'
Panathenaic processional frieze in the Parthenon. On the northern
face is a procession, perfectly ordered by family and rank, of the
principal figures: priests, augurs, lictors (attendants).
Octavian, flamens (priests). Agrippa, the young Cains Caesar,
Livia, Tiberius, Antonia Minor and Drusus with their son Germanicus,
Domitia and Domitius Ahenobarbus, and Maecenas. For many centuries
to come, this composition typified dynastic propaganda. The
arrangement of acanthus scrolls crowded with small animals beneath
the figures brings together patrician traditions and the new order
of the principate. On the eastern face of the monument Aeneas is
shown as the founding father, whose family tree is traced by the
tendrils. These were the noble branches of an ancestry rooted in
custom. The hypnotic rhythm of the plant spirals changes for the
sudden halt of the procession at the entrance to the enclosure,
enabling the participants to gather up their robes or turn round,
while a cloaked figure in the background, a symbol of winter, places
his finger to his lips to impose holy silence.
|
| |
Relief depicting the consecration ceremony, with Augustus,
members of his family, priests, and officials.
Ara Pacis, Rome |
| |
|
|
Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa
(son-in-law of Augustus).
Capitoline Museum, Rome.
From humble origins Agrippa became Augustus'
most competent general and admiral.
As aedile, he played an important
role in the embellishment of Rome |
Classicism
Augustus entrusted the continuity of his ideas to forms of
unquestionable beauty. Since Rome appears as the magnified
projection of the predominant Greek city-state, its archetype was
the Athens of Perikles. The Hellenic figurative tradition was
acknowledged most of all in the decoration of civic and religious
buildings in Rome. A law was even proposed (but not approved) by
Agrippa. Augustus' son-in-law, whereby all original Greek works of
art transferred to Italy would be exhibited in public places.
Appreciation of Rome's heritage was guaranteed by classicism.
which tempered the acceptance of Hellenic experiments. With
craftsmen working to specific models, they were conforming to a
single will, taking pride in being part of a collective enterprise,
the allegorical transformation of Rome, which conferred upon
Augustus the character of Supreme Being. In the official portrait of
the princeps, to which the title of Augustus was added in
27bc, the facial features were adapted to meet the rules of
classical statuary and the hairstyle made to resemble those of the
heroes of Polykleitos. For the court and the citizens in outlying
estates and provincial cities who were following the example of
Rome, workshops of Athenian sculptors were recruited to provide
copies of the most famous originals by Greek sculptors such as Myron
and Lysippos. This became the most popular way to furnish a house or
villa. Some artists moved to Italy and supplied a wide range of
casts, a selection of which were added to Rome's growing
collections. The most famous masterpieces of the moment were copied
although it was hard to capture the poetic spirit of the original:
the final result depended on the ability of the artist to imbue his
copy with some of the original's vitality and energy. At Baiae, one
workshop possessed the moulds of dozens of famous works from Athens,
from which it turned out statues and bronze herms, monuments with a
square shaft bearing a bust. Many of these statues were found in the
Villa of the Papyri at Herculaneum where, along with images of the
owner, the heads of philosophers stood side by side with the busts
of warriors and the likenesses of heroes, such as Achilles and
Pentesilea, and divinities including Minerva, Apollo, Diana. Hermes,
Bacchus, and Herakles, In wall-paintings, known as the "second
style" (according to the four Pompeian "'styles"), architectural
forms created an illusion of space, at the centre of which were
reproductions of Hellenistic masterpieces showing mythological
scenes.
|
| |
|
| |
PUBLIC BATHS
|
| |
|
Plan of the Baths of Diocletian, Rome.
The central part of the baths now forms
the Church of Santa Maria degli Angeli
|
|
 Contemporary view
of the Baths of Diocletian, Rome.
The modern
semicircular
building has the same
diameter as the original edifice,
built between ad298 and ad306. |
During the imperial period, the popularity of the public baths
signalled a reversal of the trend of the late republican age when
privacy had prevailed. The lavatrina, a small room for
private ablutions in houses, was replaced by communal
establishments. The balaneia or public baths which originated
in Sicily and Greece, offered hot water and steam baths, using a
system of hot air passed through underground pipes (hyperkausterion).
The hygiene value of this system was emphasized in the .sanctuary of
Epidaurus where the original Greek system was supplemented by new
structures in the Roman age. Initially, the public baths built in
Rome were known as balnea (third century bc), and then
thermae, still of Greek derivation (thermos meaning "warm"). The
baths were regularly inspected for cleanliness and temperature:
later, these inspectors were called curatores thermarum. The
Romans were inspired by the Greek combination of baths (loutra)
with gymnasiums and soon had special areas for physical exercise.
The Baths of Agrippa (19bc) were built on a monumental scale,
complete with a park and a vast swimming pool.
The Central Baths of Pompeii (still incomplete in ad79) were based
on the precepts of Vitruvius, the military engineer and author of
De architecturea. One of Nero's architects introduced the axial
and symmetrical plan (ad62), later developed by Apollodorus of
Damascus in the Baths of Trajan, where a separate section was
provided for cultural activities with Latin and Greek libraries and
rooms (auditoria) for lectures and conferences. This plan
became even larger in the subsequent urban complexes of Caracalla
and Diocletian. As visitors followed the ritual sequence of changing
room, gymnasium caldarium (hot room), tepidarium (warm
room), and frigidarium (cold room), the could enjoy the
statuary and decoration, which included a manner of subjects:
athletes, nymphs, the Bacchic dance, Venus rising from the water,
and the beneficent divinities. In the words of an anonymous epigram:
"Baths, wine, and love corrupt our bodies. But thev are life."
|
| |
Baths of Trajan,
detail of the model of ancient Rome.
Museo delta Civilta
Romana, Rome |
| |
|
| |
Alexander and Augustus
The dissemination of the imperial message was reminiscent of the
reign of Alexander the Great (356-323bc). The conquests of Rome
rivalled those of Macedon in terms of territorial gain and promised
even greater stability. The link was made by the consecration of the
bronze supports of the tent that Alexander had taken on his
campaigns in the temple of Mars Ultor. However, it was made clear
that the Roman Empire shared nothing, nor bore comparison, with any
Greek monarchy: this illusion had been dispelled by Caesar. When the
young Octavian visited the founder's tomb in Alexandria, he refused
to look at the remains of King Ptolemy, declaring that he had come
to see a king, not a corpse. Rome had subdued the kingdom of
Macedonia and all the others derived from it, in order to reassume
the universal destiny of Alexander.
The long-established strategy of forming contacts was replaced by
annexation, an integral form of rule in which Augustus' image was
replicated everywhere, as that of Alexander had been, as the living
embodiment of the all-embracing empire. Artists, with their
responsibility for perpetuating heroic human faces and deeds, were
part of culture, and as necessarv as lawyers, doctors, and state
officials in safeguarding humanity. One outcome of the Roman vision
was that Greco-Latin culture was made tangible and lasting in the
form of monuments. Architecture, painting, and sculpture took on a
role comparable in society to that attributed to Greek philosophy.
Aristotle held that logic was the foundation of reason and central
to all discourse, even it the conversation turned from fact to
persuasion: in Roman treatises it was the practical outcome of
eloquence that became the highest expression of intellectual
activity. Artistic production was a "demonstrative discourse",
entrusted to specialists whose task was to immortalize collective
functions and ceremonies or individual services.
|
| |
|
|
Funerary steia of Lutatia Lupata, portrayed as a
lute player, first century ad, Augusta Emerita, Museo Arqueologico,
Merida, Spain. The portrayal of the dead person was a privilege now
extended to the middle classes
|
Public Art
The end of the class struggle and the civil war helped bring a new
sense of cohesion to society. From the time of the early kings to
the middle of the republican period, conflicts among patricians and
plebeians had emphasized the contrast between native art and works
intended for an aristocracy that was cautiously receptive of
Hellenic models. Now it was difficult to isolate "plebeian" art in
the historical sense of that social class. By the time of Augustus.
Rome had already established an equilibrium between both factions,
resulting in a more uniform structure of government. Augustus chose
to revive the title of "tribune of the people", which would render
inviolable his own person and his right to pass laws. Restoration of
internal peace after the final defeat of Mark Antony had removed the
most serious threat to Roman unity. Official planning gradually
yielded to private patronage, the living standards of the middle
class improved, and purchasing power mushroomed. The general mood
was one of harmonious celebration. Romans had always found
reassurance in the purpose and content of their monuments, which
tended to vary in form according to the public level of cultural
sophistication. The new factor, as compared with the traditional
social structure of republican times, was that Rome now ruled over a
cosmopolitan population such as Alexander had only dreamed of in his
final years when he encouraged Macedonian men to marry Persian
women. Ever since the Hellenic age. Greeks had been amazed at the
custom of the quirites (Roman citizens) of granting
citizenship to freed slaves and of allowing the sons of such slaves
access to the magistracy. The father of the family could likewise
free his foreign servant to make him his equal. Every Roman could
thus create new citizens, investing them with prestige and power,
and helping to formulate a mass culture more complex and
comprehensive than that of Alexandria. To the multitudes, with their
basic representative needs -votive offerings, portraits, and
funerary monuments - was allotted that element of Greek culture
which had already permeated Italic culture and plebeian art:
socialist realism. This was not so much promoted by the people as
offered to them like "bread and circuses". The combination of
simplicity and Greek influence can be seen in the figurative
decoration of commemorative monuments, a form of public art
implemented by the state. Originally, there had been the triumphal
painting of the republican age, on huge canvases, illustrating the
actions of victorious heroes. These were much more likely to
influence the collective mind than any easel painting, rather in the
manner of modern-day billboards. In the celebratory relief of the
imperial age. state policy still indulged the popular partiality for
story-telling, combining clear narrative with spectacular
rediscovered Hellenistic devices. Over time, the Roman manner of
depicting history became so entrenched in the social imagination
that up until the age of medieval Christianity, it came to be seen
as the only way of presentation, and was almost second nature, part
of the visual experience of Western civilization. No matter how
Roman citizens of every extraction might differ privately in the
choice of other forms of art, they were united in their positive
reaction to the omnipresent propaganda of the Empire.
|
| |
Detail of a relief commemorating the Dacian Wars
showing a soldier loaded with
mule loaded with booty.
Trajan's Column, Rome.
The natural setting of this scene is typical of Hellenistic
art |
| |
|
 Antonia Minor.
Museo Nazionale Romano, Rome
(formerly Ludovisi Collection) |
ANTONIA
Daughter of Mark Antony and Octavia (sister to Augustus). Antonia
Minor married Drusus Minor (second son to I.ivia), by whom she bore
Claudius. As emperor, Claudius dedicated coins inscribed "Antonia
Augusta" to her after she died in ad37, their image corresponding to
that of the large bust known as the Ludovisi Juno. The
woollen band, adorned with pearls and beading that surrounds the
diadem of Juno is appropriate to her role as priestess to the Divine
Augustus. Hellenic queens were often exalted in this ambiguous
manner, both as priestesses and divinities. A perfect example is
provided by this courtly sculpture in Neo-Attic style. Compared with
models of the classical age, the effect of light and shade-in the
coiffure becomes more prominent here and charming ringlets appear
behind the ears and trail down the neck, alluding to the style
introduced by Agrippina the Elder. The head, inclined slightly to
the left, was inserted into the
drapery of a colossal statue of the imperial cult. As Seneca
declared in his Apocolocynthosis ("The Pumpkinification of
Claudius"), an irreverent comment on the deification of the late
Emperor, the step from the sublime to the ridiculous is a small one.
|
| |
|
THE TOMBS OF THE FREEDMEN
Characteristic of the Roman world, clientes (or freedmen)
were literally the plebeian followers of the patricians, who gave
service and loyalty in return for protection. The career of a rising
politician depended on the number of clientes he had. so
maintaining them was regarded as an economic investment along with
property. The freed slaves became citizens and remained followers of
their patronus (manumitter). Even in death, they continued to
enhance the patricians prestige, with their funerary monuments
lining the roads outside the city, which bore inscriptions
proclaiming the bonds made through manumission. During the time of
Augustus, Luni marble replaced travertine stone for these sculpted
portraits. Cutting off the figure at the base of the chest was a
legacy of the Etruscan tradition. Busts were sculpted in deep
frames, as if they were facing outwards from inside a window, from
the tomb towards life. Family members were placed close together or
shown in embrace. Customs governing the public image were once again
controlled by rules that had been blurred at the tempestuous
conclusion of the republic. Augustus ordered the wearing of an
unusually large toga as a sign of a civis romanus and this
style found keen acceptance among the freedmen who could
thus assert the privileges they had won.
|
Gratidii group, restored relief.
Museo
Pio-Clementino.
Vatican City (formerly Mattel Collection)
|
|
Portraits of freectmen.
Museo Nazionale Romano, Rome,
(formerly Mattei Collection)
|
Children born of a freedman after his manumission were
free of all special restrictions and the son of a freedman
gained the right to join the army. Alongside representations
of toga-wearing men and women wrapped in mantles were the
citizens in arms, in the heroically nuked pose of Greek
derivation. The number of individuals represented, including
those still living, and the size of the monument,
constituted a metaphor of pride and hope for the growing
family. The figures vary greatly: each one has a story to
tell: it is a record of the past and a model for the future.
For example, the gestures of the married couple in the Gratidii group tell a love story. The static, frontal
representation of individual faces derives from Italic tradition,
but the overall composition has elements both of classical nobilitv
and Greek sentiment.
|
|
Rabirii group, Via Appia, Rome.
Museo Nazionale Romano, Rome
|
|
 Marble statue of Titus Ftavius Vespanius,
Lateran
Palace, Rome.
Museo Chiaramonti, Vatican City
|
TITUS FLAVIUS VESPANIUS
From the reign of Augustus, the wearing of the toga became
increasingly popular. The balteus, the sweep across the
chest, became looser with a tuck in it (umbo); another fold
of material (sinus) hung at knee-level. In the marble statue
of Titus (ad79-81), which came from the Lateran Palace, the line of
the drapery runs from the right foot to the left shoulder, over
which the end (lacinia) falls. The shadows are so dense and
the folds so fine that it resembles a work in bronze. The artist has
combined the emperor's coarse features with an elegance achieved
through the delicate carving; which in the skilfully rendered folds
reveals the pose of the body beneath. The large head is modelled
with incredibly light touches. The small, rather disquieting eyes
are surrounded by tiny wrinkles and framed by a square face. The
smile on the prominent mouth suggests both sensuality and amiable
optimism. Near the left foot lies a wasp's nest; this
is a reference to Titus' grandmother Vespasia Polla, who derived her
name from the insect, vespa (wasp), and from his father's surname
Vespasian. The log. inside which is a honeycomb (favus,
another phonetic allusion to the family name Flavius), serves,
therefore, not merely as a physical prop: it is his family tree.
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
