Global Art Survey - Chapter 18 PDF

18 chapter outline Roman Religion and the Eclecticism of the Roman Temple 304 Pompeii and the Roman City 305 The Roman House 311 Portraiture of the Republic 316 art historical thinkin...

18 chapter outline Roman Religion and the Eclecticism of the Roman Temple 304 Pompeii and the Roman City 305 The Roman House 311 Portraiture of the Republic 316 art historical thinking: Art of the Roman Republic The Barberini Togatus and the Historiography of Roman 509–27 bce Art 318 Second Style mural painting (detail), Villa of the Mysteries, Pompeii, Italy. Global_Art_Survey_Chapter18_pp303-319 CP-01 REPRO cc2019.indd 303 10/02/2021 14:28 Global_Art_Survey_Chapter18_pp303-319 CP-01 REPRO cc2019.indd 303 27/01/2021 15:30  Roman Religion and the Eclecticism Rome at the establishment of the ATL ANTIC Republic, 509 BCE of the Roman Temple Rhi n OCEAN Roman expansion to the beginning of The Romans absorbed into their official religion the gods R. e the Punic Wars, 264 BCE and religious practices of the people they conquered, par- E U R O P E Roman expansion at the death of FRANCE ticularly those of the Greeks, substituting Latin for Greek Julius Caesar, 44 BCE (GALLIA) names for deities. Patricians, the members of the Roman Po R. upper class, exerted substantial control over the state’s. D a nu b e R Black Sea religion, which permeated all aspects of Roman life. They Tiber R Ad at ic appointed augurs (official diviners or seers), priests, and ri SPAIN Rome ITALY Se a. (HISPANIA) Boscoreale vestal virgins (priestesses of Vesta, the Roman goddess MACEDONIA W E S T of the hearth, home, and family). The most important Tyrrhenian Pompeii Aegean A S I A Sea Actium Sea authority in the religious hierarchy was the chief priest, Carthage or pontifex maximus. The Roman senate played a key role SICILY SYRIA in decisions regarding religious ceremonies and festivals. N N O R T H Med Because many priests were also members of the senate, ite rra A F R I C A nean Sea there was no clear distinction between religion and gov- ernment. Religious omens were consistently observed, 0 200 400 miles and their interpretations influenced state business. Nile R. 0 400 800 kilometers EGYPT Each Roman city had at least one primary temple and usually other smaller shrines. Religious proces- sions often began or ended at a temple or shrine. Most of the time, only priests were allowed inside the temples. Map 18.1 Expansion of Rome, Introduction Most public worship or ceremonies took place outside, c. 500–44 bce. on the porch, or in the temple precinct. Ritual objects Rome began as a small Latin-speaking farming community might be presented, or a sacrifice might take place at on the Palatine Hill, ultimately growing to occupy a group of an altar in front of the temple. The cella (or naos) of the seven hills overlooking the Tiber River. The site was easily temple housed a statue of the god to whom the build- defendable, with a good supply of fresh water. In addition, ing was dedicated, as well as often a small altar, perhaps the Tiber was navigable to the Tyrrhenian Sea, allowing for for incense, libations (offerings in liquid form), or other maritime trade (Map 18.1). Early Rome was ruled by a series offerings. Usually, the temple had another room or rooms of kings, including several from a family with Etruscan for storage behind the cella. porch a covered area usually origins. The last king, Tarquinius Superbus (“the Arrogant”), connected to the front of a building. was a tyrant, and after a revolt in 509 bce he was expelled, temple of portunus Stylistically, the Romans took allowing the Roman upper class, or patricians, to form a new from the Etruscans and the Greeks to create a new, temple precinct the enclosed constitutional government they called the Republic. The major eclectic Roman form of temple architecture. We see area in which a temple is legislative body was the senate, a council of elders originally this eclecticism in the Temple of Portunus, the Roman located. drawn from the Roman patrician families. Two consuls were god of harbors. It is located in Rome on the east bank cella (also called naos) the elected annually by the senate. They held the main military and of the Tiber River, just inside the area of the harbor inner chamber of a temple; judicial powers of the government. These positions could be (Fig. 18.1). The temple stood within a colonnaded precinct usually houses a statue of a deity. superseded only by dictators in times of emergency. People that housed a market for flowers and garlands. As a of the lower class, known as plebeians, gradually gained some result, the area was a vibrant space, much like the piazzas colonnade a long series of rights within Rome’s rigid social hierarchy. surrounding churches in Italy today. The excavation of columns placed at regular intervals that supports a roof From its humble beginnings as an agrarian village, Rome datable ceramics underneath the temple suggests it was or other structure. managed to expand its control rapidly during the Republic, first built around 75 bce. over the Etruscans, Greeks, and others on the Italian peninsula, The temple, which was converted to a church in the podium a raised platform that then, by the end of the Republic, to Sicily, Greece, parts of North ninth century ce, is exceptionally well preserved. Similarly serves as a base. Africa, most of Spain (Hispania), France (Gallia), West Asia, and to the Temple of Mnerva at Veii (see Fig. 17.8) and other facade any exterior vertical beyond. Though it has been argued that Rome’s native art was Etruscan temples, it is raised on a high podium with a face of a building, usually the government, it is no surprise that this period of rapid political frontal staircase leading to its entrance through a deep front. development and military conquest also saw great advances in porch with freestanding columns at the front and sides peripteral having a single row art and architecture. The religious, cultural, and political needs (Fig. 18.2). In other words, unlike Greek temples, such as of columns surrounding a of an increasingly powerful Rome cannot be underestimated the Parthenon (see Fig. 14.3), it has a clear facade and is building, such as in a Greek temple. in discussions of its artistic development. Much Roman art accessible from only one direction. The building has tall, served to elucidate and glorify not only Rome’s history and narrow proportions and also incorporated elements of engaged column a column political power, but also its leaders. Conquests also brought Greek peripteral temples, seen here in the non-functional attached to, or seemingly partially-buried in, a wall. the city into contact with many other artistic traditions that columns engaged round the sides and back of the cella. were eagerly appropriated, creating what most would agree The Greek-style Ionic columns rest on a base, and there frieze in architecture, the part is an eclectic and yet distinctly recognizable Roman style. is also an Ionic frieze. (For an explanation of the differ- of an entablature located above ent architectural orders, see box: Looking More Closely: the architrave. The Greek Orders, p. 225.) 304 Part 2 | Early Cities and Empires Global_Art_Survey_Chapter18_pp303-319 CP-01 REPRO cc2019.indd 304 10/02/2021 14:28 Global_Art_Survey_Chapter18_pp303-319 CP-01 REPRO cc2019.indd 304 27/01/2021 15:30  18.1 Temple of Portunus, Rome, c. 75 bce. Pompeii (Figs. 18.3 and 18.4, p. 306). Located on the Bay 18.2 far left Temple of of Naples, this city of 10,000–20,000 inhabitants spread Portunus (plan drawing). podium Rome, c. 75 bce. over 160 acres and was encircled by a wall approximately 2 miles (3.2 km) long. Surrounded by fertile farmland engaged stairs porch cella columns producing wine and oil, it sat 100 feet (30.48 m) above sea freestanding level on a high volcanic escarpment, and was bordered columns by the Sarno River, which allowed for local trade between inland cities and nearby coastal cities and islands. Its strategic position on important trade routes made it a crossroads of cultures from early times. It is therefore not surprising that its art and architecture effectively blend The Temple of Portunus is made of local stone: traver- diverse styles to create a distinctively Roman aesthetic. tine for the freestanding columns, and tuff for most of the In 79 ce, a volcanic eruption of Mount Vesuvius buried rest of the building. The entire edifice was covered in stucco Pompeii, preserving streets, businesses, houses, and to give it the appearance of marble, the material the Greeks public buildings. (The city was rediscovered and exca- used for their temples. The building’s decorative program vations commenced in the mid-eighteenth century.) was also made of stucco. Although most of the decoration Pompeii did not begin its life as a Roman city, however. has been lost, a frieze of garlands, with candelabra, cupids, It was founded in the seventh or sixth century bce by the and bulls’ skulls supporting them, can be reconstructed Oscans, one of several Italic peoples that lived in Italy on the basis of drawings from the Renaissance. before Rome’s rise to power. Late in the fifth century bce, another people, the Samnites, who were heavily Pompeii and the Roman City influenced by the Greeks in Italy, took control of Pompeii stucco fine plaster that can be easily carved; used to cover To learn more about town planning and house architec- and expanded it greatly. It became a Roman colony in 80 walls or decorate a surface. ture during the expansion of the Republic, we turn to bce, after it sided with other Italian cities in the Social Chapter 18 | Art of the Roman Republic, 509–27 BCE 305 Global_Art_Survey_Chapter18_pp303-319 CP-01 REPRO cc2019.indd 305 10/02/2021 14:28 Global_Art_Survey_Chapter18_pp303-319 CP-01 REPRO cc2019.indd 305 27/01/2021 15:30  Villa of the Mysteries buildings around the forum. This large open area, which generally included shops, porticoes, temples, and basilicas, was the center of Roman city life. In the forum, House of people of all classes shopped, worshiped, and partici- central baths the Faun pated in the political or judicial activities of the town. It N was generally located where the main north–south street (cardo) met the main east–west avenue (decumanus). This was the case in Pompeii, where the forum was located forum baths amphitheater at the geographic heart of the city, at least until its later market expansion (Fig. 18.4). Until recently, most scholars believed that the forum Temple of Jupiter (Capitolium) took on its monumental form, with a two-story colon- nade on three sides, in the second century bce, when Temple of Apollo the Samnites controlled the city. However, recent archae- basilica ological work and study at the forum have led some archaeologists to suggest that this columned portico forum was added after 80 bce, when Pompeii became a Roman Stabian large colony. In the area of the forum are the remains of statue 0 600 1,200 feet Baths large palaestra 0 200 400 meters theater small theater bases, probably for portraits of local public figures and, (odeon) later, Roman emperors. temples of jupiter and apollo, pompeii The pres- 18.3 top Aerial view of War against Rome, which Rome won in 88 bce. Rome, ence of two major temples in the immediate vicinity of Pompeii, Italy, destroyed by the victorious, ultimately granted Roman citizenship to the the forum shows the strong connection between religion volcanic eruption of 79 ce. defeated cities to avoid another war. Even a cursory view and politics in Pompeii, a link that was common in the 18.4 above Map of central of the city’s art makes it clear that Pompeii was a micro- ancient Roman world. At the north end of the forum is Pompeii just before the cosm of the far reach and eclecticism of the growing the Temple of Jupiter, the center of religious life in the eruption. Roman Empire, with influences coming from Greece, city. Jupiter, as with Zeus for the ancient Greeks, was forum an open area at the Egypt, and even India (see: Seeing Connections: Early considered to be the ruler of the gods and the protector center of a Roman town where Global Networks: The Silk Road, p. 270). of Rome, and so worship of the deity became popular people shopped, worshiped, when the Romans came to Pompeii. It is believed that and participated in political or forum of pompeii The Romans excelled at town they converted the temple, probably constructed during judicial activities. planning, including the orderly arrangement of public Samnite rule, into a Capitolium. What remains of the 306 Part 2 | Early Cities and Empires Global_Art_Survey_Chapter18_pp303-319 CP-01 REPRO cc2019.indd 306 10/02/2021 14:28 Global_Art_Survey_Chapter18_pp303-319 CP-01 REPRO cc2019.indd 306 27/01/2021 15:30  stucco-covered tuff Temple of Jupiter indicates that this Republican-style building sat on a high podium, reached by a staircase at the front, and had a clear facade (Figs. 18.5 and 18.6). It included a deep porch with free- standing Corinthian columns and at the front of the structure was an altar. The cella included spaces for cella pronaos stairs statues of the deities Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva, and a chamber below was used for storage. To the left of the forum’s colonnade is the Temple of Apollo in its precinct (see Fig. 18.7). The temple com- bines more Greek with Etruscan elements than the Temple of Jupiter. For example, the Temple of Apollo has a freestanding peristyle, or colonnade, rather than 18.5 top Temple of Jupiter with Vesuvius in the background, Pompeii, Italy, built second century bce and later. 18.6 above Temple of Jupiter (plan drawing), Pompeii, Italy. portico a covered space defined by a series of columns placed at regular intervals to support the roof. basilica a longitudinal building with multiple aisles and an apse, typically located at the east end. Capitolium an ancient Roman temple dedicated to Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva, who are also known as the Capitoline Triad. peristyle a line of columns enclosing a space. 18.7 left Temple of Apollo, Pompeii, Italy, second century bce. Chapter 18 | Art of the Roman Republic, 509–27 bce 307 Global_Art_Survey_Chapter18_pp303-319 CP-01 REPRO cc2019.indd 307 10/02/2021 14:28 Global_Art_Survey_Chapter18_pp303-319 CP-01 REPRO cc2019.indd 307 27/01/2021 15:30  freestanding columns only at the front of the temple in Romans used public baths. Because the Romans gener- entablature a horizontal lintel on a building that consists of the porch. In Etruscan fashion, however, the temple is ally bathed naked or almost naked, many of the marks different bands of molding; raised on a podium, and there is a narrow staircase at the of social class so common in Roman dress (for example, might include an architrave, front, setting off the facade quite clearly. The columns the purple-bordered toga, which was worn primarily frieze, or cornice. on the temple are Corinthian, those of the colonnade by government officials, such as senators and magis- metope a plain or decorated that surround the temple precinct are Ionic, while the trates) were removed. Roman baths therefore provided an slab on a Doric frieze, between entablature supported by the precinct colonnade is ideal opportunity for social networking for all classes, as triglyphs. Doric, with a frieze of metopes and triglyphs (see box: people exercised, steamed, oiled, swam, and bathed triglyph a block with three Looking More Closely: The Greek Orders, p. 225). The together. These public complexes could even include vertical bands separated by combination of architectural elements again points to libraries and lecture halls. We also see in these complexes V-shaped grooves; triglyphs the city’s eclectic style. early examples of innovative architectural techniques occur in between metopes on a Doric frieze. and materials that revolutionize Roman engineering, basilica, pompeii In front of the precinct of Apollo including the use of concrete for impressive vaults and nave the central aisle of a civic are the remains of a basilica (see Fig. 18.4). Used as a law domes, such as in the Stabian Baths (see box: Making It or church basilica. court and for administrative purposes, it was an impor- Real: Roman Concrete, p. 335). apodyterium in ancient Rome, tant structure in Pompeii. It is believed that the structure a dressing room in public baths dates to the late second century bce, though, similar to stabian baths The Stabian Baths (Fig. 18.8) are the that was used for changing and storing clothing or other the colonnade of the forum, some now argue for a later oldest in Pompeii. The structure dates primarily to the belongings. date of around 80 bce. The basilica is long and narrow, middle of the second century bce, before the Roman with columns dividing the central nave from the side takeover, showing us that bath culture was not a uniquely barrel vault (also called a aisles. The building was entered through a vestibule Roman invention. The main entrance was from the shop- tunnel vault) a semi-cylindrical ceiling that consists of a single on the east end, by which visitors gained access to the lined street named Via dell’Abbondanza. Visitors went curve. nave. At the west end of the nave is a two-story tribunal, in through a vestibule into a colonnaded courtyard used a raised platform from which magistrates adjudicated. as a palaestra (area for sport or exercise). A secondary groin vault a vault produced by the intersection of two In its day, the tribunal had a timber roof. The basilica entrance from a side street led to somewhat smaller barrel vaults placed at right was a building form that was well suited to any large and less elaborately designed bathing rooms for women. angles to each other, forming assembly, and it had a long life in Roman architecture Bathers would undress in an apodyterium. The men’s pronounced “groins” or arcs at the meeting points. (see Figs. 20.10 and 22.15) and beyond. Later on, early apodyterium (Fig. 18.9) had an impressive concrete barrel Christians adapted the form of the basilica for their first vault; this type of vault, along with groin vaults, became monumental churches (see Fig. 23.12). important hallmarks of Roman architecture (see box: Making It Real: Etruria, Rome, and the Roman Arch, baths of pompeii p. 296). The Stabian’s vault was decorated with painted The communal aspect of the forum carried over to stucco relief. There was a bench around the room and Pompeii’s public bathing facilities. The city had three niches for clothing. sets of large public bathing complexes: the Stabian, After changing, visitors proceeded to the bathing Forum, and Central Baths. (These are modern names rooms: the frigidarium (cold bathing room), covered based on their locations in the city.) Here, the lower by an early concrete dome, tepidarium (warm bathing and upper classes mingled: the entrance fee was low, room), and caldarium (hot bathing room). All were heated giving most people access, and even the wealthiest of by a single wood-burning furnace that was connected lavatories women’s entrance women’s dressing room women’s warm bathing room (tepidarium) women’s hot bathing room (caldarium) men’s sauna men’s exercise yard furnaces men’s men’s hot bathing swimming pool room (caldarium) men’s cold bathing men’s warm bathing room (frigidarium) room (tepidarium) men’s dressing room 18.8 Stabian Baths (plan drawing), Pompeii, Italy, mid- main entrance second century bce and later. 308 Part 2 | Early Cities and Empires Global_Art_Survey_Chapter18_pp303-319 CP-01 REPRO cc2019.indd 308 10/02/2021 14:28 Global_Art_Survey_Chapter18_pp303-319 CP-01 REPRO cc2019.indd 308 27/01/2021 15:30  18.9 Men’s changing room (apodyterium), Stabian Baths, with plaster casts of victims of the eruption of Vesuvius. Pompeii, Italy, mid-second century BCE and later. to an underfloor heating system. The rooms closest substantial of the two theaters dates to the second century amphitheater a round or oval to the furnace were for the hottest baths. Though bce and was later enlarged to hold approximately 5,000 open-air theater with seats many scholars suggest that Roman bathing was highly people. Both are smaller than the stone theaters in the sloping down toward the systematic—proceeding from cool to hot, finishing with capital city of Rome, but they were erected much earlier, central performance area. a dip in a cold pool at the end—far freer movement was while Rome was still using temporary wooden theaters, quite possible. suggesting the importance of spectacle in Pompeii even before it became a part of Rome. theaters of pompeii Another type of important public architecture in the amphitheater The amphitheater at Pompeii, where Roman Republic was the outdoor theater. In 79 ce, when gladiators competed against one another, is one of the Vesuvius erupted, Pompeii included two permanent stone earliest concrete and stone buildings of this type and held theaters and a concrete and stone amphitheater. The more approximately 20,000 spectators (Fig. 18.10). The concrete 18.10 Amphitheater, Pompeii, Italy, c. 80–70 BCE. Chapter 18 | Art of the Roman Republic, 509–27 BCE 309 Global_Art_Survey_Chapter18_pp303-319 CP-01 REPRO cc2019.indd 309 10/02/2021 14:28 Global_Art_Survey_Chapter18_pp303-319 CP-01 REPRO cc2019.indd 309 11/02/2021 10:03  1' 18.11 Brawl in the exterior of the theatre, which consists of barrel vaults with the exception of some of stone that were donated amphitheater of Pompeii, from (some of which lead all the way through to the arena) by local officials. House I,3,23, c. 60–79 ce. Fresco, 5 ft. 7 in. × 6 ft. 1 in. (1.7 × 1.85 m). serves as a retaining wall for the sloping earthen mound A painting found in a house in Pompeii brings the Museo Archeologico Nazionale, that supports the stone and wooden seats inside, which action inside the amphitheater to life (Fig. 18.11). It illus- Naples, Italy. slope down toward the arena floor. The seating was clearly trates a brawl that took place in 59 ce between the differentiated by rank, with the more spacious front Pompeiians and visitors from a neighboring town during rows reserved for the patricians, who entered through a gladiatorial contest. The incident was serious enough to one of the lower entrances. An entryway at the top of an close down the amphitheater for ten years. To provide as external staircase was used by those in general seating. much detail as possible, the painting depicts the theater Women and enslaved people were relegated to the upper- from different viewpoints, including an almost bird’s-eye most rows. Thus, unlike at the baths, the two social view of the interior and a side view of the entrance from classes did not mingle at the amphitheater, where a the outside. It also gives a rare glimpse of the velarium, large barrier divided one seating area from the other. or awning, which could be opened to protect the spec- The original seats, now lost, were mostly made of wood, tators from the sun and rain. 310 Part 2 | Early Cities and Empires Global_Art_Survey_Chapter18_pp303-319 CP-01 REPRO cc2019.indd 310 10/02/2021 14:28 Global_Art_Survey_Chapter18_pp303-319 CP-01 REPRO cc2019.indd 310 27/01/2021 15:30  The Roman House of household artifacts and activities within the home atrium (plural atria) a Latin Though the upper and lower classes of Pompeii some- demonstrates that women had access to different parts term for an interior courtyard, times mingled, as we have seen, their living situations of the Roman house. either open or covered, which remained very different. Lower- and middle-class citizens is surrounded by the walls or rooms of a building. often rented spaces in subdivided houses, or they could house of the faun The largest and perhaps most live in available spaces in or above shops, called taber- extravagant home in Pompeii was the House of the Faun cubiculum (plural cubicula) nae. These were practical, affordable homes. In contrast, (Fig. 18.12). Occupying an entire city block of approximately a small room in a Roman house that could be used for different a wealthy Roman’s house, or domus, was built not only 32,000 square feet (around 3,000 square meters), it was purposes, including bedrooms. to function as a home for the family and sometimes its larger than the royal palace of Pergamon (see Fig. 15.14). Its servants, but also to highlight the family’s social status. impressive architectural features included two atria, two triclinium a formal dining In addition, an upper-class Roman’s house played an peristyled courts, and an elaborate decorative program, room in a Roman house or other building; the word comes important role in business, politics, and social mobil- with mosaics, inlaid stone floors, sculptures, and wall from Greek tri, “three,” and ity, binding a wealthy and powerful patron, or patronus, klinon, a sort of couch or seat a person seeking to build political support, to one or for reclining. more clients, someone who benefited from the protec- mosaic a picture or pattern tion of the patron, for example, financially, or in the law made from the arrangement courts. Formerly enslaved people became clients of their of small colored pieces of hard material, such as stone, tile, former owners. The client was expected to call on the or glass. patron each day. The deeper a client was allowed into his patron’s home, the more connected and, therefore, successful he was. Certain features are common to most wealthy Roman houses. The facade was generally understated, as the focus of the house was on internal courtyards, or atria, that let in light and air, and kept out noise and dust inner peristyled garden from the street. The front of the house often consisted of rooms on either side of the main entrance, which sometimes opened into the house but frequently did not, and could therefore be used or rented as shops. From outside the main entrance to the house, one could often see deep into the home, even to the gardens at the back. This sightline appears to have been intentional, so that people walking by on the street might get a glimpse of the depth and wealth of the house. One entered through a narrow entry hall called the Alexander triclinium fauces ( jaws). This led to a central atrium, in the middle Mosaics of which was an impluvium, a sunken area designed to catch rainwater from a space in the roof. The atrium also generally included a lararium, or shrine to the guardian spirits of the Roman household, as religion was inti- mately tied to Roman family life. Cubicula were located peristyled garden bath around the atrium and were often used as bedrooms. Toward the back of the domus were larger rooms, includ- ing the patron’s tablinum (home office and archive) and the triclinium (dining room). The houses often included a hortus (garden) at the rear, where herbs, fruits, and triclinia tablinum vegetables for the family were grown. This basic system appears to have been influenced by Etruscan houses, bronze atrium or at least what is shown of them in Etruscan tombs or statue main atrium houses of the dead. Peristyle gardens became popular of faun in wealthy Roman houses after the Romans came into contact with Greeks, in whose houses such columned cubicula cubiculum gardens were common. Within this, however, there was still great variety in the ground plans and elaboration of individual dwellings, even within a city. While the patron/client relationship seems to privi- fauces lege the man as head of the household (paterfamilias), women could play an important role in running the entrance household, especially when men were away fighting or on 18.12 House of the Faun business, sometimes for years at a time. In some cases, (plan drawing), Pompeii, Italy, women even owned their own home. The distribution second century bce. Chapter 18 | Art of the Roman Republic, 509–27 BCE 311 Global_Art_Survey_Chapter18_pp303-319 CP-01 REPRO cc2019.indd 311 10/02/2021 14:28 Global_Art_Survey_Chapter18_pp303-319 CP-01 REPRO cc2019.indd 311 27/01/2021 15:30  paintings that date primarily to the late second century bce, most selected in imitation of Greek Hellenistic houses and palaces. The facade of the House of the Faun included two main entrances and four other openings for shops. Looking into the house from the principal entrance, where the Oscan welcome HAVE (“HAIL”) appears in mosaic on the floor, one could see into the fauces and main atrium, through a sizable window in the tablinum that gave onto the first peristyle, into an exedra, and onto the second peristyle beyond. The bronze faun, for which this house was later named, was located in the center of the impluvium in the atrium (Fig. 18.13) and so was a focus of this visual axis. This vista included not only the Alexander Mosaic but also other figural mosaics and wall paintings. alexander mosaic The Alexander Mosaic (Fig. 18.14) was located on the floor of an exedra in the first peristyled court of the House of the Faun. Estimates of the number of tesserae used (in this case tiny cubes of stone or glass) range from 1 million to several million. The scale of this work, measuring approximately 8 ft. 10 in. × 16 ft. 9 in., is 18.13 left Atrium of the House 18.14 below Alexander of the Faun, with bronze sculpture Mosaic, perhaps a late 2nd- or of a faun, looking toward the early 1st-century bce copy of a tablinum (office) and first peristyle, panel painting of the Battle of Issus Pompeii, Italy, second century bce. by Philoxenos of Eretria, late fourth century bce. Mosaic, approximately 8 ft. 10 in. × 16 ft. 9 in. (2.69 × 5.11 m). Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples, Italy. 1' 312 Part 2 | Early Cities and Empires Global_Art_Survey_Chapter18_pp303-319 CP-01 REPRO cc2019.indd 312 10/02/2021 14:28 Global_Art_Survey_Chapter18_pp303-319 CP-01 REPRO cc2019.indd 312 27/01/2021 15:30  in itself striking, but the level of detail and the tools of figure of a fallen Persian soldier who gives the viewer a 18.14a Alexander, detail perspective used to create the scene, such as modeling glimpse of his face, reflected in his shield, in the instant from the Alexander Mosaic, House of the Faun, Pompeii, Italy. and foreshortening (dramatically shown in the horse’s before death. Museo Archeologico Nazionale, haunches), are truly remarkable. The visual effects are The Roman historian Pliny the Elder (23–79 ce) Naples, Italy. achieved using a fairly limited palette, but with an impres- recorded that this battle was the subject of a famous sive range of values. Hellenistic painting created by the Greek artist Philoxenos The scene is one of battle. Two men stand out from of Eretria in the late fourth century bce, either during or the chaotic foreground of felled men, weapons, and even shortly after Alexander’s lifetime. Many scholars believe the prominent hindquarters of a horse. The man riding that the Alexander Mosaic may be a Roman copy of that his horse on the left, looking confident and focused, is lost painting, which Pliny claimed was “inferior to none.” identified as the Macedonian conqueror Alexander the Another theory suggests that the mosaic is a copy of a Great, owing to his signature mane-like hair (shown painting of the Battle of Issos by a Greek woman artist clearly because he wears no helmet), his shining armor, known as Helen of Alexandria. Given how few women and his Macedonian weaponry (18.14a). As he spears a artists are known from this period, this theory is intrigu- victim, Alexander gazes intently at the prominent figure ing, but is impossible to prove. It is also possible that the of a man riding in a chariot, identified as the Persian mosaic is a Hellenistic Greek original plundered from exedra an enclosed space king Darius III. Darius and Alexander had fought at the ancient Greece during the Roman conquest. Indeed, the or recessed area, usually Battle of Issos in southern Anatolia (present-day Turkey) reinstallation of Greek booty in wealthy Roman homes semicircular. in 333 bce. Darius is placed higher than anyone else on is well documented, and many Romans saw Alexander the picture plane, but this prominence does not equate as their forerunner as world conqueror. tessera (plural tesserae) a small block of tile, glass, or to strength or success, as he is shown at the very moment stone used to make mosaic. of retreat. Though his arm and body stretch toward first style wall painting Alexander, his men and horses are struggling to turn August Mau, a scholar of Roman painting, divided the foreshortening in two- dimensional artworks, the and flee. Even his own charioteer is whipping the black surviving examples of Roman wall painting into four illusion of a form receding into horses (on the right side of the composition) into a run; styles. The First Style and Second Style wall paintings space: the parts of an object or one of the horses appears to have three hooves off the date to the Roman Republic; the Third and Fourth Styles figure closest to the viewer are depicted as largest, those ground. Darius’s expression entreats Alexander to have belong to Rome’s imperial period (see Chapter 19). The furthest as smallest. compassion for his men. This pathos continues in the House of the Faun included several fine examples of Chapter 18 | Art of the Roman Republic, 509–27 BCE 313 Global_Art_Survey_Chapter18_pp303-319 CP-01 REPRO cc2019.indd 313 10/02/2021 14:28 Global_Art_Survey_Chapter18_pp303-319 CP-01 REPRO cc2019.indd 313 27/01/2021 15:30  18.15 First Style wall painting villa of the mysteries An impressive Roman res- in the fauces (entrance hall), idence, known for its intriguing wall paintings in the House of the Faun, Pompeii, Italy, second century bce. Second Style, is the Villa of the Mysteries (Fig. 18.16). The villa was located just one thousand feet (around 300 m) outside the city walls, where wealthy Pompeiians con- structed their country villas. It was built during the early second century bce and remodeled after 80 bce into the form we know today. The ground plan of this villa was the reverse of that of a typical Pompeiian house, with the entrance through the peristyle. Visitors then passed through the atrium, ultimately arriving in the tablinum, which opened onto a terrace overlooking the Bay of Naples. The villa takes its modern name from its mature Second Style paintings of a Bacchanalian mystery rite, which were added sometime after 80 bce, during the remodeling. This unofficial mystery religion, which involved the worship of Bacchus (Greek Dionysos, god of wine and agriculture), was popular among women at the time. The paintings are located on the walls of a room that opens onto a shady portico with a view of the Mediterranean Sea. The room includes a First Style dado, above which is painted an illusion of a narrow ledge on which stands a single line of almost life-size figures, participating in what appear to be various scenes of one woman’s initiation into the worship of Bacchus, pointing once again to the Greek influence on Roman culture and religion. The action, set against a backdrop of brilliant Pompeian red-painted panels, unfolds around the viewer (Fig. 18.17). On the shorter far wall is the god Bacchus, iden- tifiable by his thyrsus, a stick entwined with ivy and vine with a pinecone at the top; he is depicted resting on the lap of, perhaps, his wife, Ariadne. The artist convincingly conveys a sense of three-dimensionality by overlapping the First Style, sometimes referred to as the masonry the figures, including Bacchus and Ariadne; by using low relief (also called bas- relief) raised forms that style. Paintings in this style were reminiscent of the lux- light and shade to model them, as seen most clearly project only slightly from urious stone inlaid walls in monumental Greek public in the drapery; and through the use of foreshortening. a flat background. buildings, and so gave the House of the Faun a stately dado the lower portion of a feel. These paintings are similar to the Greek-influenced fauces wall that is often of a different domestic peristyled courts in that they also demonstrate color or material to the rest of Greek influence on Roman houses. Popular from about the wall. 200 bce to 80 bce, the First Style was made with stucco peristyle modeled in low relief and painted in an effort to simu- late colored marble and other stone veneers (Fig. 18.15). Real stone veneers were quite expensive, so the presence of painted imitations of such stonework was probably intended to elevate the status of the homeowner in the cubiculum eyes of his clients and other guests. The paintings simulta- atrium neously showed the homeowner’s pride in the expanding Roman empire because many of the depicted stones were types imported from beyond the Italian peninsula. impluvium second style wall painting tablinum Second Style paintings first appeared in Rome toward the terrace beginning of the first century bce, and slightly later in Pompeii. Though the Second Style includes some aspects room with Dionysiac of First Style painting, the Second Style emphasized Mysteries murals 18.16 far right Villa of the painted illusions of three-dimensional features, such as Mysteries (plan drawing), columns, rather than the modeled stucco architectural 0 10 20 yards N Pompeii, Italy, second–first century bce. elements so common in the First Style. 0 10 20 meters 314 Part 2 | Early Cities and Empires Global_Art_Survey_Chapter18_pp303-319 CP-01 REPRO cc2019.indd 314 10/02/2021 14:28 Global_Art_Survey_Chapter18_pp303-319 CP-01 REPRO cc2019.indd 314 27/01/2021 15:30  18.17 Bacchanalian mystery rites, Second Style mural, Villa of the Mysteries, room 5, Pompeii, Italy, first century bce. 18.17a below Bacchanalian mystery rites, Second Style mural, (detail), Villa of the Mysteries, room 5. Silenus, a satyr (a drunken, lustful woodland being) and companion of Bacchus, is depicted to the left of the god as we view him, with, perhaps, maenads, female followers of Bacchus, to the right. Though the order in which we are to view the panels is uncertain, each individual tableau appears to form part of a single composition. One scene that unfolds across the corner to the right of Bacchus depicts a winged female figure moving to whip a woman kneeling with her head against the lap of a seated female. Next to the seated woman a naked dancer plays castanets as a fully dressed woman holding a thyrsus looks out from behind the dancer (p. 303 and 18.17a). The billowing drapery of the dancing figure conveys a sense of movement. Though we know very little about what happened during Bacchanalian rites, these paintings provide some hint. It is possible that during these ceremonies a young woman, or initiate, was joined in marriage with Bacchus, much as Ariadne was joined to Dionysos in Greek mythology. The function of the room that houses these paintings, however, is unknown. Some have suggested that it was used as a triclinium, while others suggest that Bacchanalian rituals indeed took place there. wall paintings, boscoreale This wall painting from the mid-first century bce wall painting, covering an entire bedroom in a villa at Boscoreale, near Pompeii, is an excellent example of what is sometimes called the architectural Second Style (Fig. 18.18, p. 316). It showcases illusionistic architectural elements and spaces, including painted columns with realistic shadows and imaginary scenes of buildings from the outside world. The painter denies the flat surface of the walls by treating them as if Chapter 18 | Art of the Roman Republic, 509–27 BCE 315 Global_Art_Survey_Chapter18_pp303-319 CP-01 REPRO cc2019.indd 315 10/02/2021 14:28 Global_Art_Survey_Chapter18_pp303-319 CP-01 REPRO cc2019.indd 315 27/01/2021 15:30  they are windows onto exterior views, complementing a real window in the back wall. The visual explosion of the flat picture plane is accomplished through the use of linear perspective, although this is not always accurately applied. The technique, probably used earlier in Greece as well, was later rediscovered in the Renaissance, which is often wrongly credited with its invention. getty villa, los angeles J. Paul Getty, a U.S. busi- nessman and billionaire philanthropist, based the plan of his villa near the Pacific Ocean in Los Angeles loosely on the plan of another Roman villa on the Bay of Naples: the Villa of the Papyri in Herculaneum, a town that, like Pompei, was also buried by the eruption of Vesuvius. The Getty Villa (Fig. 18.19) now houses J. Paul Getty’s collection of antiquities. It also attempts to emulate ancient Roman gardens with their sculptures, pools, fountains, and plants, as well as other decorative and functional features, such as mosaic floors, wall paintings, and lamps. Although it is not an authentic ancient Roman villa, the Getty Villa certainly evokes the sense of awe and privilege one must have felt upon moving deeper into the house of an exceptionally affluent Roman. Portraiture of the Republic Similar to public and private architecture, portraiture played several important roles in ancient Rome from the early Republic to the end of the empire. Portrait sculp- tures were often set up in public places, such as forums and theaters, inside or on the facades of the tombs that lined the streets leading out of Roman cities, or in private homes, especially those of patricians. The social, political, and religious impact of portraits in terms of establish- ing Romans’ social identity, perpetuating their memory, and alleviating their concerns regarding immortality cannot be overestimated. Most extant Republican portraits date to the late second century and first century bce, though few Republican portraits have been found in a secure archaeological context. They are generally made of stone, often marble, and they take a variety of forms, including full-size statues, busts, carved heads, reliefs, and likenesses on coins and carved gemstones. Unlike architecture and painting, Republican portrait sculpture resisted Greek influences. Notable in many Republican portraits is what appears to be a highly realistic representation of the individual depicted, including such details that indicate advanced age, such as furrows in the forehead or wrinkles around the eyes. Roman verism differs from Classical idealism, with its beautiful depictions of ageless figures, in that Romans of this time venerated character and maturity—specifically, the experience, responsibility, and wisdom that come with age. A portrait showing advanced years, and possibly familial traits if one belonged to an old patrician family, advertised the subject’s social status 18.18 above left Bedroom 18.19 left Atrium of the Getty with wall paintings, House Villa, Malibu, Los Angeles, ca. of Publius Fannius Synistor, Modeled on the plan of the Villa of Boscoreale, near Pompeii, Italy, the Papyri in Herculaneum, Italy. mid-first century bce. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. 316 Part 2 | Early Cities and Empires Global_Art_Survey_Chapter18_pp303-319 CP-01 REPRO cc2019.indd 316 18/03/2021 10:43 Global_Art_Survey_Chapter18_pp303-319 CP-01 REPRO cc2019.indd 316 27/01/2021 15:30  18.20 Tomb of the Rabirii (detail), Via Appia, Rome, late first century bce. Marble, length 6 ft. 8½ in. (2.05 m). Plaster cast in the Museo Nazionale Romano, Terme di Diocleziano, Rome. and profession to passersby, as well as the dignitas and citizen. She also wears a ring, which may suggest that gravitas (dignity and seriousness) so valued in Rome. she was married to Rabirius. Both figures, who turn their heads slightly toward the third figure, have been dated portraits from tomb of the rabirii The word to the later part of the first century bce—either the Late “portrait” may bring to mind images of emperors, states- Republic or the early Augustan period. men, and other important patricians, but there are also The third figure, Usia, is more of an anomaly. The numerous Roman portraits of lesser-known individuals, inscription tells us that she was associated with the cult including merchants and craftspeople, many of whom of Isis, the Egyptian goddess of fertility, who was also were freedmen, or formerly enslaved people. Mary Beard worshipped in Rome. The low reliefs on either side of her suggests that very roughly 20 percent of the total popu- head are a sistrum, an instrument used in the worship of lation of Italy in the middle of the first century bce were Isis, and a patera, a shallow dish used to pour libations enslaved people—approximately 1.5 to 2 million. Because (liquid offerings). From what is depicted, one cannot enslaved people could be freed and granted Roman cit- quite see whether she is also wearing the tunic and palla, izenship, sometimes for very practical reasons, such as which would make her a Roman citizen. Interestingly, the expense of caring for an elderly enslaved person, her hairstyle suggests a carving date in the first century the Roman citizenry was incredibly diverse. The earliest ce, later than the other two figures. Indeed, the size of extant portraits of freedmen date from the second quarter her head in relation to her body is not proportionate, of the first century bce and, in addition to memorializ- which implies that the head was recarved from an earlier ing the deceased, provide us with insight into the social relief, her hairstyle indicating this to be in the last sixty mobility of freed people in ancient Rome. One intriguing years of the first century ce. It appears that the torso example of a freedman relief was found on the Tomb of and inscription were recarved as well. The open space the Rabirii on the Via Appia, just outside of the city walls to Usia’s left also suggests that at least one other figure of Rome (Fig. 18.20), where passersby would be reminded was once present. of the deceased, now immortalized in stone. The relief The veristic style developed greatly during the unrest features three portrait busts in high relief of a man (on the of the Late Republic, as portraits of powerful individuals, linear perspective a system of far left) and two women in a rectangular frame. The Latin particularly military figures, including Julius Caesar, took representing three-dimensional inscription on the frame translates as “Caius Rabirius on even greater significance. Centuries of wars and con- space and objects on a two- Hermodorus, freedman of Postumus; Rabiria Demaris; quest had taken a toll on Rome itself. Soldiers were away dimensional surface by means of geometry and one or more Usia Prima, Priestess/of the Devotees of Isis.” from their homes and land for long periods, returning vanishing points. The freedman, Caius Rabirius Hermodorus, is depicted to unstable circumstances brought on by their absence as an older man with a receding hairline, wrinkles, and and the long period of war. Many chose to move to the bust a sculpture of a person’s head, shoulders, and chest. hollow cheeks. He is dressed in a toga, which would have cities, but there was little work to be had, owing to the been possible only after his owner freed him from enslave- influx of enslaved people (many prisoners of war were verism preferring realism, ment. (Enslaved men could not wear a toga.) The woman destined for this fate). During the wars, Roman gener- especially in portraiture, to the heroic or ideal; comes from the next to him, Rabiria Demaris, perhaps a freedwoman, is als became increasingly powerful, winning the support Latin verus, meaning “true.” also depicted as older. She wears a tunic, over which a of their soldiers, who were often more faithful to their palla (mantle or cloak) is draped across her left shoul- generals than to the Roman senate. The veristic portraits high relief raised forms that project far from a flat der. Dress often signified status in ancient Rome, and of these generals cum political leaders were crucial in background. indeed Rabiria’s clothing confirms that she is a Roman establishing their new roles. Chapter 18 | Art of the Roman Republic, 509–27 BCE 317 Global_Art_Survey_Chapter18_pp303-319 CP-01 REPRO cc2019.indd 317 10/02/2021 14:28 Global_Art_Survey_Chapter18_pp303-319 CP-01 REPRO cc2019.indd 317 27/01/2021 15:30  art historical thinking. The Barberini Togatus and the Historiography of Roman Art Historiography is the history of a discipline. (toga-wearing) figure holds two heavy stone According to one scholar, “One of the tallest statue busts, not wearable wax masks, and so houses of cards in Roman art historiography descriptions of the statue as illustrating the texts has been built atop the Barberini Togatus.” The of Pliny and Polybius are inaccurate. Second, the Barberini Togatus is a life-sized statue of a man original archaeological findspot of the Barberini wearing a toga and senatorial boots; he cradles Togatus is unknown. In other words, the work a veristic portrait bust of an elderly man in each is not “grounded” in an archaeological context. hand (Fig. 18.21). The head of the main figure is Indeed, the statue is named for the Barberini not original to this statue. The Barberini Togatus collection, where it was first documented in has often been described as representing the 1627. It is recorded there as a gift from Filippo Roman tradition, described by the Roman writers Colonna to Cardinal Francesco Barberini, and it Pliny the Elder and Polybius, of parading wax was later acquired by the Capitoline Museum in imagines (portraits) during funerary processions: Rome in 1937. Today it resides in the Capitoline Museum at Montemartini. Therefore, the statue In … the atria of the ancestors … portraits lacks an archaeological context. We have no offered a spectacle to behold, not the idea who owned the statue and whether it was statues by foreign artists either of bronze displayed in the private home of a patrician, in or of marble; but faces rendered in wax were a public square in Rome, in a tomb interior, on arranged in separate cupboards, so that the facade of a tomb on a street just outside they should be “true portraits” [imagines] to of a Roman city, or elsewhere. Nor do we have accompany funerals in the extended family. an accurate date for the sculpture’s creation. (Pliny, Natural History, XXXV.6) So, while the statue certainly alludes in a general way to the importance of venerating [Romans] place a likeness of the dead man ancestors in Roman society, much information in the most public part of the house, keeping is lost. The desire to justify primary sources, it in a small wooden shrine. The likeness is such as the practices described by Pliny and a mask especially made for a close resem- Polybius, sometimes leads us to over-interpret blance both as regards the shape of the face or misinterpret works of art. The lesson is that and its coloring. They open these masks we must resist the urge to construct grand and during public sacrifices and compete in detailed scenarios based on limited information. decorating them. And whenever a leading How different would the canon of art history look 1' member of the family dies, they introduce if all ungrounded works were removed? them into the funeral procession, putting them on men who seem most like them in height and as regards the rest of their general appearance. (Polybius, Histories Discussion Question 6.53.4–7) 1. Choose a work of art from this chapter that is “grounded”—that is, for which we know the archaeological context. Fully identify As Elizabeth Marlowe discusses at length in