2. Hellenistic-Roman Art (c.27 BCE - 200 CE)
Following the era of Hellenistic Art proper (323-27 BCE), a new phase of Hellenism opened in Rome and soon became the most lively and original movement of the time. The description 'Roman Art' is in modern times applied to what was in fact an amalgam of Etruscan, Italic and, above all, Hellenistic elements that were absorbed and reworked as Roman culture adapted them to her own national demands. But perhaps it would be closer to the truth if we were to call the ancient art of the period, at least up to the Late Empire, by the term Hellenistic-Roman art.
Hellenistic characteristics are deep-rooted in the most significant monument of the Augustan epoch, the one, more than any other, that represented its ideals: the Ara Pacis (Altar of Augustan Peace), dedicated in the Campus Martius on 30 January 9 BCE. The figurative decoration of the altar has been almost entirely lost; there remain only a few fragments of the frieze that surrounded the altar table, representing the annual sacrifice of the suovetaurilia. (This was celebrated in front of the altar, and was a purificatory sacrifice consisting of a swine, a sheep and a bull.) The altar is surrounded by a wall screen containing a rich decoration. On the inside walls there is a large frieze with garlands and ox-skulls, alluding to the ritual sacrifices. On the outside a solemn procession is depicted, commemorating the one that took place on 4 July 13 BCE, the day the altar was consecrated.
This work recalls the Panathenaic frieze of the Parthenon, but here the participants are developed with far more realism. The one is a typical representation of the Athens of Pericles, the other seeks to identify in precise detail the Imperial family and the magistrates, senators and other officials of Rome. In the end, though, both express the same faith in a victorious and fortunate humanity- the same illusion of an uninterrupted progress to eternity. On the other hand, there is nothing more splendidly Hellenistic than the acanthus spirals that cover the lower half of the sacred wall and which twist around the four external walls; this was a design of great decorative effect that was to be widely imitated in the Middle Ages. And even the Parthenon-like solemnity of the panel on which Aeneas sacrifices to the Penates, on the right-hand side of the front facade, seems to dissolve into a rather bucolic, perhaps almost Alexandrian scene. Moreover, nothing is more Alexandrian than the most famous of the reliefs on the altar (the most famous by virtue of its academic flavour, but not the most beautiful) which is set on the back wall of the screens and so corresponds with the relief of Aeneas. This shows the land pacified and made prosperous and happy by the Pax Augusta. The animals, the vegetation, the sea, the soft plumage of the swan, the buxom feminine figure are all part of the Hellenistic repertoire, even if the soft Alexandrian modelling has been interpreted here and there with a certain frigidity. There are four reliefs on the short east and west exterior walls and all are symbolic - in contrast to the 'historical' reportage that is unfolded on the other, longer walls.
Around the Ara Pacis are to be found the
works promoted by Augustus and his ministers, Maecenas and Agrippa, that
gave Rome a new monumental appearance. 'Restitutor aedium sacrarum et
operum publicorum, Augustus could indeed be proud that he had transformed
the Rome of terracotta and bricks into the Rome of marble' (Becatti).
The main episodes of the building programme of the Principate were the
completion of Caesar's Forum, the construction of the Forum of Augustus,
and the building of the Pantheon. The latter was destroyed by fire and
was later rebuilt under Hadrian. Under the vast cupola of this temple,
dedicated to the seven planetary gods, a new, all-embracing notion of
cosmic unity is apparent: indeed, we are a long way away from the 'human
scale' of the architecture and sculpture of the Parthenon. (For information
about architectural styles and designs in Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome,
see: Roman Architecture.)
The classicism dominant in official Augustan
sculpture and also clearly visible in the
idealized youthfulness of the many portraits of the Emperor, left its
mark on succeeding periods. The realistic trend, at first under Claudius,
and then in Nero's time, gathered strength once more, but now remained
confined to a less official sphere, to a more private and popular kind
of art. Thus, beside the famous portrait of Norbanus Sorex or that of
the Pompeian man and wife - which almost seems to foreshadow the Fayum
Mummy Portraits - are to found a body of 'minor' sculptures dealing
with aspects of daily life and the occupations of merchants and shopkeepers
as depicted on their various signs.
In the field of architecture, in the second half of the first century BCE, two grandiose monuments arose: the huge Golden House that Nero had built - possibly in imitation of the tastes of the great Oriental princes; and the Flavian Amphitheatre or Colosseum. The amphitheatre was a Roman invention obtained by doubling the measurements of the Greek theatre. With this huge building, Nero solved the problem of presenting circus spectacles, which had been conceived as entertainment for the masses. A severe eruption of Vesuvius in CE 79 buried Pompeii, Herculaneum and Stabiae. As well as preserving fine examples of Roman town-planning and domestic architecture, the eruption has also enabled us to follow the complete evolution of painting (even if it was more provincial in style than the art that must have flourished in the capital) during the first century BCE and the first century CE - up to the moment when the lava of the volcano put an end for ever to the life of the three towns.
The painting that adorned Roman houses was decorative painting. It had the same ornamental function as the Greek statues that were so sought after at the time-whether in the form of copies or originals. The decorative style at Pompeii developed more or less independently, and it is customary now to distinguish four main styles of Pompeian painting. The oldest, dating from the second century BCE, is the so-called Incrustation Style, and is composed of simple panel paintings of coloured stucco or fresco. The Second Style (Architectural Perspective) dates from the beginning of the first century BCE and is clearly of Hellenistic derivation - as was the majority of Roman painting. The approach to wall painting, with its imitation architectural features, became more complex. The intention was to expand the real space on the wall in an illusionistic manner in the same way as theatre scenery is treated. The Third Style over-lapped with the end of the second. It was more sober and tended to produce decoration without depth. Paintings, almost like miniatures, stood out against a unified background of a dark colour: 'in generally warm-coloured tones such as red, yellow, shiny black, and soft ones like greenish-blue'. And 'a few light brush strokes ... tiny delicious linear or floral decorations ... compositions of figures, landscapes or even actual paintings' (Bianchi Bandinelli).
From the Second Style developed the exuberant fantasy and decorative richness of the Fourth Style; here the architectonic motifs present in the earlier style became more accentuated. The Hellenistic derivation of all these decorative styles is fairly obvious, but not all of them were to have the same success. 'Once the greater consistency of the Third Style is recognized, it is not surprising that its elements dominated the decorative forms of the second century AD, after the phantasmagoria of walls in the Fourth style had been exhausted by the end of the previous century. During the era of Hadrian these forms became more sober and linear, and were in danger of becoming altogether frozen and static. Then, during the Antonine age, they began to grow warmer, and there was a certain renewal of the perspective elements....until the advent of slender architectural forms - from which after CE 180 all trace of illusionism had disappeared, and everything had become completely schematic - gave birth to a linear style in red and green on a white background. From then on this style, with remarkable uniformity, was to cover the walls and vaults of houses and funerary cubicles, including those of the Christian catacombs' (Bianchi Bandinelli).
The subjects of the themes illustrated were generally drawn from Greek myths or from the contemporary period; others were taken from the world of religion (as in the famous cycle in the Villa of the Mysteries). Paintings in the popular style (shop signs, pictures of games and festivals) are a study in themselves, but there too the connection with the Hellenistic world can be seen in the use of a 'summary' technique. This taste for 'summary' painting is characterized by a use of large, impressionistic blobs of colour; this and the vigorous interplay of light and shade are a feature of numerous still-lifes and landscapes (the latter being a favourite theme of Roman painting). The landscapes, either imaginary, idyllic or real, endeavour to present, say, a garden by breaking down the enclosed space of a room and implanting instead in the observer's mind the notion of being out in the open air.
The era of Trajan (CE 98-117) played a
very important part in the course of Roman art. The new Forum that the
Emperor built (designed, it appears, by Apollodorus of Damascus) contained
a column erected to celebrate the Dacian campaigns (CE 101-2 and 105-6).
This was a new and original type of monument, the heir to the commemorative
columns erected in the Forum in honour of important persons, and to the
historical and triumphal paintings. The bas-relief frieze on Trajan's
Column unfolds like a spiral parchment roll around the shaft for about
six hundred and fifteen feet. The story is developed continuously without
interruptions and has a rapid, compelling rhythm. This is no longer a
simple chronicle but a great and moving epic poem. There is hardly any
slackening of tension in the depiction of the battles, the exhausting
marches, the fording of rivers, the attacks on cities, the woods, the
plains, the fortifications and the camps. For the first time there appears
a new feeling of human compassion for the despair of the conquered, the
suffering of the wounded and the drama of the prisoners. The immediate,
dramatic and relentless rhythm of these reliefs, which Bianchi Bandinelli
has rightly compared to Donatello's sculptures in St Anthony's, Padua,
introduces a new dimension into the art of the period and, perhaps, represents
the noblest expression of Roman art. Possibly there still lingers 'an
echo of the sculptures of Pergamum or Rhodes' but the treatment and the
language - energetic and passionate, hut now in a human and real sense,
no longer heroic or mythological like the Pergamene altars - were already
moving away from Hellenism, even if they had not yet become completely
differentiated in what eventually became the style of Late Antiquity.
In architecture, the spacious, monumental style of the Late Antique was given life and movement by niches, porticos and ambulatories that created contrasts of light and shade - as may be seen in the Temples of Baalbek, the Baths of Caracalla and Diocletian, in the Theatre of Sabratha and in the Basilica of Maxentius. In Egypt, from the fourth century AD, the impulse derived from the new Christian civilization, and increased contacts with Byzantium, Syria and even with Persia created a gradual but at the same time systematic movement that ultimately overwhelmed the Hellenistic imprint. Works of interest include woven fabrics as well as sculptures, the majority of the latter being in red porphyry; in them the human figure is portrayed in a rigid frontal position, like the portrait busts of the emperors, with their haughty but rather absent-minded look that recalls the portraits of the ancient Pharaohs. Finally there are the group compositions from Venice and the Vatican: in one such, the embrace of the Tetrarchs, the composition was intended to symbolize the new glory of the Concordia Augustorum.
The word decline had already been used in reference to Hellenism, and now it was used in respect of the Late Antique. Berenson gave his volume on the Arch of Constantine the subtitle: On the Decline of Form. Those parts of the Arch that date from the period of the first Christian Emperor (there are many reliefs from an earlier period) offer in the 'incoherence' of their style, their hard modelling and expressive distortions a new vision, a new way of seeing art. It was no longer Greek and it was to be of the utmost importance in future developments.
Next: 3. Late Roman Art (c.200-400 CE)
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ART and CLASSICAL ANTIQUITIES