Ara Pacis: The Monument in Augustan Arts Essay

When analyzing Romans Sarcophagus Depicting a Battle between Soldiers and Amazons (Warrior Women)” The artist used a multitude of visual elements to grab our attention. One great powerful example that caught my attention was the four corners of the roman sarcophagus. The four corners of the sarcophagus stood out the most to me be it depicted the battle's outcome while maintain a balance of each side. It shows us trophies, weapons, kneeling Amazon prisoners and hands bound behind their backs, but directly at the corners we men and women kneeling with their heads down which is unusually because through all of the weapons and trophies and chaos we see the after math of the battle. Showing us the true feeling of sorrow, forgiveness and possibly

Throughout history, archaeology has been a tool used to learn more about past human activities and their cultures by analyzing artifacts, architecture, environment data, and etc. that has been left behind. Many artifacts and monuments became instrumental in expanding the knowledge of the past and the Hagia Triada Sarcophagus is no exception. By analyzing the physical details such as size/dimensions, material, style, images depicted, and the location of the artifact, this can help people determine the reason and purpose of its existence. Eventually this can lead to how it may change or add to the knowledge of the classical world.

Roman aqueducts were very important to the ancient Romans and heavily influenced their daily life. The aqueducts brought wealth, power, and luxury to the people of Rome in more ways than imaginable and more than just for the obvious purpose of delivering water. When the wells and rainwater were no longer sufficient for the population of Rome, they had to develop a new method of bringing water into the city. Thus creating the invention of aqueducts.

The artwork I chose to talk about is on page 232. Figure 8.16, Funerary Relief of a Circus Official, Ostia, 110-130. The medium of the artwork is made from Marble relief. The Tombs in the old days of roman families built outside of the city walls, along roadways entering the city. The vision of the monuments is to preserve individual’s fame, family honor, and status in the society. The extended family of the deceased also held feasts and putting out food and drink for the dead for enjoying. The large figure in the picture is the official himself, holding hands with his wife at the left side. The handshake symbolizes in the Roman art the indication of marriage. The palm branch symbolizes the victory. There are many accents in the artwork

The sculpture portrays the God of Harvest, Dionysus, with his loyal satyr follower, Pan. A considerable amount of detail when into the carving of Dionysus; the multiple grapevines in his hair, his ceremonial staff Thyrsus, the goatskins and the cup of wine he’s holding are all symbols of Dionysus. The composition is very asymmetrical, and creates a contrapposto arrangement, which is distinctly Grecian (Gardner). It was carved out of beautiful fine marble, which also had another purpose in the way of making this piece of art last for many years. Along with the tree trunk between the two men providing support at the base, and the elongated arms providing more structural stability. The God’s head is even reinforced by his hair to make sure the head doesn’t break off. This sculpture is visually and aesthetically pleasing, but doesn’t serve a useful function, like textiles or furniture. Therefore, it is considered a figurative piece of art, which art that is very clearly modeled after real object or person(s), and is therefore representational

The shrine is one of the biggest structures in the tribe’s community. Religion is such an important part of the Nawois’ live they have placed the shrine far enough from the river to avoid flooding even though much of their community is within the flooding zone. The shrine is shaped like a bowl. It has a state in the middle with seating 360 degrees around the stage.

Its architecture has Greek form with a high structure of marble that shows off a large frieze portraying an epic battle on the base’s walls. The cracked figures on the frieze fight violently against each other, and even with the test of time, their features are descriptive and their faces show much varied expression. The most impressive part of the Altar of Zeus is the sculptural frieze depicting the struggle of the gods and the giants. It is clear on the altar’s frieze’s that the artist/sculpture of the alter worked towards a natural view of the characters on them, borrowed from the classical period but sculpted them to be in more of realistic portrayal. The construction of a frieze seemed to be a fairly popular architectural enhancement at the time; this outer frieze is one of the most famous. The sculpted figures on it create a new height of Greek realistic representations and architecture in modeling, composition, and expression of emotion. The emotions of the figures are one of the aesthetics that makes the frieze so unique and beautiful. As the battle scene is unified; the winning and losing sides are clearly cut. The artist makes the battle and its characters easily perceivable. The look of suffering in defeat is on all the giants’ twisted faces. Drastically opposite is Zeus and his fellow gods who are seen as completely expressionless. The overall style of the frieze is very intense, to say the

decoration of the Dome of the Rock, however, is the mosaic work.” 2 Once inside, the rock that

Many centuries before the birth of Christ, the city of Rome grew, prospered, and developed into a thriving Republic. As in most cultures, Rome's buildings became more elaborate and impressive. They developed fantastic building technologies and ideas. The feats of Roman engineers were groundbreaking, and many structures built by this culture still stand today. With knowledge borrowed from the Greeks, Rome made impressive architectural achievements, these were namely major attributes of buildings, colossal structures, and a legacy that would influence later buildings (Cornell and Matthews 11).

“I found Rome a city of bricks and left it a city of marble.” ~ Augustus Caesar

Interestingly, instead of four, only three sides of the Sarcophagus are filled with images. The long section illustrates two Greek heroes, presumably Herakles and Iolaos, battling evil centaurs. The two other sections show a centaur attacking a lioness and the other, the representation of peace in this work, two centaurs getting along. Herakles and Iolaos are highlighted by the artist’s careful attention to make them protrude the greatest, accentuating their impact and overall importance in this sculpture. Every powerful muscle in their bodies is portrayed and given detail in three dimensions. The three-dimensions not only bring these characters closer to reality but also heighten the heroic nature, masculinity, and belligerent attitude of the Greek heroes. Instead of using basic geometric shapes to create works of art, the sculptor chooses to increase the detail in the Sarcophagus by giving everything in the sculpture individual characteristics and traits. They are presented as being stressed

With the last of his rivals dead and defeated, Octavian occupied Egypt as a Roman conquest and won the honorary name "Augustus" from the Senate and called himself the first Princeps (First Citizen) rather than Emperor of Rome (Stockton 56). Augustus had direct control over the aesthetics of public art, commissioning propagandistic works to his benefit. Augustus was a great patron of the arts and architecture, in which he sponsored the construction of many buildings and portraits of himself to be distributed to every town throughout the Empire such as the Ara Pacis Augustae and the life size marble portrait of Augustus in Prima Porta.

14 As Stamper argues, this is a significant aspect of portraying authority when one an emperor uses precedent of Rome’s founding 15 and this is shown by Augustus in commemorating the temple to Julius Caesar as a sign of celebrating his own triumph. The Temple of Julius Caesar sat on an elevated podium with rostra in front of the colonnade where prows of the ships captured from the Battle at Actium were hung.16 Similarly, the public rostra erected at the opposite site of the Forum also consist of captures obtained from the Battle of Actium and these rostra that faced each other act as a reminder of the glories of the old Republic and the achievements of the restored Rome under its new leader, Augustus.17 To reflect more of the idea of power, Augustus uses different architectural elements to deliver them. Similar to the nearby Temple of Castor and Pollux erected during the Republic, the Temple of Julius Caesar had a pycnostyle composition that consisted of six closely arranged columns with

In 27 BC Augustus began his political career with a “new policy which embodied a national and Roman spirit” (Galinksy, 1996, 225) and “represented new heights in creativity and sophistication” (Galinksy, 1996, 225). Augustus created a new political propaganda campaign that used art and architecture to promote and enhance his regime. The most fundamental message can be regarded as to establish the legitimacy of his rule and to portray him as the natural successor of Rome, as this is consistently presented throughout the visual programme. Yet factors such as the restoration of the Republic, reviving the old religion, nationalism and militaristic triumph can also be seen to be communicated prominently through art and architecture.

It was later moved into the chapel during the 18th century. This followed his invitation by the cardinal to make the sculpture when he was only twenty three. Its first location was the Chapel of Santa Pentronilla which is a Roman mausoleum which the cardinal had selected for himself as a funerary chapel before its demolition during the basilica rebuilding (William, 1995).