Roman Portraiture

SHELDON
NODELMAN
 from
 E.
D’Ambra,
ed.,
Roman
Art
in
Context.
NY:
Prentice
Hall.
1993
pp.
10‐20
 Like all works of art. the portrait is a system of signs; it is often an ideogram of “public’ meanings condensed into the image of a human face. Roman portrait sculpture from the Republic through the late Empire-the second century BCE. to the sixth CE -constitutes what is surely the most remarkable body of portrait art ever created. Its shifting montage of abstractions from human appearance and character forms a language in which the history of a whole society can be read. Beginning in the first century B.C., Roman artists invented a new kind of portraiture, as unlike that of the great tradition of Greek

My gallery will feature portraitures throughout history. Portraits have been around since the beginning of art. History affects every aspect of our lives including art; artist changed the style of portraitures depending on what was going on in the world at that time. At first portraits were only painted of the wealthy or someone who was deemed important. In these times, it was usually kings, queens, or religious figures that they believed were worth painting. The first picture I choose to feature in my gallery is a piece titles An Allegory of the Tudor Succession: The Family of Henry VIII. The artist of this painting is unknown but is believed that is was created around ca. 1590. This painting is an oil on panel that pictures Henry VIII sitting on his throne with his family surrounding him. This is a perfect example of what a family portrait would have looked like many years ago. Whoever the artist was created an exquisite painting capturing every detail of the subjects clothing, the tapestry hanging behind the king, the rug, and the outline of the city featured in the background. The painting has a lot of maroon and gold colors throughout that give it a very rich look. I think this picture fits into my gallery because it shows just what painters were asked to do in this period which was focus their talents on capturing the important people in history; in this case, it was Henry VIII and his family.

The Romans were expert in rendering individuals. Some scholars have argued that it was the practice of making and keeping death masks of ancestors (worn by survivors in the funeral processions) that accounts for the enormous skill with which Roman portraitists captured the individuality of their subjects. Many portrait busts survive, including images of Roman rulers as well as poignant representations of aged citizens. Especially noteworthy are the mummy portraits from the region of Al Fayyūm in Egypt. Painted during the 2nd century ad, these portraits depict individuals who stare wide-eyed at the viewer.

Most of these attributes were derived from the Grecian culture around 210 BC and disseminated all over Rome (Nardo, 60). Not only did the people contribute to the arts, but so did the government, which built bronze statues of the emperors or Gods, like the statue of Marcus Aurelius in 175 AD, and decorated the currency with elaborate drawings (Hinds, 172). A lasting example of the Roman taste of the arts was preserved in Pompeii after the volcanic eruption. According to written documents, a museum owned by two wealthy businessmen in Pompeii was available for public viewing, which displayed the gratitude of the people of Pompeii toward their own culture (Hinds, 178).

In the early official and private portrait of the Etruscan- Roman tradition, the achievement of sculpture from the identity of the ideal Republican demonstrated motivation behind the virtus, veristic, and gravitas qualities. The Etruscan Roman portrait sculpture of the “Patrician Carrying Portrait Busts of Two Ancestors” is a life-size marble statue that was dated to the period of the Emperor Augustus somewhere at the end of the 1st century BCE or the beginning of the 1st century CE, reflecting the practices that have originated from the past by Polybius.

Roman portraiture was one of the most significant periods in the development of portrait art. The characteristics of Roman portraitures are more modest, realistic, idealized, and natural. Also, the body compositions, muscles and facial expressions of portraits and sculptures are more advanced. Many roman portraits are directly linked to specific individuals, such as gods and emperors. They were often used for propaganda purposes and included ideological messages in the pose, accoutrements, or costume of the figure.

Rome influenced many things today, one of them being art. After different kinds of Roman art were rediscovered after years, they still impact many of the modern art we see today. The Romans made realistic statues and frescoes. Along with decorative murals and mosaics, you can still find many forms of art influenced by the Romans. “The Sistine Chapel painted by Michelangelo in the 1500s, the ceiling shows scenes from the Bible. A Roman would feel right at home looking up at

The Roman tradition of art, particularly architecture and sculpture is rooted in adopting styles of the past to convey a particular message. The combination of Greek and Etruscan styles, such as in the Temple of Portunus in Rome, ultimately culminate to reference a new meaning and style that is independently roman. Similarly to architecture, the first Roman Emperor, Augustus, chose to liken both is architecture, by using stone and the orders, and his portraiture back to the Greeks. Romans emperors ultimately tend to use style association to portray propaganda for their particular platform, as a form of associative mass media. Two emperors that exemplify this

Another culture that influenced the Romans was the Greeks. The Sarcophagus has a scene of Achilles life along the side and the way Achilles and the warriors are depicted follow the way the Greeks depicted their warriors. The warriors along the side of the Sarcophagus show absolutely no emotion even though there are in the middle of battle some are shown nude as well. This tradition of depicting men like this comes from the Greek Kouros Statue .The Greek Kouros statues were created as burial markers and evolved from there. The Kouros statues were carved in such a way to display the human body in its most natural form, which is nude, and men of war were shown to be strong and muscular and display no emotion on their face. These traits depict a virtuous man, a man who displays wisdom, courage, and self-control. These virtues are depicted in all of Greek art and the Romans took this and combined it with their own artwork giving us the beautiful carving along the side of the Sarcophagus. In some Roman sarcophagi one could have the hero in the story depicted like oneself which would then show that the person buried in this sarcophagus thought that they were virtuous.

Later on, this strategy will be followed by Octavius Augustus that will assign to him the “Sextillis” month and substituting it by August. Art was the main propaganda he used to transmit an image near to the gods. Busts as portraits began to be used in the ending of the Roman republic and the main objective of this pieces of art was to make sure that every citizen in the Roman Empire had a physical image of the magnanimity of his governor. The sculptures tended to be represented with the maximum realism possible; commonly, some parts were made in gold to transmit a sensation of excellence and wealth.

They incorporated the Greek principles of symmetry, humanism and realism into their art and expanded on them. Through intense study of the human body, they gained a mastery of the veins and muscles not seen before in sculpture or art. But the Romans didn’t idealize their subjects as had the Greeks. Instead, they portrayed the subject as true to life, capturing the personality and character of that person at a particular point in their life.

Rome has been known to be around for a long time, for this reason it has gotten the name “the eternal city”. It is also considered to be one of the most beautiful cities in the entire world. The city of Rome used to be home to one of the most powerful empires in the world as well, the Roman Empire. Throughout history, Rome has created amazing works of art, architecture, and an amazing culture. Simply by walking down the street a tourist is able to see wonderful works of art by many well known artists such as, Michelangelo, Caravaggio and Bernini. One will also be able to few the magnificent buildings that lay within the city. Tourists can also see beautiful masterpieces displayed in art galleries or in the museums scattered throughout the city.

Roman sculpture turned towards the celebration of Roman victory and homage to the gods and Emperor. Like the Greeks, the Roman artists moved towards the realism aspect of sculpture. Many of the pieces are beautifully crafted and look startling real. In contrast with the Greeks, the Romans focused more on the reality and eschewed the use of idealism

In the last decades of the Republic, the struggles between competing warlords with dynastic ambitions spurred related changes in visual culture. One of the new institutions of this changed world was the household of Gaius Octavianus, better known by his title of Augustus, and its supremacy. This resulted in the promulgation of the notion that it was both an exemplum to be admired and imitated, synonymous with the Roman state itself. In The Power of Images in the Age of Augustus, Paul Zanker examines the role of images in the cultural program of Augustus, arguing that a new visual language developed to express the ideals of the monarchy and to bolster the social changes desired by the new government. For instance, in 35 BCE, public statues of living women, honorific portraits of Augustus’ wife, Livia Drusilla, the first empress of Rome and his sister, Octavia, were initiated by Augustus and dedicated by a senatus consultum. Sadly, these portraits are only known from Cassius Dio and their original location of display in Rome is unknown. However, the very fact that the Senate had to authorise such portraits by a special decree, suggests the unique nature of such public honours to women.

The form of art has been around for thousands of years. There has been many different types of art form found from the ancient greece times. These time are the earliest times that are recorded and are placed in museums. These early art forms teaches us a little bit about the human race and how they were back in the roman times. There are some painting and sculptures that represents different people from their time lines. These art form can explain how they were back in their times and with the statues you can see how far they were allowed to do.