ROMAN IMPERIAL SCULPTURE

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Portraits

• Flavian Period
  • emperor Vespasian: portraits show solid, middle-class type
  • emperor Titus has similar appearance
  • various ladies--elaborate hairdos; realistic portrait head on ideal body
    
  • some dates: sack of Jerusalem under Vespasian, 70 A.D.; destruction of Pompeii by volcano, 79 A.D.
    
• emperor Hadrian
  • portraits reflect his love of Greece--beard (new), Classical style of idealism
  • statues of his favorite Greek youth, Antinous
    • include Greek-looking portraits, and bizarre portrayal as Egyptian pharaoh
    • Antinous drowned in the Nile; one story is that he drowned himself to avoid Hadrian's sexual advances
      
• emperor Marcus Aurelius
  • equestrian statue shows that he was a philosopher as well as a leader
    • continues Hadrian's liking for beards
    • dressed as military commander; horse originally would have been trampling a foreign victim

Triumphal Arches

• freestanding; built to commemorate victories
  • triumphal parade of troops, prisoners, booty through arch
• Arch of Titus (81 A.D.)
  • commissioned by Domitian to commemorate Titus' sack of Jerusalem in 70, during his father Vespasian's reign
  • made of concrete faced with marble; 50 feet tall
  • relief panels on inside show parade of booty, including ark and menorah from Temple of Solomon
  • illusion of depth, movement in scene
    • real depth in carving; foreground figures undercut, background figures in low relief
    • perspective of spectator: arch shown on diagonal, menorah from below
  • interior ceiling shows apotheosis of Titus: carried up by eagle to join gods after death
    
• Arch of Trajan at Benevento, c. 114-118

Columns--also built to commemorate victories

• Column of Trajan
  • commemorates his campaigns against Dacians (Romanians)
  • subject is propaganda for Rome--shows Rome's "civilizing" influence as well as military success
    • Trajan and his army strong and organized; Dacians disorganized and pitiful
    • hardships of war, Roman losses ignored
  • continuous narrative scene spirals upward; emperor appears several times
    • band expands from 3 feet high at bottom to 4 feet at top, to compensate for distance from viewer; 656 feet long
  • very low relief; scenes crowded into a panel which is not very tall
  • vivid details suggest artists accompanied the army and made sketches
  • conventions of Medieval art make their first appearance--relative proportions are ignored, to give prominence to particular figures
    
• Column of Antoninus Pius