Art in Focus

Chapter 9: Roman Art

Lesson Summaries-English

          In ancient Italy a people called the Etruscans conquered the hill town of Rome. Eventually an expansive empire grew from this town. The Romans tried to emulate Greek art and made great advances in engineering and architecture.

Lesson 1
The Rising Power of Rome

          Under the Etruscan kings, Rome became an important city. In 509 B.C. the Romans drove the Etruscans out and established a republic. During the following centuries, Rome became stronger and conquered territories as far away as Britain and Mesopotamia. Roman artists admired Greek art and emulated it. They also sculpted lifelike portraits of individuals, which they made first in wax and later in stone. Their portrait busts (showing a person’s head and shoulders) seem like exact duplicates of real people.

          The Romans also had murals painted on the walls of their homes depicting landscapes, buildings, and people. Much of Roman architecture has survived to the present day. Roman architects built temples similar to those of the Greeks, but they were placed high on platforms and columns were only used to support porches at the front. One huge temple complex was built in Palestrina. Rows of round arches, or barrel vaults, were used there to cover large rooms and halls. The Romans also used rows of small side-by-side round arches. Using arches and concrete, they constructed buildings on a large scale. They spread their architectural innovations throughout the Roman Empire. The aqueduct is one of the forms that remains in countries such as Spain. Constructed using a series of side-by-side arches, this was a system that carried water from mountain streams into cities. Though aqueducts were designed for efficiency rather than beauty, they serve today as attractive reminders of Roman innovation.

Lesson 2
Roman Buildings and Monuments

          In order to maintain their popularity, the Roman emperors built beautiful monuments for public recreation. Roman baths were enclosed structures containing pools, libraries, gymnasiums, shops, pleasant walkways, and more. The Romans also built structures for sporting events such as chariot races and armed contests. The massive oval Colosseum could accommodate 50,000 people. Contests were held there, involving hundreds of gladiators and animals. Other magnificent public structures were meeting halls, temples to Roman gods, markets, and basilicas. The Pantheon was dedicated to all of the Roman gods. From the outside it looks like a shallow dome resting on a cylinder, but from the inside one sees that the dome is a massive hemisphere. The dome has a round opening at the top that allows light to illuminate the whole space.

          The Romans’ long rectangular basilicas served as models for Christian church builders. Meant to hold large groups of people, they were composed of a long, wide center aisle, or nave, and two more narrow side aisles. The Romans built heavily decorated arches known as triumphal arches to celebrate military victories. In A.D. 330 the emperor Constantine I moved the Roman capital to the city of Constantinople in the East. This began the decline of the Western Roman Empire. Eventually invaders from the north overpowered Rome and the barbarian kingdoms of the Middle Ages took its place.