Ashlie Hopkins
Mr. DeRosa
Art History
25 July 2014
Roman art Romans where famous for the development of forms, the concrete revolution, the imperial fora, the Pantheon, Hadrian’s Villa At Tivoli, the Ara Pacis Augustate Altar (Augustan Peace), the arch of Titus, and the Colum of Trajan. Roman art was art of the Republic and Empire. Their art started of in and as a small city and it grew to become a vast empire. (History of Art, Pg. 181) A useful way to see Roman art is by seeing it as art of syncretism. Syncretism is are that brings diverse elements together to produce something entirely new that brings a powerful message-bearing potential. (History of Art, pg.181) The Roman tendency for intergrading other cultures led to a remarkably diverse world. According to Roman legend, Romulus founded the city of Rome in 753/52 BCE in a region know as Latium by the Tiber River. (History of Art, pg.181) Rome started out with just a little more than a group of villages built by a series of king. That had a wall built around the settlement. Then in 509 BCE the Roman elite expelled the last king and established a republic with an unwritten constitution. Roman architecture had a longer lasting impact on Western buildings throughout the ages than any other ancient tradition. (History of Art, pg. 183) Roman builders were indented to Greek traditions, especially in their use of the Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian styles. These inspired buildings that were determined Roman. (History of Art, pg.184) The Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus on the Capitoline Hill was the first truly monument building of Rome. Most of the buildings the Roman built where to worship gods. The Capitoline temple honored the chief god, Jupiter, equal to Greek Zeus. Its construction began under two sixth-century BCE kings, Tarquinius the Ancient and Tarquinius the Proud. The building stood on a high masonry platform with steps that lead to the façade. Six wooden columns marked the front of the building and six flanked each side. Artist Vulac of Veii crafted a vast terra-cotta acroterion for the peak of the pediment. It represented Jupiter in a four-horse chariot. That was the development of forms. It was the development of concrete that was a dramatic change in Roman architecture. (History of Art, pg.186) Concrete was a mixture of mortar and pieces of aggregate such as tufa, limestone, or brick. It was first used to fill things such as walls and podiums. They added pozzolana sand to the mixture of concrete and found it to be extremely durable. It would cure underwater. Since it was not very attractive the builders would cover it with stone, brick and plaster. (History of Art, pg.186) During the Republic, the Roman Forum was the building center of civic life. People shopped, attended schools and court cases there. The Senate deliberated in the Forum’s Senate House, and temples to the state gods housed cult statues as ell as the state treasury. (History of Art, pg.196) The largest of all imperial for a was Trajan’s, financed with the spoils of his was against the Dacians. At the far end was two libraries and a temple that defined a small courtyard, where Trajan’s Column stood. The Forum’s message was: The Dacian War brought Rome great financial benefit. (History of Art, pg.198) The change in patronage from magistrates to emperor is one of the major developments in architecture during the Empire. Another major development was the invention of the composite capital. Out of all the masterpieces built by Roman architects built from concrete the Pantheon is probably the most stunning. Augustus’ right hand man, Agrippa, build the first Pantheon on the site. (History of Art, pg.199) The Pantheon that we see today is likely to be the work of Trajan’s architect and maybe Apollodorus. (History of Art, Pg. 199) As you approached the Pantheon you saw massive monolithic gray and pink granite columns going upward. It then had an expectation of a rectangle cella beyond the