The Art of Ancient Rome Researched by Pankti Two thousand years ago, Rome was a crowded, noisy, busy city with large temples and public buildings. The Coliseum was a great building for holding their chariot races. The Romans were also fierce soldiers. Rome took over many countries. Rome once ruled over the whole world for 500 years! They built roads all over the empire that just led to Rome. Christians worshiped one God, but Romans, who worshiped many gods, did not like this. They tried to stamp out Christianity. For many years, Christians had to worship in underground passageways. Romans honored all of their gods in their art and architecture. Roman Art was at its highest from 750 BC to 410 AD. Influence
Romans had many different art forms. One of the art forms were murals, large wall paintings. Many Roman Emperors had murals on their walls of their palace. Architecture was another type art form. The Triumphal Arch of Tibias was made with arches and columns of different shapes and sizes to make it more beautiful and interesting. Buildings and bridges were also made as a form of architecture.They made statues and portraits too. Statues were life-like and of gods, goddesses, emperors, and important people. Many statues are just the head and shoulders of an emperors. They were called portraits. Other art forms were paintings, poetry, tombstones, domes, and vaults. StyleArt and architecture were used to proclaim an important person’s power. They were signs of the Roman’s power over the lands that they ruled. Roman Art usually showed images of emperors, gods, and goddesses, and common people. The Romans did not have perfect human shapes in their art. In some of their sculptures, they would have people with long noses. The Greeks, who only sculpted perfect human bodies, would never have done that. Romans had four styles of optical illusion paintings that tricked the eye. The first style was when they painted walls to look like they were made of marble or copies of Greek styles of decoration. A second style was when they painted realistic looking scenes that looked like views through the window. The third style was less realistic, but delicate looking images. The fourth method of tricking the eye was a combination of the second and third styles. Materials/Subject The Romans made paint brushes, and paint out of many natural materials. Paint brushes were made from twigs, wood, reeds, or rushes. Shaped wood or ivory was used for writing. Paints were made from ground rocks and powdered plants. Red and yellow came from ochre. White came from chalk. Green came from green soil, and black was from soot. Blue was a mixture of copper and glass. But purple was made from a special seashell.Two thousand years later, Rome is still a crowded, noisy and busy city with large temples and public buildings. Even though the Roman Empire is not existing, their art is still there. SourceHodge ,Suzie. Ancient Roman Art. Des Plaines, Heinmann Interactive Library, 1998. |
Roman Art was influenced by
many things. They were influenced by some countries that they ruled over, like Greece,
Egypt, and Africa. The Romans often mixed the best styles of those cultures. Romans
believed in gods and goddesses as their religion. They also were influenced by their
emperors. Romans sculpted their masters and leaders.