ART 151 Ancient Rome Lecture recorded

Hi everyone, welcome to the section on

ancient Roman art and architecture.

As you can see from the map on this

slide, ancient Rome at its height was an

absolutely huge empire. Uh there was a

single government that ruled the whole

empire. And at its height, the Roman

Empire spanned all the way from England

down to Egypt and northern Africa

over to Syria.

Um, they ruled Spain. They ruled Italy

and France and Germany and Greece. It

was just absolutely uh a huge empire.

The empire included uh many different

religions and languages and cultures.

Uh Rome was the capital which is why

it's known as the Roman Empire. And as

we take a look at the art and

architecture of ancient Rome, we're

going to see how they really loved Greek

art and architecture. Uh in the last

section, we saw how they made copies of

a lot of ancient uh Greek sculpture. And

today we're going to see how much of

Roman architecture and art is based on

that from ancient uh Greece.

The history of Rome uh spans from 509 BC

when the Roman Republic was founded and

goes all the way to 410 AD when Rome is

finally sacked.

We're going to start today by looking at

a really interesting example from

ancient Rome.

We're going to begin our examination of

ancient Roman art and architecture by

looking at one of the very best

preserved Roman towns.

And as you might have guessed, that

Roman town is Pompei, located just about

three hours south of Rome by train, just

a little bit south of Naples.

And Pompei is such a valuable site to

study to understand the ancient Roman

civilization because it was preserved so

well when Mount Vuvius erupted in the

year 79 AD.

As you can see from the map here, Pompei

is located in the Bay of Naples, just a

little bit south of Rome.

This is a really helpful image that

shows that when Mount Vuvius erupted in

the year 79,

it buried in a single day some very

prosperous towns around the Bay of

Naples. And it shows that based on the

direction that the wind was blowing that

day that most of the volcanic ash and

the poisonous gases were blown

souththeast of Mount Vuvius. And you can

see the grayed out portion of the map

shows that most of that poisonous gas

and the volcanic uh very hot volcanic

ash fell on towns uh such as Pompei,

Herculanium, Oplantis, and Stabia.

The city of Neapolis is Arday Naples and

is located just a little bit north of

Mount Vuvius. And again, as you can see

in the image, because of the direction

the wind was blowing, uh, Naples really

wasn't, uh, affected by the eruption of

Mount Vuvius.

Pompei is a fascinating town to explore.

Uh, it was a very prosperous town

located just a little bit inland in the

Bay of Naples. And by looking at the

surviving art and architecture that's

been excavated there, we can really

understand art and life in ancient Rome.

Pompei was a pretty uh prosperous town.

It was a resort community where people

who lived in Rome could escape to Pompei

if the weather got a little bit too hot

in Rome. uh and um Pompei at the time

Mount Vuvius erupted had a population of

about 25,000 people.

First, we're going to look at a few

different photographs of Pompei and then

we're going to focus on the forum of

Pompei.

So to give you a sense of Pompei and its

surrounding uh environment, here's a

photograph taken from Pompei looking up

towards Mount Vuvius. And you can see

when Mount Vuvius erupted, basically the

top third of the mountain and it's a

pretty goodized mountain uh just

exploded into the air became volcanic

ash uh and then was blown and settled

down onto the towns of um Pompei and

Herculanium and others.

Pompei is so well preserved today. You

can walk along many of the streets in

Pompei, get a sense of what commerce

would have been like, where people

lived.

Here's an image of the forum that we'll

take a closer look at in just a minute.

Most of Pompei uh was used for town

homes, so uh homes that would share

walls with one another.

There was a lot um of area of Pompei

that was devoted to entertainment. So a

gymnasium where athletes would exercise

and compete. Uh theaters, forums,

um temples.

Here's an aerial view of Pompei so that

you again you can see Mount Vuvius in

the background and you can also get a

sense of the different theaters and the

large rectangular gymnasium.

Here we are outside

uh one of the spaces that could be used

for uh performances.

And here's another view,

the gymnasium just behind.

And the real center of Pompei and really

of any Roman town was the forum. So

we're going to take a look now at the

forum, the temple of Jupiter, and the

Basilica in Pompei.

The forum or the public square in

ancient Rome was really considered to be

the center of civic life

in Pompei. The forum was composed of the

long rectangle you see at the center

there. At the north end is the temple of

Jupiter.

We're now with the Roman mythology. So

that would be Zeus in ancient Greece and

his uh Jupiter in ancient Rome.

And as you can tell here, we can really

see the different approach the Romans

took in where they placed their temples.

In ancient Greece, they really liked

having their temples isolated, often on

a hill um so that you could view it and

approach it from all sides. In ancient

Rome, the temples were really uh right

in the towns. um on a podium but not up

on a hill and you could not approach

them from all sides. The staircase was

uh always at the front.

Here's the approach to the temple. So

this is the only way you could approach

the temple of Jupiter in the Pompeian uh

forum.

So you can see you go up a flight of

stairs and then there would have been

those very thick columns that show the

entrance to the temple of Jupiter.

Here's another view towards the entrance

of the temple of Jupiter in Pompei.

And here are some reconstruction

drawings of what the temple may have

looked like originally before the

eruption of Mount Vuvius.

So you can see uh just like in Greece,

the altar is still outside of the

temple. The temple primarily consists of

the main chella room where the votive

statue of the um uh main god or goddess

is located.

As you can particularly see on the

picture on the top right, the Roman

temples had a deep porch at the front,

just the staircase at the front, not all

the way around the building. And also,

unlike in ancient Greece, in ancient

Rome, the columns on a Roman temple um

are just located usually on the front

half of the building. So, the columns do

not go all the way around the temple.

The bottom photograph shows how the

temple was located right within the

forum. On either side you can see there

is a twostory colonade and it surrounds

this main open square.

um stores would have been located within

the main colonade and the forum was

really a site for daily commerce and for

festivities to take place. There would

there may have been some statues

commemorating individuals and emperors

but the public square was mostly left

open for commerce and festivities.

Here's a really nice comparison of Greek

temples and Roman temples. Um, as you

can see again, Greek temples, they're

raised up high on a hill. They have

columns going all the way around them.

They're able to be approached from any

side going up staircase. Whereas in

Rome, we only approach temples from the

front. The freestand the columns

generally do not go all the way around

the temple. Sometimes you get some kind

of half columns attached to the wall of

the temple going around the back

and they're usually located right within

the city.

And then here you have another view of

what the forum may have looked like in

Pompei at its height before the eruption

of Mount Vuvius.

Then the other rectangular space in the

forum that you see towards the lower

central left of the photograph was the

basilica building and I've also included

a plan of it there on the right. The

basilica was the law court and this was

another type of building that most Roman

towns would have. Uh and the open forum,

a temple and a basilica really were the

three main types of structures found in

any Roman town. You have the temple for

religion. You have the open forum or

rectangular space for commerce and

festivals. And then you have the

basilica

uh which was the law court. Basilas were

usually long rectangular buildings. They

have that long long rectangular nave at

the center of it and then usually with

an aisle on either side. And we're going

to take a look at other structures that

are called basilas when we look at early

Christian art and see that once

Christianity is legalized in the Roman

Empire, it's the form of the basilica

that the early Christians choose uh to

model their first churches after.

Most of the land within Pompei was

dedicated to housing. Um, these were

private homes that people owned. Um,

most of them were very fashionable town

houses. So, houses that were connected

to one another with adjoining walls. And

we're going to take a look at the house

of the Vii, which was a house owned by

two brothers in Pompei as an example of

just a beautiful Pompeian home.

Most Pompean houses followed a very

similar plan and this is true in other

Roman towns as well.

Um they maybe surprisingly

uh did not usually have uh front windows

or a very large front door. And that was

because one of the main goals of these

houses was to protect the people who

lived there from the noise and dust of

the streets that were just outside. So

instead, the houses were planned around

an atrium,

which is an open space in the front of

the house and then a beautiful garden in

the back of the house. So in this model

that you see here, this is a model of a

town home. it would have had other town

homes directly adjoining it uh with a

very similar pattern.

Um they usually are very symmetrical and

have a central access going down the

front. So as soon as you enter them you

can see through the atrium all the way

into the garden.

So here you can see as soon as we enter

the house of the veti, we look through

the atrium space all the way into the

garden at the back.

Now some of the other rooms in the

house, they're very similar in a way to

our homes today. Uh in the atrium at the

uh front of the house, you would first

go through the fousies or the foyer of

the home. Just basically your front

entrance. Then you would get to the main

uh atrium space which has an impluvium

or basically a basin in just built into

the floor of the house that would

collect rain water for use within the

house.

The atrium was basically a reception

area where people could gather. And as

you can see again, there's that opening

in the roof lets in um fresh air and

light and rain into the impluvium.

Then around that uh you can see our

little spaces called cubiculum which is

where our word cubicle comes today. And

in an ancient ancient Roman home, a

cubiculum uh just referred to a bedroom.

So there's lots of these little bedrooms

uh in both the front half of the house

and the back half of the house.

Um then you can see number six, we have

an alla or a room. Um excuse me, number

five, we have the ala or the room to

receive guests.

Uh number six is the tollinum or the

home office. This is where the um any

guests would be received, any business

would be done.

Uh number seven is the triconium or the

dining room. And often houses would have

a two um triceniums. Um, you can see the

one in the front of the house uh maybe

would be a little bit better in colder

weather and then the one in the back of

the house maybe during the summer would

have been used more frequently.

Number eight refers to the garden

paristle means that there are columns

going all the way around the garden and

uh it would be open um as well so that

you would have lots of fresh air and

light coming in.

So here's another view into the atrium

of the house of the veti. We have the

little cubiculum rooms all around. Uh

there's the impluvium right in front of

us. The little spots on the floor, those

are remnants of mosaic tile. The um

people who lived in Pompei really loved

and really in other Roman towns as well

love to decorate their homes with

mosaics. uh often on the floor,

sometimes even in the walls and the

ceilings.

Here again, we're in the house of the

veti. We can see the beautiful garden uh

in the back of the house.

Here's another view of the beautiful

garden. Quite a big space. And again,

other bedrooms and another dining room

would be located around uh the garden.

So, these bedrooms would have been used

more during the summer when the weather

is uh pretty warm. The weather in Pompei

is fairly similar to Southern

California. So, you can imagine when

it's 95° or so outside, uh this would be

a nice place nice place to be um to have

some shade

and then also to get some fresh air.

Here's another view of the implium. Um,

and as you might note too, again,

there's no windows in the home. So, they

wanted to keep out all of the dust from

outside and really let in fresh air from

the atrium and the garden.

You can also get a sense too in this

photograph uh most of the walls in the

house would have been painted with

really beautiful scenes sometimes from

mythology

sometimes just showing a beautiful

landscape image. So because there

weren't windows they tried to give that

sense of kind of making a fake window

giving a beautiful view on a wall even

though there isn't a window there.

Here's another view of the front

reception area with the impluvium. You

can see there's a couple windows in the

wall there over the front entrance. Most

of the house though does not have

windows.

And then here's a great example of how

even these small cubiculum rooms would

have just been covered in beautiful

paintings that would often kind of try

to trick our eye to make us think that

we really are looking outside that it's

a continuation of our space. Sometimes

uh showing images from mythology and

from Greek literature.

Here's another example of some of the

beautiful mosaics that were inlaid in

the floor of many uh Pompean homes.

And another view of mosaic. These are

made uh with stones of lots of different

colors as well as little pieces of glass

and sometimes pieces of shell.

Another example of mosaic. You can see

all the different images that they made

in the floor.

And one more. Sometimes

uh the stones are just very tiny. These

would have been very time consuming to

create.

Here's an example of quite a large

mosaic that was found in one of the

floors in Pompei showing a battle scene.

And as a fun example, uh, many homes in

ancient Rome when you first entered them

had a mosaic of a dog. And down below it

says cave Canam, which means beware of

the dog. So very similar to our culture

today.

And here's another example of a mosaic

um that is warning us to beware of the

dog as we enter the house.

All right. And if you'd like to learn

more about Pompei, I encourage you to

check out this link. Um, and it's such a

fascinating city to learn about life and

culture and art and architecture in

ancient Rome.

Now, we're going to look at sculpture in

ancient Rome.

We're going to look at two really

important examples of sculpture in

ancient Rome. The first one is known as

Augustus of Primaaporta

uh which shows an image of Caesar

Augustus the first emperor of the Roman

Empire

and the emperor who's mentioned in Luke

2 from the New Testament. um that we

often read right around Christmas. So in

Luke 2 it says in those days Caesar

Augustus issued a decree that a census

should be taken of the entire Roman

world. So that's the man we're looking

at here. Uh this is Caesar Augustus.

Uh Caesar Augustus was best known uh

during his time for establishing the pox

romana or the roman peace which lasted

for two centuries.

And he was also responsible for

commissioning tons of public building

projects. And these ranged from roads to

bridges,

forums, temples, law courts, theaters,

market halls, uh bathing complexes,

basically spa complexes.

um they were just so vast

and really uh were throughout the Roman

Empire. The Romans were really good

engineers and in just a minute we're

going to take a look at some um

incredible examples of Roman

engineering.

Um, Caesar Augustus was one of the

rulers of the Roman Empire who really

liked to commission lots of portraits of

himelves of himself to send out to

different cities throughout the Roman

Empire um to really communicate himself

as the leader how he wanted to be viewed

and thought of. And in this case, we can

see Caesar Augustus really wanted to be

seen as a godlike leader who never aged.

The sculptor took the main inspiration

for this sculpture of Caesar Augustus

from the sculpture of the deriferus that

we looked at in ancient Greek art. Uh so

it's based on the deriferus. You can see

um in both sculptures the figures have

their weight on their right leg. Their

left leg is slightly bent as though it's

about to take a step out into um our

space.

Caesar addresses his troops with his

right arm extended. He's shown in his

armor as the commander of his army.

Um his head is individualized. So we

could think of this as a portrait. It

shows him uh as Caesar Augustus.

Um he is barefoot which usually in art

signifies that he's in the presence of a

divinity.

The sculpture is just really focused on

communicating how Caesar Augustus wanted

to be seen by the people he ruled over.

And we can see even on his armor there

are images of his different triumphs. In

this case, it shows a diplomatic victory

that he was very proud of.

And the reason in this sculpture that uh

Caesar Augustus has his shoes off um and

is shown barefoot is because of the

little figure of Cupid at uh Caesar

Augustus's feet. So like I mentioned,

Caesar Augustus wanted to be seen as a

godlike ruler and he advertised himself

actually kind of marketed himself as the

son of a god. He said that he was of

divine descent, that he could trace his

ancestry back to the goddess Venus, and

Venus's son was Cupid. So in this

sculpture, Caesar Augustus is basically

claiming to be a god.

There are so many Roman emperors to

study. If you'd like to learn more about

them, I really encourage you to check

out the link on the screen.

Another really famous and important

sculpture of a Roman emperor is this

equestrian statue of the emperor Marcus

Aurelius from 175 AD.

Uh this is a very large sculpture about

11 and 12 feet tall.

Uh, and it's really significant because

this sculpture begins in the history of

art a real tradition of leaders showing

themsel on horseback to really impress

their audience to suggest their strength

and authority and leadership.

Um, this sculpture was made out of

bronze and you can see originally was

placed outdoors and if left outside,

bronze usually goes green over the

years. Um, but originally it was gilded

in gold and you can see some of the

traces of the gold that has survived on

the horse's face and the cloak that

Marcus Aurelius is wearing.

The sculpture is really meant to show

Marcus Aurelius as of superhuman

grandeur. He's shown larger than life.

Um he's on this very large horse. Um

he's even large in comparison and size

to the horse. So he's just meant to be

very intimidating to really emphasize

his strength of leadership and his

importance as the emperor.

He's shown with his right arm

outstretched

and this is probably meant to be uh both

a gesture of greeting and also of

clemency or mercy. Originally

um the sculpture may have included an

image of an enemy who had been conquered

kind of cowering behind below the right

foot of the horse.

So this sculpture is meant uh originally

probably to communicate Marcus Aurelius

uh both as being very strong and

authoritative

um but also to be an emperor who showed

clemency or mercy towards those uh that

he was victorious over.

So this sculpture again is so important

in the history of art. It's known as an

equestrian portrait. Um, so a portrait

of a ruler that we know seated on a

horse and in this case really meant to

communicate the awesome power of the

emperor who's again shown like a god uh

and that he's ruler of the Roman Empire.

Um, that he has the majesty of the king

uh and the authority of the emperor.

All right. Next, we're going to look at

Roman architecture. And just as it's

hard to overstate the influence that

Greek architecture has played on later

um buildings throughout the world, it's

really hard to overstate the uh

influence that the ancient Romans played

in um shaping and influencing

architecture around the world. We're

going to see how the Romans invent uh

some architectural forms. We're very

familiar with the arch, the vault, the

dome, and also how they invent concrete.

The ancient Romans were incredible

engineers.

Um, like we saw with Caesar Augustus,

they spent a lot of time and money and

energy focusing on building projects,

uh, wanting to keep many of their

citizens happy so that they wouldn't

rise up in revolt against the leaders.

And in this image here, we're looking at

the Pont Dard in uh, Nemes in the south

of France, which was part of the Roman

Empire at the time. And this is one of

the engineering projects that was um

done during the reign of Caesar

Augustus. It's a very large uh both

aqueduct and bridge

and it was built in order to carry water

from a nearby mountain to the city of

Nemes. And it was an amazing

architectural achievement. Uh once this

once this aqueduct was built, it

provided about 100 gallons of water a

day per person um for the whole

population of Nemes from uh a mountain

that was located about 30 miles away.

And it really shows

uh the architectural um skill of the

ancient Romans. They would have had to

design it so that it had a very gradual

descent over the whole 30 miles from the

mountain um 30 miles away to the city of

Nemes.

It had to be a gradual decline over the

route so that the water didn't gain too

much speed and put too much pressure on

the architecture.

And in this case, it also serves as a

bridge. It spans uh a river down below

and it's three stories tall. This is the

only bit that is remaining. Um so you

just have to imagine it continuing on

either side.

It's such a beautiful structure and each

of the larger spans uh each larger

arches down below spans 82 feet. So it's

um very big would have been quite

challenging to build. The blocks weigh

up to about two tons each. So again this

would have required a lot of effort to

quarry the stone, bring it to the site,

shape each stone and uh have it in

place.

And then you can see the two lower

levels have the same size arches. And

then on the top you have smaller arches

that are made so that they have a

harmonious proportional relationship

with the large arches below.

So the point dugard just a wonderful

example of the architectural and

engineering genius of the ancient

Romans.

The Romans were also responsible for

inventing concrete in the 3rd century

BC. And concrete was uh as the Romans

developed it a mixture of volcanic ash,

volcanic rock, lime, and salt water from

the ocean.

their recipe for concrete was so durable

that as we're going to see many of the

buildings that they made using concrete.

Um even some of the peers that they

built in the ocean are so strong, so

durable that they're still around today.

And the development of concrete might

sound boring, but it did allow the

Romans to build the following types of

structures.

Concrete allowed the Romans to much more

easily build a barrel vault, which is

just continuing an arch in space,

a groin vault, which is the intersection

of two barrel vaults, and a dome with an

oculus at the top. So, we're going to

now see examples of these structures in

some of the most impressive building

projects that the Romans worked on.

One of the huge building projects that

was done in ancient Rome is one I'm sure

you're familiar with. It's the Colosseum

uh built in Rome between about 70 and 80

AD.

The Colosseum was the largest arena

built in ancient Rome throughout the

Roman Empire and it was meant for gladi

gladiatorial combats and other types of

spectacles. It's so big that when um it

was being used in ancient Rome, it could

have seated about 50,000 people. So just

an enormous structure.

It's known as the Colosseum today

because there was a huge statue located

nearby known as the Colossus of Nero. So

that just kind of became a nickname for

this structure. Um its more formal name

is the Flavian Amphitheater.

When the coliseum was uh finally

finished and during the opening days

when it was first open to the public,

there were games held in the coliseum

for a hundred days in a row of different

types of spectacles.

And they were even able to flood the

stage of the coliseum so that they could

stage a mock naval battle that included

3,000

participants. So just an amazing

structure. And this is what the coliseum

looks like today. You have to imagine

that there would have been a floor built

over that center oval section

originally. And we'll look at some other

photographs that will give a little

better idea as to what it looked like

originally.

Over the years as the coliseum was used

in ancient Rome, um sadly many many

people, thousands of people were killed

here in gladiatorial combats. Um animals

were also killed here. They would stage

uh hunts within the coliseum where all

the animals would be killed. Um and

sadly likely uh Christians were also

martyed in the coliseum.

The Romans had invented concrete which

was used for building the coliseum. It

allowed the structure to be composed of

many barrel vaulted corridors

uh located all the way around the

building very similar to our stadiums

today. Uh and the barrel vaulted

corridors uh built on top of them were

the seating areas. So it again shows

just how strong the concrete that the

Romans developed was.

They built waiting rooms um down below

which you can see again in that center

oval there. That's where gladiators

would have waited. Uh animals would have

been kept in cages. Um stage sets could

have been raised and lowered from that

lower level. Uh and then originally as

well, we'll see in another photograph in

just a second, uh a huge awning could be

put up to give shade to some of the

people um if it was a really bright

sunny day.

Just like our modern sports stadiums

today, uh the coliseum originally had

numbered entrances.

There were 76 gateways and people would

have had to um uh sit in the coliseum

according to the social hierarchy uh of

the time that was enforced by the Roman

Empire.

The coliseum originally uh all four of

the levels that you see there on the

left side of the building would have

continued all the way around. So it

would have been 160 ft tall which is

about the equivalent of a 16story

building today.

They used uh Doric, ionic and Corinthian

uh architecture or columns uh in the

architecture.

And unlike the ancient Greeks, they used

uh both post and lentil uh architecture

which you can see framing the arched

openings. The arches are of Roman

invention. The engaged columns and the

lintils above are taken from ancient

Greece and were used just for

ornamentation.

So the Romans didn't really strict uh

stick to very strict rules for um

architectural embellishment or adornment

and they really liked often just to use

uh columns um and posts and lentils just

for ornamentation.

Here

we are inside the coliseum. So, we're

looking down at the area where the

waiting rooms would have been

originally, where the gladiators would

have waited um before they came out on

the stage, where animals would have been

kept. And originally, there would have

been a floor built all over that area.

You have to imagine the little bit of a

stage that's in this photograph

continuing over that whole waiting area.

Here's an image of the side of the

coliseum today that is the best

preserved. It shows all four levels of

the coliseum.

There you can also see many of the

entrances. Again, originally they would

have been numbered.

And here is a great illustration showing

what the coliseum likely looked like

originally. So you can see that huge

awning over the top that would have

given shade to some of the people seated

inside the coliseum. You can see the

place where the uh emperor would have

sat with his invited guests. You can see

the huge uh seating areas, the barrel

vaults that were used as entrances all

the way around the building, and then

those lower rooms used for stage scenery

uh and to hold people and animals.

Here we are down in the waiting rooms.

And if you'd like to To learn more about

the coliseum, I encourage you to check

out the following links.

All right. Now, we're going to look at

another invention by the ancient Romans,

and that is the invention of the

triumphal arch. The Romans really like

to celebrate any kind of victory. So,

usually military victories um and also

the completion of any kind of

engineering project like a road or a

bridge. And they decided to use this

structure which is that of a triumphal

arch. So, it's just an arch. It's really

a bit of a barrel vault because it goes

back into space a bit. Um, and then you

can see we've got post and lentil

architecture with the columns attached

uh to the sides there.

They were usually

um they they usually had a sculpture of

the uh emperor who was responsible for

whatever the triumph was on top. Uh

usually that would have been gilded in

gold.

um and they were placed along the roads

uh leading into Rome. This one is on a

road leading into the forum of ancient

Rome. Um and it was constructed to honor

the emperor.

You can see the inscription there at the

top which is written in Latin and uh

translated into English. It says the

Senate and the Roman people dedicate

this triumphal arch to the deified Titus

the Spatian Augustus son of the deified

the Spatian. So again they're thinking

of the emperor as if he's a god as well.

a very impressive structure. They're

usually quite large. They're wide enough

so that they could drive a chariot

through them um so that armies could

march through them. And again, usually

located around along the roads leading

into Rome.

They were used as sources of inspiration

for lots of later architecture. And if

the structure on the right looks

familiar to you, that's because we're

looking at the Arctic Triumph in the

center of Paris.

For the Arch of Titus, uh there's also

quite a bit of sculpture located around

the inside of the arch, uh kind of right

inside that barrel vault.

And the Romans like to use sculpture on

these triumphal arches in order to tell

us more about the victory that they're

celebrating. And in this case, the Arch

of Titus was uh meant to celebrate uh

and show a triumphal parade of Titus and

his army as they excuse me as they

returned to Rome at the end of the first

Jewish Roman war in the year 70 AD. And

uh during this war, the Roman army had

captured Jerusalem. They had destroyed

the city of Jerusalem, destroyed the

temple. And so we can actually see in

the sculpture here images of the Roman

soldiers carrying the spoils of war all

the way from Jerusalem back to Rome,

including the manora from the temple

that you can see at the center.

The sculpture really is carved quite

deeply into the stone. Really gives an

illusion of movement.

If you look really closely on the right

hand side, you can even see an image of

the arch of Titus there. And all the

soldiers are just getting ready to march

through the arch of Titus.

Here's

another image that shows you the

location of the sculpture inside of the

arch.

Another example of architecture that was

invented by the ancient Romans was the

idea of having a huge colossal

freestanding column

uh placed within a city in this case in

Rome and to have a continuous narrative

depicted in imagery

going up the column kind kind of like in

a ribbon uh curling around the column.

This one that we're looking at is known

as the column of Trajan. So showing

another emperor, this case, Emperor

Trajan. This column is very big. It's

128 ft tall.

Originally, it would have been topped by

a statue of the emperor. So very similar

to a triumphal arch. In this case, in

the 16th century, uh the um a new

sculpture was placed on top and it now

shows St. Peter.

There's a square base at the bottom of

the column and originally that would

have housed or served as a tomb for Tan

and he was cremated and his ashes were

placed in a golden urn in the base uh of

this structure.

All the way around the column there is a

one a 625

foot band of imagery. And the 625

foot band winds around the column kind

of like an illustrated scroll.

The imagery in this case focuses on two

military campaigns that Traan had

participated in and won. And altogether

we have 150 episodes shown from these

two different military campaigns and a

total of about 2,500

figures.

The bands of imagery do increase in size

as we get to the top. So it would have

been a little bit easier to read. And in

addition, originally it would have been

painted just like ancient Greek

sculptures were painted. The imagery on

this column would also have been

painted. Sadly the paint has mostly

flaked off over the years, but that

paint would have also made the imagery

um more easy to see as well.

Battle scenes take up only about 25%

of the imagery even though um these are

focused on two military campaigns.

instead about threearters of the imagery

is all about uh preparing for battle,

showing images of construction,

uh transporting troops, getting

equipment together, preparing for

battle, and of course, the emperor

appears again and again in the imagery.

Here's an example of some of the

imagery. You can see we have

construction

uh preparation for battle. We can learn

so much about uh life in ancient Rome

from these images.

Here's another example of the imagery

from this huge column again showing

construction before battle.

Here's a battle scene. So again, these

images very important for helping us

learn about warfare in ancient Rome as

well.

Here we can see an example of how this

column may have looked when it was

painted originally. Again, it would have

been much easier for us to tell uh what

the imagery depicts.

And then one last look at some of the

fascinating imagery. Preparation for

battle, transporting troops, even going

in boats.

Fascinating insight into ancient Rome.

All right. And then the last building

we're going to look at in ancient Rome

is the very famous building, the

Pantheon, in ancient Rome. Uh this was a

temple that was dedicated to all the

gods. So the word pan uh translates to

all uh and so this is the temple to all

the gods. And again this was um a shape

that was invented by the ancient Romans.

Concrete was really important for the

building of this structure. And the

Pantheon has been so inspirational and

influential to buildings uh built

throughout the ages. Um some we'll look

at in this class a little bit later this

semester.

The Pantheon uh the facade of the

Pantheon is a very deep porch. Uh it's

eight columns across. So it creates uh

quite a deep porch.

And then behind the porch, we have this

huge immense concrete cylinder space

that's covered by a huge dome that's

142 ft in diameter.

Um this space is basically a circle. Uh

the top of the dome is 142 feet above

the floor and the dome at its widest

point is 142 ft across. So we basically

have the intersection of two circles

composing this building.

Uh the picture at the lower left shows

how uh concrete was really important to

constructing this building. the concrete

would have been lighter than using uh

stone or marble. They were able to vary

the weight of the concrete by the amount

of volcanic stone and ash that was used.

And as you can see, as they got towards

the top, um the concrete also got a

little bit thinner as well. So that's

one way they were able to mitigate the

weight at the top of the dome.

At the very top of the dome, you can see

there's an opening that's called an

oculus, and it's 30 ft across. It's the

only light source in the building, so

there are no other windows. There's the

front door, of course, uh, and then the

oculus.

uh on if you visit the uh Pantheon kind

of early afternoon often you'll get a

really beautiful uh time of day where

the light streams in through the oculus.

Uh you also in the ceiling you can see

there's some uh sunken decorative panels

called coffers that also help to lessen

the weight of the ceiling. Originally,

they would have had little bronze

embellishments in them. So, they're

really thinking of the dome as being the

starry heavens of the sky. Then, they

use marble on the walls, on the niches

for sculpture in the walls, uh, and on

the floor.

Alto together in the Pantheon, you get a

huge sense of space.

Here

you can see the marble on the floors,

those beautiful coffers in the ceiling,

some of the marble niches in the walls.

Here we are. We're standing right in the

middle of the Pantheon and looking

directly up at that huge dome and the

30foot oculus in the center.

It's just an amazing building. Uh again

is been so influential to later

architects.

Here you can see how deep the front

porch is and how different the circular

structure of the building is from

anything we've seen before.

Here again we can see the coffers in the

ceiling that help to mitigate that

weight.

There are no supporting columns inside

of the coliseum. Uh so you really get

this huge sense of space inside of the

building.

Just an immensely influential building

over time.

All right, and that's the last example

that we're going to look at for ancient

Roman art and architecture. I really

hope you enjoyed this section and I will

see you again soon.