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Roman Art

Romans followed the Greek from of art, also known as Hellenistic art. The Greek loved to found new cities and rebuild old ones with gymnasia’s, baths, theaters, and temples (Spielvogel). They also built many sculptures idealizing the Hellenistic Kings and wealthy people. Romans art wasn’t so much paintings, but more statues and architecture, like the Greeks. “Plutarch, writing in the 2nd century AD, wrote that before Rome's conquest of Greek Syracuse in Sicily, 'Rome neither had nor even knew of these refined things, nor was there in the city any love of what was charming and elegant; rather, it was full of barbaric weapons and bloody spoils.'” (Bulfinch). Romans built highways, sturdy bridges, and aqueducts that we still model today. “The Romans also developed the use of the arch, the vault and the dome, and discovered concrete, which all allowed for a much grander architecture” (Ancient Rome). As they developed ways to make apartment type buildings and theaters out of concrete, they excelled in architecture, building things such as the Pantheon and Colosseum, which are both still standing today. They started to model Greek statues, which they did both original works and reproductions, but usually out of marble and not bronze. Many of the “Greek” statues that stand today are actually replicates from the Romans. “Roman art differed from Greek in that it wanted depict a more realistic portrayal of people, where as the Greek was people in their ideal form.” (Hemingway). So as you can see, the Roman form of art has both taught and lead us in the architectural ideas that we still use today.

Ancient Rome. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2010. http://www.ancient-rome.biz/roman-art.html

Hemingway, Colette. “Retrospective Styles in Greek and Roman Sculpture”. In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000.http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/grsc/hd_grsc.htm (July 2007)

Spielvogel, Jackson J. Western Civilization. Eight Editon. One. Mason, Ohio: Cengage Learnin, 2012. 104&134. Print.

The Bulfinch Guide to Art History. Web. http://www.artchive.com/artchive/R/roman.html