Etruscan and Ancient Roman Art

AP ART HISTORY chapter 6 and 7 Etruscan and Ancient Roman Art ENDURING UNDERSTANDING •• •• •• Etruscan art is characterized by a pantheon of gods celebrated in large civic and religious buildings. : Etruscan art is known primarily through archeology. Roman art is characterized by a pantheon of gods celebrated in large civic and religious buildings. Contextual information for ancient Rome can be derived from contemporary literary, political, legal, and economic records as well as from archeological excavations condicted from the mid-18th century onward. ESSENTIAL KNOWLEDGE • • • • • • • Etruscan art is studied as a unit, rather than by individual city-states. Etruscan art shows a number of ancient influences. The Etruscan literary tradition is mostly lost. Roman art can be subdivided into the following periods: Republican, Early Imperial, Late Imperial, and Late Antique. Roman architecture has a large public element and is influenced by Etruscan and Greek models. Roman architecture shows a great deal of variety and willingness to experiment. Roman art was revived with an eighteenthcentury interest in Roman laws, government, and philosophy. Roman writing contains some of the earliest contemporary accounts about art and artists. ideas and concepts 1. The similarities and differences between Etruscan temple and Greek temples. 2. Reasons for the Etruscan cultures eventual downfall. The main reasons for the fall of Rome. 3. Most of what is known about Etruscan civilization comes down to us in elaborate necropoli filled with tombs that resemble large rooms in a home. 4. Etruscan sculptures and temples are heavily influenced by Archaic Greek works. 5. Etruscan sculptors excel in bronze and terra-cotta production. 6. Roman architecture is influenced by the Greeks and the Etruscans. 7. The lack of art projects commissioned by the “Soldier Emperors” during their reign. 8. The new building technique being used by the Romans that changed the way they conceived of support systems and architectural space. 9. The emperors as patrons of the arts and architectural development and civic planning. 10. Roman art reflects the ambitions of a powerful empire---monumental buildings and sculptures were built to the glory of the gods and the state. 11. Roman architecture is revolutionary in its understanding of the powers of the arch, the vault, and concrete. 12. A history of Roman painting survives on the walls of Pompeian villas. 13. Romans show an interest in the basic elements of perspective and foreshortening. 14. Roman sculpture is greatly indebted to Greek models. vOCABULARY Capitoline Wolf centaur chimera cista cuirass Etruria fibula necropolis Porta Marzia repousse sarcophagus terracotta tufa tumulus amphitheater Ara Pacis Arcadianism Arch of Titus arcuated entablature atrium barrel vault basilica caldarium coffering Constantine continuous narration Corinthian cubicula Diocletian Doric encaustic forum frigidarium groin vault insula Ionic oculus patrician Pax Romana peristyle garden plebian tempera tepidarium tetrarchs AP ART HISTORY Etruscan and Ancient Roman Art journal Augustus of Prima Porta (3.1, 3.5, 1.3) Pantheon (3.1, 2.3, 3.3) Forum of Trajan (3.1, 1.4, 2.3) CONTEXT The Etruscans are known for their skill on the sea, including their activities as pirates, there’s was a wealthy society. The Etruscans were masterful architectural engineers and planners. Their use of bronze is much admired. Very little exists of their society because they were buried by new buildings of Rome, and their temples were made of wood and mud brick. The Etruscans are the people who lived in Italy before the arrival of the Romans. Although they heavily influenced the Romans, their language and customs were different. Their sophisticated tombs and huge necropoli still survive . Rome is a civilization founded by Romulus in 753 BC. The Romans were very interested in utilitarianism, propaganda, appropriation and eclecticism. They were very pragmatic with regard to the standards of art. They had several architectural innovations such as arches, vaulting, and dome building. Roman civilization came to dominate the world. They often borrowed stylistic characteristics from the Greeks whom they greatly admired. They were very concerned with politics. From hillside village to world power, Rome rose to glory by diplomacy and military might. The effects of Roman civilization are still felt today in the fields of law, language, literature, and the fine arts. According to legend, Romulus, and Remus, abandoned twins, were suckled by a she-wolf, and later established the city of Rome on it’s fabled seven hills. At first the state was ruled by kings, who were later overthrown and replaced by the Senate. The Romans then established a democracy of a sort, with magistrates ruling the country in concert with the senate, an elected body of privileged Roman men. Variously well-executed wars increased Rome’s fortunes and boundaries. In 211 BCE the Greek colony of Syracuse in Sicily was annexed. This was followed in 46 BCE, by the absorption of Greece. The Romans valued Greek cultural riches and imported boatloads of sculpture, pottery, and jewelry to adorn the capital. Moreover, a general movement took hold to reproduce Greek art by establishing workshops that did little more than make copies of Greek sculpture. Civil war in the late Republic caused a power vacuum that was filled by Octavian, later called Augustus Caesar, who became emperor in 27 BCE. From that time, Rome was ruled by a series of emperors as it expanded to faraway Mesopotamia and then retraced to a shadow of itself when it was sacked in 410 BCE. The single most important archaeological site in the Roman world d is the city of Pompeii, which was buried by volcanic ash from Mount Vesuvius in 79 BCE, In 1748, systematic excavations was begun. Because of Pompeii, we know more about daily life in Rome than we know about any other ancient civilization. WORKS OF ART • • • • • • • • • • • • Temple of Minerva 510-500 BCE Sculpture of Apollo 510-500 BCE Sarcophagus of the Spouses 530 BCE Banqueters and musicians from the Tomb of the Leopards (Tomb of the Triclinium) 480-470 BCE Petra, Jordan: Treasury 400 BCE-100 CE Head of a Roman Patrician 75-50 BCE Portrait of Augustus from Primaporta early 1st CE House of the Vettii 62-79 CE Colosseum 70-80 Trajan’s Column 106-112 Pantheon 118-125 Ludovisi Battle Sacrophagus 250 ASSIGNMENTS ‡‡ ‡‡ ‡‡ ‡‡ ‡‡ Read Gardners pages 164-229 Complete homework packet Write journal Fill in flashcards E.C.- Watch the “Gladiator” & write a review