During the years between 27BCE from when Augustus Caesar proclaimed himself the first emperor in Rome to 476BCE with the fall of Constantinople, the Roman Empire was inundated with Greek-inspired statues. The art emerged from the Classical Period of Ancient Hellas was a powerful medium of expression, so influential the artists from the Roman Empire consequently developed their techniques, detailing and form. The reason for bringing these works to Rome in the first place was, as Plutarch says, to make “a visual impression of his triumph and also to be an ornament for the city” (Plutarch, 1980). A range of evidence can indicate this strong connection of Classical Greek art and multiple forms of Roman art, especially in sculpture.
Classical Greek sculpture broke free from the artistic conventions which had held sway for centuries across many civilizations allowing the Greek kore and kouros to act as a reference for the artists from the Roman Empire in order to capture the idealism of humans. Romans admired Hellenistic sculptures and situated replicas in their gardens and homes as decorations and works of fine art. Roman sculptures were of gods, heroes, emperors, generals and politicians and were posed in the contrapposto stance (Jhays, A. 2018). Contrapposto is a term meaning ‘counterpose’, that refers to a now-canonical stance in which a figure stands with their entire body weight supported over one straight leg and lets their arms fall in opposite directions to create a natural-seeming twist in the torso (Artsy, 2020). The Ancient Greeks first invented the contrapposto stance in the early fifth century BCE. It arose as an alternative to Greek kouros sculptures. The pose can be seen in the Ancient Greek sculpture of Dosyphoros (Spear Bearer) made in around 450-440 BCE, which revealed how the curved position could lend sculpture a far more natural, majestic and lifelike quality. In the following centuries the style continued to prove popular because it exaggerated the beauty of their subjects, hence the reason it appeared in countless Roman sculptures (National Galleries Scotland, 2019).
To depict the idealized form of the human body, the Classical Greek techniques of sculpting involved geometric ratios. Geometric ratios enabled the Greek sculptures to possess realistic proportions which later was inherited by the Roman sculptors (Muscato, 2015). The Venus de Milo by the Greek artist, Alexandros of Antioch, sculpted her as perfectly proportioned and her poise is rendered in such a way as to suggest that she may well step off of the plinth at any moment. A striking resemblance can be drawn to the Roman sculpture, Aphrodite of Capua, because of her perfect harmony of form and proportion. The movement of the Venus de Milo also influenced the angelic and graceful movement of Aphrodite of Capua. Despite the Romans creating sculptures to honor their gods and goddesses in the same way as the Greeks, the Roman Emperors, however, took a step further and were desired to honor their own heroic deeds. They would often place marble statues of themselves around the city so that its citizens would be reminded of their power (Hayman, 2016). These Roman sculptures created in the early centuries CE then became powerful political propaganda and a means to commemorate military and diplomatic feats (Kuesel, 2019). This is confirmed through the historian Daniel Boorstin who wrote in ‘The Creators’, “While the Greeks gave their gods and ideal humans form the Romans attempted to make their ruler godlike” (Boorstin, 1971). The Greek-inspired marble sculptures as a form of propaganda quickly pervaded the Roman Empire and as a result, emperor Augustus Caesar announced “I found Rome of clay; I leave it to you of marble” before his death (Augustus, 2020).
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Greek and Roman sculptures are linked with the purity of white marble in the Western mind, however, most of the works were originally polychrome, painted in multiple, lifelike colors. Excavations from the 18th century unearthed a number of sculptures with traces of color but noted art historians dismissed the findings as anomalies. By the late 20th century, scholars finally accepted that life-size statues and entire temple friezes were, in fact, brightly painted with numerous colors and decorations, raising many new questions about the assumptions of Roman and Greek art history and revealing that centuries of classical imitations were not in fact imitations but rather based on nostalgic ideals of the past (The Art Story, 2020). However, Roman sculptures were not the first art form the Classical Hellenic art style had impact on.
The Romans were tremendous builders, engineers, and architects in their own right, but in the course of conquering the western world, their architecture was heavily influenced aesthetically by the Greeks. In terms of architecture, the Greeks set the foundations for the perfect temple: symmetrical and balanced, reflecting ideal geometric ratios. The Romans fell in love with Greek symmetry and the use of geometry as the basis for aesthetic beauty (Muscato, 2015). The design of the well-known Greek sanctuary, the Parthenon, employed precise mathematical proportions, based upon the golden ratio. The columns employ entasis, a swelling at the centre of each column, and tilt inward, while the foundation also rises toward the façade, correcting for the optical illusion of sagging and tilting that would have resulted in perfectly straight lines. Aesthetically, as art critic, Daniel Mendelsohn explains, “the slight swelling also conveys the subliminal impression of muscular effort...Arching, leaning, straining, swelling, breathing: the over-all effect...is to give the building a special and slightly unsettling quality of being somehow alive” (Mendelsohn, 2019). The building has been highly praised since ancient times as the Roman historian Plutarch called it “no less stately in size than exquisite in form” (Plutarch, 1980). A very similar balanced and symmetrical style is seen in the Roman Parthenon. The Roman temple’s most distinguishing feature that contributes to its symmetric aesthetic are the columns which were influenced by the columns created by the Asiatic Greeks that are also seen in the Hellenic Parthenon. However, the Roman columns were purely for decoration while the Greeks used the structures as support requirements for the temple (Diaspora Travel Greece, 2018).
By studying classical Greek sculpture and comparing it to Roman, it is undeniable that this craft had a strong influence on the art created by artists from the Roman Empire, whether it was a regression of Roman art from technique or the creation of replicas. The veneration of the Romans for Greek culture, religion, elegance, and the idealization of the human form enabled the Greeks to achieve high precision, technique, symmetry, and general aesthetics in the wide range of art created in the Roman Empire. Greek origins can be found in the sculptures of Rome, which prompted the Roman Empire to influence other regions of Europe.
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