Artistic Flair

FocusThis presentation will teach you about Roman Art.

Roman art can really be divided into 3 categories:

Sculpture: portraits (busts) and historical (on buildings) Paintings: murals (fresco/tempura) and portraits (mostly as

murals) Mosaics: on floors (geometric patterns and optical illusions)

Roman art was heavily influenced by the Greeks. The Greeks taught the Romans enough for them flourish as artists. While each category has a foundation in Greek admiration, eventually they, like most everything else, became distinctly Roman.

SculptureRoman sculpture was formed in

marble, bronze and stone. Generally the subjects were portrayed in a realistic fashion,

Roman busts, head and shoulders, were realistic carvings of people and perhaps grew out of the imagines each family kept. The imagines were the ancestral masks housed in the lararium and brought out for funeral processions.

whether it was a portrait or a historical event.

SculptureOn public buildings and triumphal arches the goal

was to depict the rich history of Rome. On the arches especially, the victorious general would want all to know what a great victory he had won for Rome and how he accomplished it. Thus, the sculpture might appear crowded and action driven.

Paintings

illusions of gardens as seen among 3D columns or through 3D windows.

The vast majority of Roman paintings were murals. The Romans liked bright colors and their subjects ranged from deities and temples to detailed landscapes and country scenes to everyday life. They even

PaintingsThe most popular style of painting was fresco (below

sides), meaning it was painted when the wall plaster was still wet. This style of painting help to preserve the rich color of the paint. Other murals were painted when the plaster was dry or in tempura. Portraits were also painted either as murals, maybe in a room dedicated to ancestors, or much more rarely on wooden panels (below middle).

MosaicsMosaics were generally a way of decorating the floors of a building but are also found on walls and ceilings. The mosaic could be a simple geometric pattern set in black and white or an optical illusion or as detailed and elaborate as a painting. Sometimes the mosaic was specific to the room. For instance food in the dinning room or a dog in the entrance way.

Mosaics Tesserae, tiny cubes, are the building blocks of mosaics and could be made of stone, tile, marble, pottery or glass. The tesserae would be set in wet cement and then finished with cement on top to fill in the spaced left between them. Also a mosaic artist might draw the pattern on the floor first or build the mosaic in a wood frame and bring it to the site.

AssignmentYou get to make your very on Roman

Mosaic! There are several options for completing this project. You can complete it online OR by downloading either the more traditional square template or the triangular template. Be sure to read the document for all the details and options!