IMAGES OF POWER: EARLY ROMAN EMPIRE
(Art during the Flavian Dynasty)
ROMAN ART of the FLAVIAN
DYNASTY
Online Links:
Colosseum - Wikipedia, the free
encyclopedia
Colosseum by night - Colosseo -
Monumenti - Roma – Arounder
The-Colosseum.net: the
resourceful site on the Colosseum
Colosseum cleaning yields old
frescos, graffiti - Yahoo! News
Discovery of Nero's Rotating
Dining Room
Vespasian was a Roman emperor
who ruled from 69 CE to 79 CE.
He was the founder of the Flavian
Dynasty. On June 9, 68, amidst
growing opposition of the Senate
and the army, the emperor Nero
committed suicide, and with him
the Julio-Claudian dynasty came
to an end.
Rome then saw a succession of
short-lived emperors and a year of
civil war. Vespasian immediately
embarked on a series of efforts to
stay in power and prevent future
revolts. Many modern historians
note the increased amount of
propaganda that appeared during
Vespasian's reign.
In 64, most of Rome was destroyed
in a great fire, which many
Romans believed Nero himself had
started in order to clear land for
his planned palatial complex, the
Domus Aurea. This view (left) of
the shows a domed octagonal room
from the Domus Aurea (Golden
House).
Severus and Celer. Octagonal
Hall of the Domus Aurea
(Golden House) of Nero, 64-68
CE
After the great fire, Nero asked
Severus and Celer, two
architect-engineers, to build a
grand new palace for him on a
huge confiscated plot of fire-
ravaged land near the Forum.
The ceiling of the octagonal
room is a dome that modulates
from an eight-sided to a
hemispherical form as it rises
toward the oculus- the circular
opening that admitted light to
the room. Decorative recesses
enlivened satellite rooms, one of
which contained a waterfall.
The architects ingeniously lit the
rooms by leaving spaces between their
vaulted ceilings and the central
dome’s exterior. But the most
significant aspect of the design is that
here, for the first time, the architects
appear to have thought of the walls
and vaults not as limiting space but
shaping it.
Cultures from pre-history to
modern times constructed
domed dwellings using local
materials. Although it is not
known when the first dome was
created, sporadic examples of
early domed structures have
been discovered. The Romans,
however, are known for their
extensive use of the dome,
essentially in three
environments: bath, villas (or
palaces), and tombs.
The senate passed a law conferring the powers of emperor on Vespasian when he
arrived in Rome in the late summer of 70 CE, having left his elder son Titus in charge
in Judaea. Jerusalem was taken in August 70 CE and the Jewish temple was destroyed.
Vespasian's major objectives during his reign were to restore Rome's finances after
Nero's wasteful reign, to restore discipline in the army after the civil wars and to ensure
the succession of his son Titus. He was successful in all three. The immunity from
taxation that Nero had given to the Greeks was revoked, and the Colosseum was begun
in Rome with spoils from the conquest of Jerusalem.
Colosseum (Rome) 79-80 CE
The sheer magnitude of such
Roman amphitheaters such as the
Circus Maximus, which seated
200,000 spectators and the
Colosseum, which covered six acres
and accommodated fifty thousand,
is a reminder that during the first
century CE, Rome’s population
exceeded on million people, many
of whom were the impoverished
recipients of relief in the form of
wheat and free entertainment,
hence “bread and circuses.”
The Roman amphitheaters testify
to the popular taste for
entertainments that included
chariot races, mock sea battles,
gladiatorial contests, and a variety
of violent and brutal blood sports.
Roman audiences watched a
variety of athletic events and
spectacles, including animal hunts,
fights to the death between
gladiators or between gladiators
and wild animals, performances of
trained animals and acrobats. The
Flavians erected it to bolster their
popularity in Rome, and its name
then was the Flavian
Amphitheater.
The name “Colosseum,” by which it
came to be known, derived from
the Colossus, a bigger-than-life
statue of Nero that had been left
standing next to it. The opening
performance in 80 CE lasted 100
days, during which time, it was
claimed, 9,000 wild animals and
2,000 gladiators were killed.
Construction of the Colosseum
began under the rule of the
Emperor Vespasian in around 70–
72 CE, funded by the spoils taken
from the Jewish Temple after the
Siege of Jerusalem. The Colosseum
can be thus interpreted as a great
triumphal monument built in the
Roman tradition of celebrating great
victories, placating the Roman
people instead of returning soldiers.
It was built on the site of Nero’s
Domus Aurea, land that Nero seized
after the Great Fire of 64 CE. Much
of the Domus Aurea was torn down
by Vespasian. The Colosseum itself
was built on an artificial lake Nero
created for his personal domain.
Above: Medieval map of Rome depicting
the Colosseum
The Colosseum was used to host
gladiatorial shows as well as a
variety of other events. The shows,
called munera, were always given
by private individuals rather than
the state. They had a strong
religious element but were also
demonstrations of power and
family prestige, and were
immensely popular with the
population.
Another popular type of show was
the animal hunt, or venatio. This
utilized a great variety of wild
beasts, mainly imported from
Africa and the Middle East.
The floor of the Colosseum was laid over a foundation of service rooms and tunnels that
provided a backstage area for the athletes performers, animals, and equipment. (This
floor was covered in sand, or arena in Latin, hence the English term “arena.” Sand was
used to prevent the combatants slipping and to soak up the blood from deadly battles. )
The hypogeum was connected by underground tunnels to a number of points outside
the Colosseum. Animals and performers were brought through the tunnel from
nearby stables, with the gladiators' barracks at the Ludus Magnus to the east also
being connected by tunnels. Separate tunnels were provided for the Emperor and the
Vestal Virgins to permit them to enter and exit the Colosseum without needing to
pass through the crowds.
Similar to a modern sports arena,
the Colosseum in Rome is actually
a massive amphitheater (from the
Greek amphi, meaning “around,”
or “both,” and theatron, meaning
“theater.” The floor of the
Colosseum was laid over a
foundation of service rooms and
tunnels that provided a backstage
area for the athletes performers,
animals, and equipment. (This
floor was covered in sand, or arena
in Latin, hence the English term
“arena.”)
Some 50,000 spectators could
easily move through the seventy-
six entrance doors to the three
sections of seats and the standing
area at the top. Each had an
uninterrupted view of the
spectacle below.
Like many stadiums today, the
Colosseum was oval with a
surrounding exterior wall and
ascending tiers of seats laid over
barrel-vaulted corridors that
provided access to them. Entrance
tunnels connected the ring corridors
to the inside ramps and seats on
each level.
The intersection of the entrance
tunnels and the ring corridors, both
barrel-vaulted, created what is
called a groin vault. The walls on
the top level of the arena supported
an awning system (called a
velarium) that could shade the
seating areas. Former seamen who
had experience in handling ropes,
pulleys, and large expanses of
canvas were employed to work the
apparatus.
The curving, outer wall of the Colosseum consists of three levels of arcades
surmounted by a wall-like attic story. Each arch in the arcades is framed by engaged
columns, which support entablature-like bands marking the divisions between levels.
Each level also uses a different architectural order: the plain Tuscan order on the
ground level, the Ionic on the second level, the Corinthian on the third, and flat
pilasters on the fourth.
Engaged Corinthian pilasters above the Corinthian
columns of the third level support another row of
corbels beneath the projecting cornice. All of these
elements are purely decorative and serve no structural
function.
The addition of post-and-lintel decoration to arched
structures was an Etruscan innovation. The
systematic use of the orders in a logical succession from
sturdy Tuscan to lighter Ionic to decorative Corinthian
follows a tradition inherited from Hellenistic
architecture.
Top: Architectural Orders (Tuscan, Doric,
Ionic, Corinthian, Composite)
Above: Doorways
Right: Example of a pilaster
Arch of Titus (Rome),
after 81 CE
The Arch of Titus is a 1st-
century honorific arch located
on the Via Sacra in Rome, just
to the southeast of the Roman
Forum. It was constructed
around 82 CE by the Roman
Emperor Domitian shortly after
the death of his older brother
Titus to commemorate Titus’
victories, including the Seige of
Jerusalem in 70 CE.
This was celebrated by a
specified ritual procession
where the troops marched
before the populace and
exhibited the booty and
prisoners-of-war so as to
confirm the success of the
general and his army.
The arch is situated on a prominent rise, the Velian Hill, which is a low
saddle between the Palatine and Esquiline Hills.
The corners are articulated with a
massive order of engaged columns
that stand on a high ashlar
basement. The capitals are
Corinthian, but with prominent
volutes of the Ionic order
projecting laterally above the
acanthus foliage- the earliest
example of the Composite order,
combining both designs.
Above the main cornice rises a high, weighty 4.40m high attic on
which is a central tablet bearing the dedicatory inscription. The
spandrels on the upper left and right of the arch contain
personifications of victory as winged women.
Between the spandrels is the
keystone, on which there
stands a female on the East
side and a male on the West
side.
The soffit (underside of the arch) of
the axial archway is deeply coffered
with a relief of the apotheosis
(ascension to heaven) of Titus at
the center. The sculptural program
also includes two panel reliefs
lining the passageway within the
arch. Both commemorate the joint
triumph celebrated by Titus and
his father Vespasian.
The south panel depicts the spoils
taken from the Temple in
Jerusalem. The Golden Candlestick
or Menorah is the main focus and
is carved in deep relief. Other
sacred objects being carried in the
triumphal procession are the Silver
Trumpets and the Table of
Shewbread (see Exodus 25:23-30).
These spoils were originally gilded
with gold, with the background in
blue.
The north panel depicts Titus as triumphator attended by various genii (divine beings)
and lictors (civil servants), who carry fasces (bundles of reeds symbolic of power). A
helmeted Amazonian, Valour, is leading the quadriga or four horsed chariot, in which
there is Titus. He is being crowned with a laurel wreath by the winged Victory. This is
significant because divinities and humans are presented in one scene, together,
contrasting the panels of the Ara Pacis where they are separated.
The sculpture of the outer faces of the two great piers was lost when the
Arch of Titus was incorporated in medieval defensive walls. The attic of the
arch was originally crowned by more statuary, perhaps of a gilded chariot.
The inscription reads:
“Senatus Populusque Romanus divo
Tito divi Vespasiani filio Vespasiano Augusto”
which means "The Roman Senate and People (dedicate this) to the divine
Titus Vespasianus Augustus, son of the divine Vespasian."
The Arch of Titus stands at the highest point of the Via Sacra, looking across to the
Temple of the Emperor and his father, Vespasian. Both reliefs suggest that the
spectator is walking beneath the arch in the direction from the Colosseum into the
forum, which would indeed be the way a procession would be moving when coming
into the city center. Law and convention required that the soldiers had to lay down
their arms outside the city walls, before marching beneath the triumphal arch.
The Arch provides one of the few contemporary depictions of Temple period artifacts.
It became a symbol of the Jewish diaspora. In a later era, Pope Paul IV made it the
place of a yearly oath of submission. Roman Jews refused to walk under it. The
menorah depicted on the Arch served as the model for the menorah used on the
emblem of the state of Israel.
A Roman denarius depicting Titus, c. 79. The reverse commemorates his
triumph in the Judean Wars, representing a Jewish captive kneeling in
front of a trophy of arms.
The reign of Titus was
struck by multiple
natural disasters, the
most severe of which was
the eruption of Mount
Vesuvius in 79. The
surrounding cities of
Pompeii and
Herculaneum were
completely buried under
ash and lava. One year
later, Rome was struck
by fire and a plague.
Almost all of the painted portraits
found on the walls of some Pompeian
houses were cut out of the walls on
discovery and brought to Naples. One
must go to Naples to see the portrait of
a husband and a wife, but originally it
formed part of a Fourth Style wall of an
exedra (recessed area) opening onto the
atrium of a Pompeian house. The man
holds a scroll and the woman a stylus
and a wax writing tablet, standard
attributes in Roman marriage portraits.
They suggest the fine education of those
depicted- even if, as was sometimes
true, the individuals were uneducated
or even illiterate… The heads are not
standard types but sensitive studies of
the man and woman’s individual faces.
This is another instance of a realistic
portrait placed on a conventional figure
type.
Dionysiac mystery frieze from the Villa of the Mysteries
(Pompeii), c. 60-50 BCE
One of the most famous
painted rooms in Roman art
is the so-called Villa of the
Mysteries at Pompeii. The
room must have been a
shrine or meeting place for
a religious cult, probably
that of Bacchus, the god of
vegetation, fertility, wine,
and the arts, who was one
of the most important
deities in Pompeii, along
with Hercules and Venus.
The Second Style murals
depict what has been
interpreted as the initiation
rites of a new member of
the cult, which was for a
long time limited
exclusively to women.
Although covered with meters of ash and other volcanic
material, the villa sustained only minor damage in the
eruption of Vesuvius in 79 CE, and the majority of its walls,
ceilings, and most particularly its frescoes survived largely
undamaged.
The Villa is named for the paintings in one room of the
residence. This space may have been a triclinium (or dining
room), and is decorated with very fine frescoes. Although the
actual subject of the frescoes is hotly debated, the most
common interpretation of the images is scenes of the
initiation of a woman into a special cult of Dionysus, a
mystery cult that required specific rites and rituals to become
a member. Among many interpretations who believes that it
depicts a young woman undergoing the rites of marriage.
The Villa had both very fine rooms for dining and
entertaining and more functional spaces. A wine-press was
discovered when the Villa was excavated and has been
restored in its original location. It was not uncommon for the
homes of the very wealthy to include areas for the production
of wine, olive oil, or other agricultural products, especially
since many elite Romans owned farmland or orchards in the
immediate vicinity of their villas.
Left: Bust of Titus; Right: Bust of Domitian
Despite initial concerns over his character, Titus ruled to great acclaim following the
death of Vespasian on June 23, 79 and was considered a good emperor by
contemporary historians. In this role he is best known for his public building program
in Rome, and completing the construction of the Colosseum in 80. After barely two
years in office, Titus unexpectedly died of a fever. His brother Domitian then became
the third and last emperor of the Flavian Dynasty reigning from 81 to 96.
IMAGES OF POWER: EARLY ROMAN EMPIRE
(Art during the Flavian Dynasty) ACTIVITIES and REVIEW
STUDENT PRESENTATION
#1:
Where a structure is located
can be crucial to understanding
its symbolic function as an
expression of power. Analyze
how the location of these two
structures conveyed meaning at
the time in which they were
built.
STUDENT PRESENTATION #2:
What does this triumphal arch
commemorate? In what ways does this
work reflect the propagandistic aims of
the Roman empire during the time of
the Flavian emperors?