Ancient Greece and Rome: Politics, Art, and Architecture

Posted on Dec 16, 2024 in History

Unit II. The World Classic

Polis and Empire

1. Greece

Features:

  • Creation of the democratic political system in Athens
  • Slave-based economic system
  • Political category of citizens, people with full rights
  • Cultural extension from the Mediterranean, for settlements
  • Philosophy as a system of thought
  • Creation of Greek art: beauty ideal
  • Polytheistic religion based on trilogy: Zeus, Hera, and Athena

Historical Stages:

  • Early Greek Civilization:
    • Minoan Culture
    • Mycenaean Culture
  • Archaic Greece:
    • Alphabet
    • City-States
    • Democratic system in Athens: Assembly, Boule, and Areopagus
    • Principles of equality and representation. Assembly as a decisive body
  • Classical Greece: Peloponnesian Wars and Medical Wars
  • Hellenistic Greece: Alexander’s Empire, 4th Century BC

2. Eighth-Century Rome – 5th Century AD

Stages:

  • Period of the Monarchy (750-510 BC):
    • Social structure of patricians and plebeians
    • Formation of the Roman religion
  • Period of the Republic (510-27 BC):
    • Conquest of territory outside Italy
    • Power of the Senate. Benches and Assembly
    • Wars: against Carthage, Macedonian, and Civil-Triumvirate
  • Period of the Empire (27 BC – 476 AD):
    • Concentration of power as consul and tribune, Emperor and Pontifex Maximus for life
    • Division: Upper and Lower Empire

Contributions of Rome:

  • Language: Latin
  • Roman law
  • City: Urbanized society
  • Division into provinces

Architecture: Greek Temple and Roman Building

Characteristics of Greek Art:

Anthropocentrism. Beauty ideal. Urban civilization: public buildings

1. The Greek Temple: Classic Orders: Doric, Ionian, and Corinthian

Example: The Parthenon: 5th Century BC: 448-438 BC. Built by Ictinos and Callicrates. Phidias supervised the work and carved decoration with scenes of the birth of Athena, the protection of Attica, and the Panathenaic procession. Dorian, octastyle, peripteral, and amphiprostyle. Optical corrections

2. Roman Edilicia:

Features: practical nature. Curved covers: vault and dome. Orders: Tuscan and Composite. Strength

Urbanism: Cities lattice, with thistle and decumanus

1. Religious and Funerary

1.1. Temples: Maison Carree de Nimes, Fortuna Virilis in Rome, Pantheon in Rome

1.2. Altars: Ara Pacis

1.3. Tombs: Hadrian’s Tomb, Mausoleum of Cecilia Metella

2. Civil Works

2.1. Public Works:

2.1.1 Driveways

2.1.2 Appian Way in Rome. Bridges: Córdoba, Alcantara or Merida, Spain; Pont du Gard, with aqueduct

2.1.3. Water Supply: Miracles, in Merida; Segovia

2.1.4. Hot Springs: Caracalla in Rome

2.1.5. Basilicas: Maxentius, Rome

2.2. For Public Spectacles:

2.2.1. Theaters: Marcellus, in Rome

2.2.2. Amphitheater: Colosseum in Rome; Arles and Nimes, France; Italica, Spain

2.2.3. Circus

2.3. Commemorative Buildings:

2.3.1. Triumphal Arches: Bara and Medina in Spain; Constantine and Septimius Severus in Rome

2.3.2. Commemorative Column: Trajan and Marcus Aurelius

3. Roman House: Domus, Insula, Villa

Sculpture: The Portrait of Greek Roman Canon

1. Greek Sculpture:

Features: Anthropomorphism

Material: bronze and marble

Few originals: Roman copies

Isolated or reliefs

Establishing a fee

Tendency to balance and harmony

Classical Era. 5th and 4th Centuries BC:

Idealization

Canon of seven and eight heads

Compositional equilibrium

Perfect anatomy

Representatives:

5th Century:

Polykleitos: Doryphoros and Diadumenos

Phidias: reliefs and sculptures from the Parthenon

4th Century:

Lysippus: Apoxyomenos (canon of eight heads)

Scopas: Maenad dancer

Praxiteles: Apollo Sauroctonos, Hermes and Dionysus, or Aphrodite of Knidos

Hellenistic Period. 4th – 1st Centuries BC:

Features:

Schools: Rhodes, Pergamum, Athens, or Alexandria

Reflects passions: Laocoon or Galatians

Sculptural groups: Farnese Bull

Movement: Altar of Zeus and Athena in Pergamon

Superficial topics: Spinario or Boy with a Goose

Classical Tradition: Venus de Milo

Allegorical or symbolic character: The Nile

Monumental Sculptures: Winged Victory

2. Roman Sculpture

Features:

The influence of Hellenistic Greek sculpture

Tendency to realism and expressiveness

Masks wax portraits

Propaganda

Desire to stay

Portraits:

  • Idealized: Augustus of Prima Porta
  • Trajan of Italica
  • Portraits: Patrician with pictures of their ancestors
  • Imperial: Augustus, Tiberius, Nero, Trajan, Hadrian, etc.
  • Equestrian: Marcus Aurelius on horseback

Commemorative Reliefs:

  • Ara Pacis
  • Arch of Constantine
  • Trajan’s Column