Roman sculpture

The sculpture of ancient Rome refers to the three-dimensional works of art produced under Roman rule from the foundation of the city in the eighth century BCE to the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 CE. Sculpture was very important in Roman public life. It showed deities for worship, remembered important leaders, celebrated big events, and honored the dead. In homes, small statues of gods and family ancestors helped Romans remember their family and gods.

Roman sculptors loved making portraits. They made people look both perfect and very real in statues, small faces called busts, scenes called reliefs, and special decorations called gem cameos. They mostly used marble from places around the Mediterranean, but they also used bronze, travertine, tufa, basalt, granite, and porphyry.

After the Roman Empire ended, many sculptures were lost, broken, or used in buildings during the Middle Ages. Later, during the Renaissance, people became very interested in Roman art again, and old Roman sculptures helped shape Western art. Today, we learn more about Roman sculpture by comparing it to Greek precedents. Instead of thinking Roman art just copied Greek art, we now see it as its own special style shaped by the Roman world and the wider Mediterranean culture.

Development

Left image: Section of Trajan's Column, Rome, 113 AD, with scenes from the Trajan's Dacian Wars
Right image: Section and detail of the Column of Marcus Aurelius, Rome, 177–180 AD, with scenes from the Marcomannic Wars

Early Roman art was inspired by the art of Greece and the nearby Etruscans, who were themselves influenced by their Greek trading partners. The Etruscans were known for making life-sized tomb figures in terracotta, usually placed on top of a sarcophagus lid. As Rome grew and conquered Greek lands, Roman sculpture became mostly an extension of Greek styles, making it hard to separate what was truly Roman from what was Greek, especially since many Greek sculptures only survive in Roman copies. By the 2nd century BCE, most sculptors in Rome were Greek, often enslaved after conquests like that of Corinth in 146 BCE. Sculpting was not seen as a major profession by the Romans and was more of a hobby.

Roman strength in sculpture lay in portraiture, especially in the tomb monuments of middle-class Romans, which often featured portrait busts. There are no surviving masks of ancestors from old Roman traditions, but many surviving busts likely represent these ancestors, perhaps from family tombs like the Tomb of the Scipios or later mausolea outside the city. The famous "Capitoline Brutus", a bronze head thought to be of Lucius Junius Brutus, is considered a rare example of early Roman style. Stern and strong faces also appear on coins of leaders and in the Imperial period, coins and busts sent around the Empire were key ways to spread the emperor's image, even in places like Londinium.

Portraiture

Main articles: Roman portraiture and Imago clipeata

Portraiture was a very important kind of Roman sculpture. It grew from the traditional Roman emphasis on families and their ancestors. In the entrance hall of a Roman elite house, called the (atrium), people would display busts showing their ancestors' faces. During the Roman Republic, it was thought to be a sign of strength to show men with all their natural looks, not hiding any flaws. Later, during the time of Roman emperors, more statues showed them looking perfect, often linked to the state religion of Rome. Even people who were not very rich sometimes had portraits carved on their tombstones, showing their loved ones in relief.

You can see many examples of Roman portraits in museums like the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the British Museum in London.

Religious and funerary art

Further information: Early Christian sarcophagi

Religious art was very important in Roman sculpture. In a Roman temple, there was often a special statue of a god or goddess, which people believed lived there. These statues were very important for worship. Smaller statues and figures of gods were also kept in homes and gardens. Some of these smaller pieces were very simple, while others were very detailed.

Romans also made special stone boxes called Roman marble sarcophagi to hold the bodies of important people. These started being used around the 2nd century CE when Romans began burying people instead of burning them. These sarcophagi were usually made in big cities like Rome and Athens. They showed scenes from stories about gods and heroes, or from everyday life. Later, early Christians also used sarcophagi, often showing scenes from their religious stories.

Gardens and baths

Many large stone vases made during the time of Roman emperors were used to decorate gardens. Statues were also placed in both public and private gardens. Some famous statues found in the Gardens of Sallust include the Obelisco Sallustiano, a copy of an ancient Egyptian obelisk now in front of the Trinità dei Monti church above the Piazza di Spagna. Other statues found there are the Borghese Vase, the Dying Gaul, and the Gaul Killing Himself and His Wife, as well as the Ludovisi Throne and the Boston Throne.

Roman baths were also places where people could see sculptures. Famous pieces found in the Baths of Caracalla include the Farnese Bull and Farnese Hercules. Other statues found in the Gardens of Sallust and the Gardens of Maecenas include a Falling Niobid, the Borghese Vase, a Caryatid statue, a fountain shaped like a drinking cup, and a statue of a child with a theatre mask.

Technology

Scenes on reliefs, like those on Trajan's Column and on sarcophogi, show pictures of Roman technology that is lost today, such as ballistae and waterwheel-driven saws used for cutting stone. The waterwheel saw was recently found at Hieropolis and honors the miller who used it. Other reliefs show harvesting machines, just as Pliny the Elder described them in his Naturalis Historia.

Architecture

Compared to the Greeks, the Romans used fewer stone sculptures on buildings. Important parts of buildings, like the Pantheon, once had sculptures, but most of them are lost today. However, many terracotta panels called Campana reliefs have survived. These were used to decorate walls inside buildings.

The writer Vitruvius, who wrote about buildings, did not talk much about using sculptures. He mentioned only a few examples but said that architects should be able to explain the meaning behind decorations like caryatids.