grp7

1. Roman and Italian
Renaissance Art
Group 7 - BM2

2. Roman Architecture
Roman Art: From Village to World Capital
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3. Rome Under the Kings
▣ The history of Roman art and architecture begins.
▣ Romulus is the first king of Rome.
▣ Romulus founded Rome as a village of huts on the
Palatine Hill.
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4. The Tarquins and the Capitolium
▣ During the later eighth and seventh centuries BCE, a
series of Latin successors of Romulus ruled the city
on the Tiber.
▣ Tarquinius Priscus, who had emigrated from Corinth
in Greece to Etruscan Tarquinia, became king of
Rome and ruled for 40 years.
▣ The last Roman king, according to all ancient
sources, was Tarquinius .
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5. The Tarquins and the Capitolium
▣ Capitolium is an ancient temple dedicated to Jupiter,
Juno and Minerva.
▣ The capitolium was burned and rebuilt several times,
but the foundations of the sixth-century temple are
preserved in part, enabling archaeologists to
reconstruct its plan.
▣ The walls were made of mud brick, the columns of
wood, and the timber roof was covered with tiles.
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6. The Tarquins and the Capitolium
The Temple of Jupiter, Capitoline Hill
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7. Architectural Basics / Three Orders of Architecture / Basics - Corinthian
▣ It consists of a double row of acanthus leaves, from
which tendrils and flowers emerge, wrapped around
a bell-shaped echinus.
▣ Vitruvius attributed the invention of the Corinthian
capital to the Athenian sculptor Kallimachos
(Callimachus).
▣ The Corinthian order is the most ornate of the Greek
orders, characterized by a slender fluted column
having an ornate capital decorated with two rows of
acanthus leaves and four scrolls.
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8. Architectural Basics / Three Orders of Architecture / Ionic
▣ It has two distinct profiles the front and back.
▣ The Ionic order came from eastern Greece.
▣ It is distinguished by slender, fluted pillars with a
large base and two opposed volutes (also called
scrolls).
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9. Architectural Basics / Three Orders of Architecture / Doric
▣ It is the simplest of the orders, characterized by
short, faceted, heavy columns with plain, round
capitals (tops) and no base.
▣ It is originated on the mainland and on western
Greece
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10. Architectural Basics / Three Orders of Architecture
Ionic Doric Corinthian
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11. Architectural Basics / Roman Concrete
▣ The Romans used concrete in constructing many of
their oversized buildings. Although not their
invention, once again they made this technique
workable, using it initially as filler in buildings and
then as the main support element.
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12. Architectural Basics / Roman Concrete
▣ Romans thought that concrete was ugly and its
aesthetics seemed displeasing, so although its
flexibility and low cost were desirable, all concrete
buildings were cloaked with another material, like
marble, which appeared more attractive to their eye.
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13. Architectural Basics / Roman Concrete
▣ Roman concrete was made from a changing recipe of
lime mortar, volcanic sand, water, and small stones.
▣ Builders placed the mixture in wood frames and left
it to dry and to bond with a brick or stone facing.
When the concrete dried completely, the molds were
removed, leaving behind a solid mass of great
strength, though rough in appearance.
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14. Architectural Basics / Roman Concrete
▣ Concrete walls were very heavy ; in order to prevent
the weight from cracking the walls beneath them,
coffers were carved into the ceilings to lighten the
load.
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15. Architectural Basics / Roman Concrete
▣ It is possible to fashion concrete shapes that
masonry construction cannot achieve, especially
huge vaulted and domed rooms without internal
supports.
▣ Concrete enabled Roman builders to think of
architecture in radically new ways.
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16. Architectural Basics / Roman Concrete
▣ Roman architects
understood that arches
could be extended in space
and form a continuous
tunnel-like construction
called a barrel vault.
▣ When two barrel vaults
intersect, a larger, more
open space is formed,
called a groin vault.
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17. Architectural Basics / Roman Concrete
▣ The latter is particularly important because the groin
vault could be supported with only four corner piers,
rather than requiring a continuous wall space that a
barrel vault needed.
▣ The spaces between the arches on the piers are
called spandrels.
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18. Roman Architecture
Roman Art: The Pax Augusta in the West
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19. Aqueducts
▣ The amenities of urban life, especially the Romans’
beloved baths but also the health of the populace,
necessitated the provision of a dependable supply of
clean water to the capital and to cities throughout
the Empire.
▣ The emperors met that demand by constructing and
maintaining a network of aqueducts that brought
water from mountain springs and rivers to
population centers often dozens of miles away.
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20. Aqueducts
▣ The Romans built aqueducts throughout their
domain and introduced water into the cities they
built and occupied, increasing sanitary conditions.
▣ Rome itself had 11 aqueducts: Aqua Appia, Aqua
Anio Vetus, Aqua Marcia, Aqua Tepula, Aqua Julia,
Aqua Virgo, Aqua Alsietina, Aqua Claudia, Aqua
Anio Novus, Aqua Traiana, and Aqua Alexandria.
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21. Aqueducts
▣ The Romans built aqueducts throughout their
domain and introduced water into the cities they
built and occupied, increasing sanitary conditions.
▣ Rome itself had 11 aqueducts: Aqua Appia, Aqua
Anio Vetus, Aqua Marcia, Aqua Tepula, Aqua Julia,
Aqua Virgo, Aqua Alsietina, Aqua Claudia, Aqua
Anio Novus, Aqua Traiana, and Aqua Alexandria.
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22. Aqueducts
▣ Sextus Iulius Frontinus, a senator who was
appointed water commissioner of Rome considered
Rome’s aqueducts to be “indispensable” and far
superior to “the idle Pyramids [of the Egyptians] or
the useless, though famous, works of the Greeks.”
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23. Aqueducts
▣ Rome’s aqueducts were marvels of ancient
engineering.
▣ The greatest strength of the Romans’ water system
was its simplicity.
▣ Their aqueducts operated by gravitational forces
alone for most of their length.
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24. Aqueducts
▣ The construction of aqueduct bridges was an
expensive enterprise, and any damage they
sustained threatened the water supply of an entire
city.
▣ The Romans preferred to place their conduits
underground.
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25. Aqueducts
▣ Only where the local topography required the
building of a bridge to maintain the gradient of the
water channel did the Romans choose to incur the
expense and risk of these engineering projects.
▣ Examples like when conduit had to cross a river, as
at Nîmes, or a valley or depression, as at Segovia was
it necessary to erect a bridge or viaduct to maintain
the gradient of the aqueduct.
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26. Aqueducts
▣ Pont-du-Gard is an Augustan aqueduct bridge
located in southern France on the city of Nîmes and
is one of the grandest Roman monuments in the
world.
▣ It provided about 100 gallons of water a day for each
inhabitant of Nîmes.
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27. Aqueducts
▣ The Pont-du-Gard is the three-story, 49-meter-high
bridge that Marcus Agrippa erected to carry the
water channel across the Gard River near Remoulins
at a point about 12 miles from the Roman colony.
▣ Each large arch spans some 25 meters and is
constructed of yellow limestone blocks from a
nearby quarry that weigh up to two tons each.
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28. Aqueducts
▣ No mortar was used; the weight of the blocks held
them in place which perfectly illustrates the
fundamental principle of aqueduct design.
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29. Aqueducts
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Pont-du-Gard, Nîmes

30. Aqueducts
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Aqueduct, Segovia of Spain

31. Arches and Gates
▣ The Romans understood the possibilities of the arch,
an architectural devise used before but little used.
▣ Because arches could span huge spaces, they do not
need the constant support of the post-and-lintel
system.
▣ Each wedge-shaped stone of a Roman arch is
smaller at the bottom and wider at the top.
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32. Arches and Gates
▣ This seemingly simple development allowed a stable
arch to stand indefinitely because the wider top
could not pass through the narrower bottom.
▣ Mortar is not needed because the shape of the arch
does all the work.
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33. Arches and Gates
▣ To commemorate the success and completion of Via
Flaminia project (a road from the city of Rome to
Ariminium) , Augustus erected one arch at the
beginning of the road, at the Mulvian Bridge in
Rome, and one at its end, at Rimini.
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34. Arches and Gates
▣ This depicts that even though architectural
historians use the conventional term “triumphal
arch” to describe almost any freestanding
commemorative arch, most Roman arches had
nothing to do with warfare or the subsequent
triumphal processions of the victorious generals.
▣ Often, as was the case with Augustus’s two Via
Flaminia arches, they were erected to celebrate
engineering feats and other public works projects.
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35. Arches and Gates
▣ The Rimini Arch formed the city's east gate. It is
typical of Augustan arches in its elegance and
severity.
▣ Engaged half-columns and a pediment frame the
single passageway.
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36. Arches and Gates
▣ Before Augustus, most Roman
arches had statues of Roman
deities above their attics and
the Rimini tondi reflect this
tradition.
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37. Arches and Gates
▣ Augustus erected the Susa
arch celebrating the peace
treaty he had signed with
Marcus Iulius Cottius.
▣ The “triumphal” arch at
Susa commemorates the
bloodless establishment of
the Pax Augusta in this
north-western corner of
Italy.
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38. Arches and Gates
▣ Cottius was the son and successor of the king of 14
tribes in the so-called Cottian Alps.
▣ The terms of the treaty called for Cottius to
renounce his kingship and become a Roman citizen
with the name Iulius and a local magistrate with
authority over the people he formerly ruled.
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39. Arches and Gates
▣ The arch’s spare decoration and single bay recall the
general format of the Rimini arch, but the Susa arch
has no pediment and no sculpture of any kind in the
spandrels.
▣ Asculptured frieze, however, extends to all four sides
ofthe arch. It depicts the treaty signing and
suovetaurilia and related ceremonies that
accompanied it.
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40. Arches and Gates
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41. Arches and Gates
▣ The Triumphal Arch of Orange was erected by
Augustus’ successor, Tiberius, around 25 CE as the
north gate of Orange.
▣ It has three arcuated bays and two attics and must
once have been crowned by a huge statuary group.
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42. Arches and Gates
▣ The arch celebrates not
only the Roman victory
over the Gauls but the
universality of Roman
power on both land and
sea.
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43. Arches and Gates
▣ The upper attic has a narrative relief at the center of
each side depicting a battle between Romans and
Gauls.
▣ The lower attic has a central pediment and flanking
reliefs depicting ships’ prows and other naval motifs.
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44. Arches and Gates
▣ Below, above the two lateral passageways, are
representations of captured Gallic shields, spears,
swords, cuirasses, and military standards.
▣ The short ends of the arch are also richly decorated
with chained Gauls and sea monsters.
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45. Arches and Gates
▣ An exceptionally well-preserved city gate of the
Augustan period is the Porta Palatina at Turin.
▣ The Porta Palatina, built mostly of brick rather than
stone, has two large central arcuated bays
sufficiently wide and tall to accommodate horse-
drawn vehicles with their drivers and cargo, and two
smaller lateral bays for pedestrians.
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46. Arches and Gates
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Porta Palatina,Turin,early first century

47. Temples, Theaters, and Amphitheaters
▣ The heart of every provincial Roman city was its
forum, and that is where Roman power was usually
conspicuously on display in the form of imperial
portrait statues and often by the presence of a
temple dedicated to the official worship of the
emperor or the goddess Roma or both.
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48. Temples, Theaters, and Amphitheaters
▣ Vienne was an important
Gallic outpost at a strategic
bend in the Rhône River.
Under Augustus, a new
temple was constructed in
the forum of Vienne.
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49. Temples, Theaters, and Amphitheaters
▣ The Vienne temple is an example of the Roman type
with alae, like the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus but
it is smaller and narrower than the Capitoline temple
and has a facade of six Corinthian columns.
▣ The Classicizing style of the building was itself a
symbol of Roman hegemony in Gaul.
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50. Temples, Theaters, and Amphitheaters
▣ Another example of the
importation of the
Augustan Neoclassical style
is the equally well-
preserved temple at Nîmes
long known as the Maison
Carrée.
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51. Temples, Theaters, and Amphitheaters
▣ Once thought to be contemporary to the Pont-du-
Gard, this Corinthian pseudoperipteral temple is
now believed to have been erected in the first decade
ce and patterned on the Temple of Mars Ultor in the
Forum of Augustus.
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52. Temples, Theaters, and Amphitheaters
▣ The temple was the centerpiece of the Nemausus
forum and seems to have been dedicated to the
recently deceased adopted sons of Augustus, Gaius
and Lucius Caesar.
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53. Temples, Theaters, and Amphitheaters
▣ The population of the Roman colonies of Early
Imperial Gaul and Spain consisted of large numbers
of army veterans as well as local families who were
new Roman citizens.
▣ Both groups demanded Roman forms of
entertainment, and under Augustus theaters and
amphitheaters were constructed in many of the most
important cities.
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54. Temples, Theaters, and Amphitheaters
▣ At Orange, the colony that
Augustus founded around
35 BCE for veterans of the
Second Gallic Legion, a new
theater was constructed in
the early first century CE
with its cavea resting on a
steep natural hillside.
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55. Temples, Theaters, and Amphitheaters
▣ In Merida, both a theater
and an were constructed in
quick succession between 16
and 8 BCE.
▣ The great entertainment
complex was complemented
by a circus for chariot
racing, not visible in the
aerial photograph.
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56. Temples, Theaters, and Amphitheaters
▣ Unlike the Orange cavea, the Merida seating area
rested on substructures of concrete and granite. The
elliptical Merida amphitheater was also built of
granite and concrete.
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57. Funerary Monuments
▣ Funerary monuments were erected to perpetuate the
memory of deceased members of wealthy and
influential local families—and of the living heirs who
paid for the memorials and often placed their names
on them alongside those of the dead.
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58. Funerary Monuments
▣ During the second decade CE, at Pula(Roman Pola)
in northwestern Croatia, not far from the border of
modern Italy, Salvia Postuma Sergia erected an arch
de sua pecunia (with her own money) in honor of
several deceased family members.
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59. Funerary Monuments
▣ The attic bears her dedicatory inscription and the
names of those whose statues stood on top of the
arch above each of three projecting bases. A statue of
Salvia was added after her death.
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60. Funerary Monuments
▣ The Arch of the Sergii is
therefore in no way a
“triumphal arch,” but the
form of the monument
intentionally conveys the
notion that the Sergii have
triumphed over death by
achieving a happy afterlife.
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61. Funerary Monuments
▣ The arch’s extensive relief decoration conveys a
similar message, again borrowing from the repertory
of triumphal art.
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62. Funerary Monuments
▣ A generation before the Sergii erected their arch at
Pola, three brothers of a Gallic family that had been
granted Roman citizenship by Julius Caesar— and, as
so many others in Gaul, took his name—built the so-
called Mausoleum of the Julii at Saint-Rémy-de-
Provence (Roman Glanum), south of Orange between
Marseilles and Nîmes.
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63. Funerary Monuments
▣ The Julian cenotaph (a funerary
monument without a burial
chamber) was built in honor of
the brothers’ father and
grandfather.
▣ At the top is a small tholos
temple containing two portrait
statues, both dressed in togas,
emblems of their Roman
citizenship.
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64. Renaissance Art
Renaissance as an idea rather than a period
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65. Renaissance as an idea rather than a period
▣ What do we mean by the term “renaissance” art?
▣ How can we evaluate works of Italian renaissance
art?
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66. Renaissance as an idea rather than a period
▣ Two renaissances: Renaissance centered on rational
construction & Renaissance that represented the
continuation of much older ideas.
▣ Due to more artists, more patrons, and more works
that belong to this era, it resulted in ever more
ponderous and unwieldly textbooks that purport to
provide lists of artists, lists of works and lists of
texts.
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67. Renaissance as an idea rather than a period
▣ The development of medieval art was primarily
devoted to discovering in ever more inventive ways
methods of transforming the initial abstract. Often:
glittering, elongated and patterned figures produced
by painters, sculptors, and goldsmiths.
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68. Renaissance as an idea rather than a period
▣ Naturalism: often called Gothic. Aspects of Gothic
art were inspired by the sermons of Saint Francis of
Assisi.
▣ Saint Francis of Assisi inspired artists and the
viewers of their works to imagine. Ex. Christ as more
human than kingly and more suffering than iconic.
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69. Renaissance as an idea rather than a period
▣ In 1420s, one-point perspective was first
demonstrated in Florence.
▣ By 1435, this process was codified by Leon Battista
Alberti. This uniform, measurable space was
“rational” because it was connected to the world of
the viewer
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70. Renaissance as an idea rather than a period
▣ A work of art can, for example, be remarkable in the
year that its features were invented, whereas the
very same work of art copied a generation later may
have less or little value.
▣ But in the Italian Renaissance, a hundred years is a
stellar leap in the chronological ordering of artistic
events.
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71. Renaissance as an idea rather than a period
▣ Both Masaccio’s Trinity and Pontormo’s Deposition
were important commissions, about a hundred years
apart, and both were painted for churches in
Florence.
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72. Renaissance as an idea rather than a period
▣ Masaccio’s dead Christ, painted
in 1427 when the artist was but
26 years old and shortly before
his untimely death in the
following year, leaves the viewer
with no doubts on these matters.
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73. Renaissance as an idea rather than a period
▣ In contrast, Pontormo’s work,
painted in about 1527, presents
us with a myriad of doubts.
Though it also depicts the body
of Christ, we cannot tell if Christ
is dead, or alive, or asleep.
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74. Renaissance as an idea rather than a period
▣ Masaccio’s painting is organized
by the brand-new concept of
perspective and painted on the
basis of observation.
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75. Renaissance as an idea rather than a period
▣ Pontormo’s representation is
entirely different. It does not
invite the viewer to consider the
world of space.
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76. Renaissance as an idea rather than a period
▣ The two artists’ different views of architecture are
equally clear in these paintings. Masaccio’s scene
takes place in a civic setting where the everyday life
of everyday people is represented. In Pontormo’s
scene architecture disappears completely and its
distorted inhabitants lack a common scale.
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77. Renaissance as an idea rather than a period
Florence, Ospedale degli Innocenti (Brunelleschi).
(Photo credit: Scala/ Art Resource, NY.)
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78. Renaissance as an idea rather than a period
Mantua, Palazzo del Te, courtyard (Giulio Romano).
(Photo credit: Erich Lessing/Art Resource, NY.)
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79. Renaissance as an idea rather than a period
▣ Florence, Santo Spirito, interior
(Brunelleschi).
▣ (Photo credit: Scala/ Art
Resource, NY.)
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80. Renaissance as an idea rather than a period
Rome, Palazzo Spada, exterior (Giulio Mazzoni).
(Photo credit: Alinari/Art Resource, NY.)
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81. Renaissance as an idea rather than a period
▣ Florence, Pazzi Chapel, interior
walls (Brunelleschi).
▣ (Photo credit: Scala/Art
Resource, NY.)
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82. Renaissance as an idea rather than a period
Fontainebleau, Château,
Gallery of François I, interior wall.
(Photo credit: Réunion des Musées Nationaux/Art
Resource, NY.)
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83. Renaissance as an idea rather than a period
▣ Donatello, Mary Magdalene,
Florence, Museo del Opera del
Duomo.
▣ (Photo credit: Scala/Art
Resource, NY.)
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84. Renaissance as an idea rather than a period
▣ Benvenuto Cellini, Narcissus,
Florence, Bargello.
▣ (Photo credit: Scala/ Art
Resource, NY.)
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85. Renaissance as an idea rather than a period
▣ By settings is meant an architectural arrangement
into which the figures are coordinated and set. This
is different from the concept of painted urban
backgrounds, which are known in fourteenth-
century paintings from Siena, particularly those of
Ambrogio Lorenzetti.
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86. Renaissance as an idea rather than a period
▣ Commissioned by Cosimo de’ Medici, the Dominican
Observant convent of San Marco was built between
1439 and 1445 by the architect and sculptor
Michelozzo di Bartolomeo, an important and
inventive follower of Brunelleschi.
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87. Renaissance as an idea rather than a period
▣ A member of the order which had moved from
Fiesole to Florence, Fra Angelico (whose real name
was Guido di Piero del Mugello and otherwise known
as Giovanni da Fiesole) was chosen to adorn the new
interior spaces.
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88. Renaissance as an idea rather than a period
▣ Two excellent monographs on this structure and its
paintings are those of William Hood, Fra Angelico at
San Marco, New Haven and London, 1993, and Paolo
Morachiello, Beato Angelico Gli Affreschi di San
Marco, Milan, 1995. The latter volume contains
excellent detailed photographs.
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89. Renaissance as an idea rather than a period
▣ Later in the fifteenth century, after Donatello’s
death, this enormous crucifix was moved to a
position closer to the altar, over the entrance to the
choir.
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