Committed to creating value in the art market. We deepen our market understanding, expand our network, and cultivate a diverse audience. We publish our newsletter targeting intelligent and inquisitive people who are not traditional art world participants. Recognizing a broad demand for insightful critique of art and the art world, plus an under explored dynamic interplay with the growing market for Digital Art, we are developing innovative products to engage and expand our audience and unlock value for our clients.
How often do you think about the Roman Empire? I don't know about you, but for me it is Every. Single. Day. Frankly, I’m not upset about that: their military conquests, engineering ingenuity, political organisation, and ‘progressive’ attitude toward citizen women is the bare minimum of their accomplishments. (Roman women were allowed to own property and handle money… well, some Roman women; it wasn’t perfect. Still, American women couldn't open a bank account until the 1960s).
With the premiere of the Gladiator 2 movie this Friday, and the upcoming auction of the Mougins Collection at Christie's on December 4, now is an opportune time for us to visit the Romans. We will look at their history and their art and see what it can tell us about the world back then, and their influence on our world today.
The Dying Gaul, Roman marble copy of a Hellenistic work, 60 - 40 BC, marble, Musei Capitolini, Rome.
Roman history is one long Spanish tele-novella, full of love, betrayal, redemption, and drama. Many of the highlights have drifted into popular consciousness: Caesar crossed the Rubicon and got stabbed by his mates. Augustus found a city of brick and left a city of marble. Caligula promoted his horse (allegedly). Nero fiddled while Rome burned. Hadrian built a wall, and Marcus Aurelius wrote about his feelings and meditated.
Throughout all the drama, the Romans made art. They made art as propaganda, to reinforce the legitimacy and authority of the Emperors (including, ahem, making abrupt changes to sculptures to reflect abrupt changes in Emperor…). They made art to praise their gods, to honour their dead, and to show off to their friends. They made art to build civic pride, to assimilate new conquests, and to intimidate their foes.
For example, here’s a bust of the Emperor Commodus depicted as the god Hercules, complete with the Nemean lion skin (impervious to attack by any mortal weapon), club and apples stolen from Zeus… Propaganda, worship, intimidation and civic pride all in one small statue:
Commodus as Hercules, Part of a statuary group representing Commodus' apotheosis,180-193 AD, marble, H. 1.33 m (4 ft. 4 ¼ in), Museo Capitolini, Rome.
Not to say Commodus still wasn’t a bit… delulu. He actually went so far as to rename Rome ‘Colonia Commodiana’ (Colony of Commodus) and believed he was Hercules the god. He renamed the months August as Commodus and October as Hercules. He commissioned statues of himself in the guise of Hercules (like this one), and would often fight in the gladiatorial arena in this persona. Commodus replaced the head of the Colossus of Nero with his own portrait, gave it a club, and placed a bronze lion at its feet to make it look like Hercules Romanus. Now that would've been fun to see in the first Gladiator movie.
Time for a Mini Series!
Full disclosure: this is one of my favourite periods. It is spectacular, dramatic and thought-provoking, wild in scale and grandeur. I could probably write ten thousand words on the ‘Greek and Etruscan influences on the Baths of Caracalla’… (and I still might, tbh).
The Romans roamed so far and wide that their art bears hallmarks from across the Mediterranean, the Near East, Africa and Europe… it’s a treasure trove (and, often, a treasure hunt) for an art, architecture and history lover. I’m excited to share some of that with you over the next few newsletters in this mini-series on Roman History and Art.
First things first though: Rome wasn’t built in a day (ho, ho) and we need to build some foundations [1]. This week, we are going to start with the broad scope of what I mean by ‘Roman Art’, which will require us to discuss how the Roman Republic became the Roman Empire and how (and when!) the Empire ended.
That will give us a baseline understanding to examine the dominant Greek and Egyptian influences on artworks created as the Empire formed, and how those influences evolved as the Empire grew. We will also know what to look for in the next few weeks when we watch Gladiator 2 and examine the upcoming Mougins auction at Christies in December.
(Side Note: am I really going to watch a movie with Pedro Pascal and Denzel Washington and get to call it ‘work’?! Can I charge popcorn to my expense account? Do I have an expense account? Maybe being a grown-up is working out better than I thought…).
What was the Roman Empire?
The full history of Rome and her art could fill multiple libraries of serious-looking books, so we are going to have to do some pruning.
First, some dates: We are going to define the ‘Roman Empire’ as 27 BC - 476 AD… aaaaand, already we’re into controversy. Classic Trivial Pursuit question [2], ‘When Did The Roman Empire Fall?’ It’s not as straightforward as it sounds, given how the Empire splintered and how many successor empires claimed legitimacy. It's not a coincidence that Roman Caesar / German Kaiser / Russian Tsar are all the same word…
As the Empire grew, it got harder to manage (this was pre-Zoom calls), and officially split into the Western and Eastern Empires in 395 AD. The Western Roman Empire fell to ze Germans in 476 AD… Which is why I prefer this terminus ante quem for the Empire. Other historians argue the Roman Empire ended in 1453 AD, when the Eastern Roman Empire (re-branded as the Byzantines) fell to the Ottoman Turks… I get where they’re going with this, but a ‘Roman Empire’ sort of needs to have Rome in it, no? [3]. So, the end was 476 AD.
Construction of a mausoleum, from the Tomb of the Haterii, late 1st century CE, marble, Musei Vaticani, Rome.
‘When did the Roman Empire start’ should be an easier question… Short version: Julius Caesar made a bunch of money and fame as a military General conquering the unconquerable Gaul (now France). He wanted to return to Rome to enjoy political power in the Roman Republic, but his rise, wealth and fame created enemies. By Roman Law, Caesar had to leave his army north of the small Rubicon River in northern Italy. By 'crossing the Rubicon' with his legions, he defied the Roman Senate, setting the stage for Civil War (he claimed to have said ‘Alea iacta est / The Die is Cast’, a tad underwhelming tbh). Today, people use it as a metaphor to describe passing a point of no return.
Anyway, yada yada yada, that sparks a Civil War, yada yada, Caesar eventually wins a bunch of battles in Italy, Greece, Egypt and Africa, and becomes Dictator. Concerns about him becoming a King (very anti-Republic vibes) led to conspiracy by some Senators, who ended up stabbing him in the back [4]. Brutus, his friend and son of his mistress Servilia, was one of the conspirators, hence the famous line ‘Et tu, Brute? / You too, Brutus?')… Although that line was invented by Shakespeare in a dramatic embellishment 1500 years later… Propaganda!
The murder sparked Civil War part deux. Initially, the ‘Second Triumvirate’ formed to give Caesar’s adopted son, Octavian, his old General, Mark Antony, and Lepidus, absolute power. We see an example of art as propaganda below: the coin depicts all three, united harmoniously. However, war was inevitable. Eventually, Octavian defeated Mark Antony and his ally/lover Cleopatra. Weary after two decades of civil war, Romans allowed Octavian to do what they wouldn’t let Caesar: become King. In 27 AD, Octavian was granted the title ‘Augustus’ by the Roman Senate, marking the end of the Roman Republic and the beginning of the Roman Empire.
Coin of Second Triumvirate: Conjoined heads of Octavian, Mark Antony, and Lepidus with cult-statue of Artemis Ephesia, Struck 40-39 BC.
Okay, phew, that’s the dates sorted. Now, geography: the Roman Empire was legit massive. It reached its zenith under Emperor Trajan in 117 AD, stretching from northern England (very much not Scotland) to the Persian Gulf, and from the Atlantic Coast to the Red Sea. It covered disparate territories including modern-day France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, the Balkans, Greece, Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Libya, Algeria, and Tunisia. All these diverse cultural and artistic influences commingled with Rome, as did Rome with these civilisations. We are going to make our lives easier and narrow our focus to the art associated with the City of Rome, rather than the provinces.
What is Roman Art?
Dates and history are important contexts, but this is an art newsletter; time to look at some pictures. Say what you like about the Emperors, and their mixed political legacy, but they were rich and loved themselves some art; check out the bling on these walls:
Left: Surviving wall painting from Crypto Porticus in Nero’s Domus Aurea (Golden House), Photo courtesy Sebastià Giralt, 2017, CC-SA 2.0. Right: Photo of Raphael’s Loggetta in the Vatican inspired by Nero's Domus Aurea, Photo courtesy Scala, Florence/Art Resource, NY.
Roman art is a highly creative pastiche relying heavily on Greek models while also encompassing Etruscan and Egyptian visual culture [5,6]. An important thing to note about Roman art: art was their primary vessel to tell history and establish national identity. Which is why Roman art has a strong narrative focus, even with depictions of mythological themes. We must know the history in order to understand and appreciate the artistic narrative of Roman art. It became reflexive: they created art to reflect on their own history, and that art became history itself from our perspective. They incorporated so much detail into their art you can pinpoint the career, age, and time of a person or an event.
This is because art served a utilitarian purpose in Rome. Yes, art was produced for social, civic and religious reasons, but it was rarely the ‘art for art’s sake’ that we see more of from the 19th century through today. Roman artists were tradesmen, and their work was a professional skill. There's little evidence for Van Gogh-like artists, creating whatever is in their mind. For that reason many Roman artists did not sign their work, so we do not have the names of who would have been very famous Roman artists.
Sculpture was considered the highest form of art, followed by figure painting. Architecture was an artform: the way in which Romans adorned the facades of their buildings, and the aesthetic nature they served in the public or private sphere constitutes them as art in this circumstance. You could find them embellishing temples, bath houses, amphitheatres, triumphal arches, and villas.
Relief from lost triumphal arch of Marcus Aurelius, marble, 176-180 AD, Musei Capitolini, Rome.
You don't get an Empire without fighting a few wars; given the martial focus of their society, it's to be expected that much of Roman art is related to military and political ends. The Romans loved a good Triumph to celebrate military success. Roman Triumphs were a public civil ceremony and religious rite to celebrate and sanctify the success of a military commander who led Roman forces to victory in the service of the state or, in some historical traditions, one who successfully completed a foreign war. They began on the Campus Martius outside the city gates, and ended at the Capitoline temple. Reserved for this occasion, the triumphator would wear a toga picta (imperial purple and gold embroidered robe), a laurel leaf crown, and be pulled in a quadriga (4 horse chariot). A slave boy would stand in the chariot with the triumphator and say, ‘you are not a god’. His army would follow suit in the parade.
Triumphs included spoils of war, trophies, prisoners, and art of all forms. This is confirmed through reliefs on Triumphal arches erected in honour of the conquest, as well as surviving accounts. There were 34 documented triumphal arches throughout the city of Rome, of which only 3 survive today: Arch of Septimius Severus, Arch of Constantine, and Arch of Titus. It is believed there were roughly 320 Triumphs across the Roman Republic and Roman Empire. It was possible for a victor to receive more than one Triumph. Julius Caesar was the Michael Phelps of Triumphs, holding the record as the only Roman to have had 4 Triumphs, one for each of his campaigns.
Gemma Augustea, ca 15 CE, sardonyx cameo, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. I don't know about you, but the raising of the trophy looks strikingly similar to a certain WW2 photograph...
Sadly, these arches as well as many other ancient buildings and sculptures were destroyed after the fall of the Roman Empire. Most of the materials were used to build churches, like the marble seats and blocks of the Colosseum, or the melting down of statues for quicklime and reuse of metals. In a way, the early Christian nation, Roman Catholic emperors, and later Popes destroyed their pagan past, through multiple iconoclasms, not just in Rome, but throughout the Empire to make way for their own commissions and agendas.
While we are blessed so much survives, there was substantially more that didn’t. For example, in 364 AD, Emperor Justinian ordered the Library of Antioch, commissioned by the successors of Alexander the Great, to be burnt. Author Catherine Nixey coins this era ‘the Darkening Age’ due to the enormous scale in which the desecration of the classical world took place before the dark ages.
This equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius only survived because it was misidentified as a bishop. He can thank his beard for that! I'm not joking: most Romans and emperors were clean shaven, only growing a beard for times of mourning. Otherwise sporting a beard was seen as philhellene (Greek lover). That’s exactly what Marcus Aurelius and the Antonines [7] were, so they adopted this cultural style. Cultural appropriation?... maybe?
Less violently, Romans also incorporated these art forms through trade. This allowed them to adopt different cultural artistic styles into their own art as they were developing their identity. Egyptomania was rampant during the time of Augustus and Classical Greece was always the golden child when it came to sculpture. In a way, tying themselves to these long standing civilisations integrates themselves into their history to solidify their presence longer than reality.
In a later era, Venice (the city and republic) did the exact same thing. The city was not established until after the fall of the Roman Empire, with no cultural or artistic history of their own. So, upon its founding, they integrated artistic styles from the Roman Empire as a way to establish their identity as a long-standing establishment like their Florence and Rome counterparts before evolving into their own artistic genre and idiom.
In the further mythification of Rome, Romans/Etruscans claimed to be the descendants of Aeneas (son of Aphrodite) who fled Troy, as discussed in this newsletter. One can interpret this information as the birth of the Roman people coinciding with the Iliad, predating Alexander the Great and the Greek Golden Age. This lore goes one step further with the Julio family tree (Julius Caesar's fam). They were, supposedly, descendants of Cupid therefore Aphrodite, establishing a narrative as destined rulers of Rome. Octavian being the adopted son of Julius Caesar plays into this iconography during his reign as ‘the son of a god’ (emphasised more so after Caesar's deification). It was fated: look at his Prima Porta statue, you can find Cupid by his leg.
Hooooold up, I'm about to go down a rabbit hole of Greek influences on early Roman art. You could lose a lifetime down there, so we're going to take a break until next week.
Where did we get to? Roman art = fascinating, spectacular, could write about it for years. The Roman Republic ended in 27 BC because Julius Caesar got greedy and his mates got stabby (also, military success expanded the territory beyond what the political structures could sustain). The Roman Empire ran from 27 BC to 476 AD, and covered most of the known world [8]. During that time, the Romans used art for political, social, religious and civic reasons. They incorporated a wide range of cultures via military conquest and trade, and used art as a crucial tool to form a national narrative and shared historical understanding. Their art was influenced by all of their history and narratives... More on that next time.
See you soon!
[1]
If you’ve come here expecting puns and digs about architecture, you’re going to be happy.
[2]
Genus Edition, obvs. None of this new fangled nonsense.
[3]
Point of order to those claiming the Roman Empire ended in 1922 when the Ottoman Empire became Turkey: you are wrong, and must stay behind after class.
[4]
The story goes that sixty-five Senators agreed to each stab him, so the killing couldn’t be attributed to one person… Caesar got 23 wounds, and most of the Senators simultaneously denied involvement while also taking credit… Group Projects have gone about as well ever since.
[5]Pastiche- an artistic work in a style that imitates that of another work, artist, or period.
[6]Etruscan- The Etruscans were the first highly civilised people of Italy and were the only inhabitants who did not speak an Indo-European language. At its greatest extent they dominated roughly what is now Tuscany, western Umbria, northern Lazio, as well as what is now the Po Valley, Emilia-Romagna, south-eastern Lombardy, southern Veneto, and western Campagnia. Basically from modern Rome to Milan and Venice. They dominated Italy until they fell to the expanding Rome beginning in the late 4th century BC as a result of the Roman–Etruscan Wars.
[7]
The Antonines were a dynasty of Roman emperors that reigned from 139 to 193 AD. It commenced with the reign of Antoninus Pius (r. 138–161 A.D.) and included those of Marcus Aurelius (r. 161–180 A.D.), Lucius Verus (r. 161–169 A.D.), and Commodus (r. 177–192 A.D.). Their dynasty included two of the Five Good Emperors of Rome: Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, and Marcus Aurelius. They were successors of Trajan (r. 98–117 A.D.) and Hadrian (r. 117–38 A.D.); Hadrian secured the line with the adoption of Antoninus Pius, who in turn adopted Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus.
[8]
Bias Alert! It is important to note there is a western bias with regard to antiquities and their prospective empires. When we think of the Roman, Ancient Greek, Assyrian and Egyptian dynasties, we tend to overlook the empires that were also developing in tandem in India, China, and Japan. Fun fact: The Ancient Chinese referred to Rome as 大秦，(da Qin) which basically translates to Big/Great China. Even though they never made direct contact, the Chinese Dynasties were aware of Rome and its greatness, and referred to Rome essentially as ‘another China’ out of respect.
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Committed to creating value in the art market. We deepen our market understanding, expand our network, and cultivate a diverse audience. We publish our newsletter targeting intelligent and inquisitive people who are not traditional art world participants. Recognizing a broad demand for insightful critique of art and the art world, plus an under explored dynamic interplay with the growing market for Digital Art, we are developing innovative products to engage and expand our audience and unlock value for our clients.