Question

In Ancient Rome vs. Ancient Greece. Please choose one aspect of their respective art and describe how they differ from one another in style. What does this say about each of the societies?

Answer 1

• Greek art is considered superior to the "merely" imitative or decorative Roman art; indeed much art we think of as Greek is actually a Roman copy of a Greek original. It is often pointed out that the goal of the classical Greek sculptors was to produce an ideal art form, whereas the goal of Roman artists was to produce realistic portraits, often for decoration.
• The art of the ancient Greeks and Romans is called classical art. This name is used also to describe later periods in which artists looked for their inspiration to this ancient style. The Romans learned sculpture and painting largely from the Greeks and helped to transmit Greek art to later ages. Classical art owes its lasting influence to its simplicity and reasonableness, its humanity, and its sheer beauty.
• Much Greek art adorned utilitarian objects, just as Roman art adorned the living spaces. Greek art is divided into the Mycenaean, geometric, archaic, and Hellenistic periods, in addition to its acme in the Classical period. During the Hellenistic period, there was demand for copies of earlier art, and so it too can be described as imitative.
• Sculptures that are associated like the Venus de Milo with Greece, and mosaics and frescoes (wall paintings) with Rome. Of course, the masters of both cultures worked on various mediums beyond these.Greek pottery, for instance, was a popular import in Italy.
• The early Greek statues were stiff and flat, but in about the 6th century BC the sculptors began to study the human body and work out its proportions. For models they had the finest of young athletes. The Greeks wore no clothing when they practiced sports, and the sculptor could observe their beautiful, strong bodies in every pose.
• The Parthenon Sculptures-These sculptures are the greatest works of Greek art that have come down to modern times. The frieze ran like a decorative band around the top of the outer walls of the temple. It is 3 feet 3 1/2 inches high and 524 feet long. The subject is the ceremonial procession of the Panathenaic Festival. The figures represent gods, priests, and elders; sacrifice bearers and sacrificial cattle; soldiers, nobles, and maidens. They stand out in low relief from an un-detailed background. All are vividly alive and beautifully composed within the narrow band. The horses and their riders are particularly graceful. Their bodies seem to press forward in rhythmical movement.
• To a large extent the art of the Romans was a development of that of their predecessors in Italy, the Etruscans, who, to be sure, had learned much from the Greeks. Nor were the Romans themselves entirely without originality. Though their artistic forms were, for the most part, borrowed, they expressed in them, especially in their architecture, their own practical dominating spirit.
• But with the Romans art was used not so much for the expression of great and noble ideas and emotions as for decoration and ostentation. As art became fashionable, it lost much of its spiritual quality. As they borrowed many elements of their religion from the Greeks, so the Romans copied the statues of Greek gods and goddesses. The Romans were lacking in great imagination.
• Even in one of the few ideal types which they originated, the 'Antinous', the Greek stamp is unmistakable. In one respect, however, the Roman sculptors did show originality; they produced many vigorous realistic portrait statues. Among those that have come down to us are a beautiful bust of the young Augustus, a splendid full-length statue of the same emperor, and busts of other famous statesmen. All these have a historic as well as an artistic value.
  
• The pleasing coloring, which in many of the paintings still remains fresh and vivid, and the freedom and vigor of the drawing, would seem to indicate that even from these ancient days Italy was the home of painters of great talent. Portrait painting especially flourished at Rome, where hack street-corner artists became so common that one could have his portrait painted for a few cents.
• While Greek sculptors traditionally illustrated military exploits through the use of mythological allegory, the Romans used a more documentary mode. Another major contribution of Roman art is the use of concrete in architecture. Buildings like the Flavian Amphitheater, or Colosseum, could never have been constructed with previous architectural means.
• More recent analysis as indicated that Roman art is a highly creative pastiche of Greek, Etruscan, native Italic, and even Egyptian visual culture. Stylistic eclecticism is the hallmark of much of Roman art.
• Roman people were particularly interested in portraiture, such as making statues that really looked like one particular person. Greek people were more interested in ideals, such as what is the most beautiful man? What is the most athletic man? etc.
• While the Greeks were content to idealize their images, the Republic Romans preferred representations in stone and bronze that emphasized the reality of the person being portrayed. And later they searched for depict the majesty of the rulers. The Greeks used a combination of ideal parts in their art but not showing any actual people.
• The Romans were masters of realism, no matter what motivated Roman to create their real images of people, the fact is that these portraits are a powerful evidence of the industriousness of the Romans. Indeed, it seems fair to say that in some respects, the Romans wanted to create the world in their own image.