Roman Art: Summary, Key Works and 9 Solved Exercises

1. Roman wall techniques are named after the facing (the outer skin); the core is almost always concrete.
2. Squared blocks in horizontal courses would be opus quadratum; irregular stones would be opus incertum; fired bricks would be opus latericium.
3. Here the blocks are pyramid-shaped and form a diagonal net: this is opus reticulatum.
4. It becomes common between the late 2nd century BC and the 1st century BC, and is typical of the late Republic and the Augustan age.

Answer: Opus reticulatum, typical of the late Republic and the Augustan age (late 2nd - 1st century BC).

1. A Roman theatre is semicircular: a semicircular cavea, an orchestra, and a tall stage building (scaenae frons) closing the space behind the actors.
2. An amphitheatre is elliptical and closed all the way round: 'amphi-theatron' literally means double theatre, as if two caveas faced each other.
3. Theatres hosted plays; amphitheatres hosted gladiatorial combat and wild-beast hunts (venationes).
4. A second clue: a Greek theatre is built into a hillside, a Roman one usually is not, because its cavea rests on arcaded substructures.

Answer: Theatre = semicircular plan, drama; amphitheatre = closed elliptical plan, gladiators and venationes.

1. The Colosseum (Flavian Amphitheatre, AD 72-80) has a four-storey facade.
2. The first three levels are rows of arches framed by engaged half-columns, the scheme known as the 'arched order'.
3. The heaviest-looking order goes at the bottom, for both structural and visual reasons: Tuscan (the Roman version of Doric) first, then Ionic, then Corinthian.
4. The fourth level has no arcades: it is a solid attic articulated by Corinthian pilasters and small square windows.

Answer: From bottom to top: Tuscan, Ionic, Corinthian; the fourth level is a solid attic with Corinthian pilasters.

1. In ancient Rome a basilica is a civic building, not a religious one.
2. It normally stands on one side of the forum and houses law courts and business: a covered courthouse and exchange.
3. Its plan is rectangular, divided into aisles by rows of columns, often with an apse at one end where the magistrate sat.
4. Only from the 4th century AD did Christians adopt this plan for their churches: the name stayed, the function changed.

Answer: Because a Roman basilica is a civic building (law and business); the meaning 'church' only appears from the 4th century AD.

1. The Pantheon is designed around an inscribed sphere: the internal height at the centre equals the diameter of the dome.
2. Internal height = 43.30 m.
3. The radius of the floor is half the diameter: r = 43.30 / 2 = 21.65 m.
4. Area = pi x r squared = 3.14 x 21.65 x 21.65 = 3.14 x 468.72 = about 1471.8 m² (1472.6 m² with a more precise pi).

Answer: Internal height 43.30 m; floor area about 1472 m². The oculus figure is not needed here: it is extra data.

1. A Greek temple sits on a three-step crepidoma that runs all the way round: you can approach it from any side.
2. Here there is a high podium with one frontal staircase: this frontality comes from the Etruscan tradition and was taken over by Rome.
3. The deep porch, much deeper than the rear, is also Etrusco-Roman.
4. The side columns are not free-standing but engaged in the wall: the peripteral colonnade becomes an appearance only, and the temple is called pseudoperipteral.

Answer: It is a Roman temple (Etruscan in origin); the engaged side columns make it pseudoperipteral.

1. The First Style (incrustation) imitates marble panelling in moulded stucco: all relief, no scenes.
2. The Third Style (ornamental) closes the wall again and covers it with slender decorative elements and thin aediculae, with small framed pictures at the centre.
3. The Fourth Style (fantastic) mixes unreal architecture with panel pictures, but does not aim at one coherent illusion of real space.
4. Opening the wall illusionistically, with architecture in perspective and believable views, is the mark of the Second Style (architectural), 1st century BC.

Answer: The Second Style, also called architectural or illusionistic.

1. Agrippa's Pantheon really was built in 27 BC, but it burned down and was rebuilt from scratch.
2. The building we see, a rotunda with a dome, dates from the reign of Hadrian, roughly AD 118-125.
3. The proof is not the inscription but the brick stamps: Roman bricks carry a stamped date of manufacture, and these date to Hadrian's principate.
4. Hadrian chose to put Agrippa's name back on the front as a gesture of political continuity, not as information about the architect.
5. General rule: an inscription tells you who wants to be remembered, not necessarily who built.

Answer: Agrippa's building was destroyed; the present one is Hadrian's rebuilding (about AD 118-125), dated by brick stamps. Hadrian re-used the old inscription.

1. Re-used pieces are called spolia: material taken from older monuments.
2. The first reason is ideological: by placing his own image beside that of the 'good emperors' of the 2nd century, Constantine presents himself as their legitimate heir.
3. The second reason is practical and visible: in the 4th-century reliefs (the Constantinian frieze) the figures are squat, frontal and scaled by rank, with proportions and anatomy far from those of the older panels.
4. Because both are on the same monument, the change is measurable: it is not simply lost skill but a new language that puts clarity of message ahead of lifelikeness.

Answer: The spolia legitimise Constantine as heir of the 2nd-century emperors and, by contrast with the 4th-century reliefs, document the shift to a frontal, hierarchical, anti-naturalistic style that leads to late antique and Byzantine art.