11.0: Chapter Introduction

Introduction: A Fleeting Work in the Eternal City

Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): Triumphs and Laments by William Kentridge, 2016, Tiber River, Rome, Italy (Photo: Bruno, CC BY-SA 2.0)

Fifty-five monumental drawings parade along 500 yards of the concrete embankment of the Tiber River in Rome, etched into the very grime and refuse of the city (see Figure 11.1). Using imagery from Rome’s history—spanning from its founding to the present and including iconic artworks as well as pop culture—South African artist William Kentridge’s 2016 mural Triumphs and Laments celebrates Rome, the Eternal City, in its complex and layered glory. With playful symbolism and artistic allusions, it illustrates Rome’s origin myth, the rise and fall of the Roman Empire, popular culture, and political figures and ideologies of years past—all carefully presented on a public frieze that is meant to vanish.

Many of the figures Kentridge includes are drawn directly from the ancient Roman art in this chapter, including the Winged Victory from the Column of Trajan (113 CE); an equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius (c. 173-76 CE); and imagery from ancient architecture such as the Arch of Septimius Severus (203 CE), the Column of Marcus Aurelius (180 CE), the Ludovisi Battle Sarcophagus (260 CE), and the Arch of Titus (81 CE). The figure of the She-Wolf, modeled after a famous bronze sculpture in the Capitoline Museum, alludes to Rome’s origin myth, in which she suckles the abandoned twins Romulus and Remus (see Figure 11.2). Both the She-Wolf and the Winged Victory reappear throughout the procession, depicted in various stages of decomposition, as if to call to mind the many ancient ruins that Rome is built upon. Although many references celebrate Rome’s rich history, many others critique Italy’s politics, including recurring references to immigration and refugees seeking shelter, along with the violent legacy of fascism and colonialism.

Much of Rome’s history is learned from its ruins—so too with Kentridge’s work, as he presents fragments of Rome’s history in random, rather than chronological, order. As Ellen C. Caldwell observed, “Kentridge moves viewers through his mural much like someone moving through the great city of Rome does—fluidly through time and space, art and history, ancient and modern. The city’s runners, cyclists, and pedestrians walk with, against, and past the mural as a living part of the city.” Kentridge’s work is an apt metaphor for the complex, layered, and nuanced history of Rome, as both a city with many pasts and many histories, and a very contemporary living and breathing place.

Figure \(\PageIndex{2}\): Detail of runners in front of Capitoline She-Wolf, depicted in Triumphs and Laments by William Kentridge, Tiber River, Rome, Italy, 2016. (Photo: Luca Di Ciaccio, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

The medium of the mural also references this layered and even organic history: through a process called “reverse graffiti,” Kentridge and his team applied power washers to stencils of his enlarged drawings, removing the grime in the negative spaces around the figures. The resulting “paint” that details the figures marching along the river is the naturally-occurring moss and human-generated pollution chronicling centuries of human presence. There is a push and pull between the layers of history. Time, age, and erasure all interact on the banks of the Tiber, symbolically recounting Rome’s history.

The well-known saying states that history is written by the victors—but history is also shaped, morphed, and retold in different ways, at different times, by different parties. Just as Hatshepsut’s male predecessors aimed to smash all images of her, the Roman phenomenon of damnatio memoriae meant that, as Dr. Francesca Tronchin notes, when the Roman government “condemned the memory of a person who was seen as a tyrant, traitor, or other sort of enemy to the state[, the] images of such condemned figures would be destroyed, their names erased from inscriptions…. Coins bearing the image of an emperor who had his memory damned would be recalled or cancelled.”

In some ways, Kentridge’s Triumphs and Laments does the opposite: it recollects both the tragedies and victories of Rome’s history, while also resurrecting the erased. Indeed, Kentridge’s is but one of many artistic voices who have paid tribute to the Eternal City, and his will soon be erased by time, as the grime of the city once more covers the banks of the Tiber, making his work fleeting and temporary. His visual representation of Rome commemorates not only the city’s rich history, but also the human and cultural capacity to remember or forget. It is about history’s history: how it is recorded, remembered, and celebrated. It is also about the other side of history’s history: how some histories are neglected, ignored, forgotten, and unwritten. As the title suggests, it is about Rome’s triumphs and laments, and it is indeed a reflection on how those collective stories are shared and remembered. In a city built upon ruins and founded on myth, this is a fitting tribute to the complexity of Rome’s layered, rich, and multifaceted history.

Historiography (Writing History)

Multicultural Synthesis: A Roman Tradition

Part of Rome’s great success was the way in which they expanded their territories, allowing the people of the conquered areas to carry on their original traditions and religions as long as they abided by Roman rules and laws. Because of this, Rome is a fascinating model of multicultural synthesis, taking inspiration from neighboring cultures, exerting influences on others, and emulating or even appropriating different systems—whether in the form of urban planning and engineering, or in architectural, sculptural, and ideological forms.

Roman Imitation

The Roman pantheon, or group of gods, is largely adapted from Greek models, and similarly contains lots of familiar names. Venus is the Romans’ version of the Greeks’ goddess of love and beauty, Aphrodite. Her father, Zeus, becomes Jupiter, and several other planets today bear the names of Roman gods, including Mercury, Saturn, and Neptune (the Romans’ name for Poseidon).

Similarly, Rome borrowed from Greek and Etruscan temple architecture. Like the Etruscan temples, Roman columns often support a deep porch, or portico—and like Greek temples, the columns are fluted and sometimes extend the whole way around the perimeter of the temple. The Romans have also borrowed three orders, or architectural systems, from the Greeks, using Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian capitals to top and decorate their columns. As discussed in the earlier chapter on Greece, the Romans were great fans of Greek sculpture and often made their own replicas of Greece’s most famed statuary.

Roman Innovation

Although the Romans were generally smitten with Greek architecture, art, and culture, they were never content simply to copy—instead they emulated and improved. This is especially true with Roman architecture, urban planning, and engineering. Greek temple architecture was not designed or constructed for going inside, but one of Rome’s overarching architectural contributions was designing interior space and shaping architecture for humans to occupy.

Although the legacy of the Roman Empire is often seen through physical ruins, many lasting Roman innovations are still used worldwide today. The names for months of the year come directly from the Romans. Heads of rulers are depicted on coins. Systems of government, including the Republic and Senate, are still in use by name and function. The Roman Empire produced a vast network of paved highways linking Europe, Africa, and parts of the Middle East, many of which form the foundation of modern roads. Romans developed the first urban sanitation systems and plumbing, built the first aqueducts, invented the hypocaust or interior heating system, and advanced engineering and architectural developments through their revolutionary use and application of concrete. Concrete is a mixture of lime mortar, sand, small pebbles, and water that can be poured into brick stone walls or wooden molds of practically any shape, and when it is dried, it functions like stone—but is often lighter, always cheaper, and much more easily created than quarrying and shaping actual stone.

One of the ways Romans revolutionized both architecture and concrete was through their extensive use of the arch. The Romans did not invent the true arch, but they did use it in new and innovative ways. Some of the architecture discussed so far, such as the Temple of Amen-Re at Karnak and the Greek Parthenon, depends on post-and-lintel construction. This is limited, because lintels, especially stone ones, can only be so wide before they break—they are also extremely heavy, which means that a lot of posts are required to support the roof. An arch opens up that space both by adding height and also by spanning larger spaces.

An arch is composed of identical wedge-shaped stones, called voussoirs. The keystone is the voussoir at the top of the arch, which holds everything in place without even having to use glue or mortar. As long as the arch is supported on the sides, it is very strong, stable, and can bear a lot of weight. Arches placed side by side are called an arcade and such construction was used in the Pont-du-Gard, an aqueduct, in Nimes, today in France (see Figure 11.3). Aqueducts like this one transported water from the mountains into Roman cities, combining architectural innovation with a keen aesthetic sense in these gracefully stacked arches.

Figure \(\PageIndex{3}\): Pont du Gard, Nimes, France, 16 BCE. (Photo: Benh LIEU SONG, CC BY-SA 3.0)

Arches can also be stacked front to back into a tunnel known as a vault. Buttressing is required to support the sides against the lateral thrust of the arch. With concrete, the Romans could cross a barrel vault with another barrel vault, creating a groin vault and opening up interior space even more. They could even stack multiple vaults on top of one another, leaving the open ends of the vaults as a high row of windows—a clerestory, as seen for the first time in Egypt. This is called a fenestrated groin vault. Unlike at the Temple of Amen-Re, a dark, mystical temple whose admission was highly restricted, fenestrated groin vaults and other Roman architectural innovations were designed to create lighter, open spaces of human occupation and habitation.

Finally, in addition to placing arches side by side in an arcade, and back to front in a vault, Romans also spun the arch on its axis to create this final Roman engineering innovation, a true dome. A coffered concrete dome, such as that of the Pantheon, was the most open architectural structure at that time, a wide space unimpeded by any columns or other supports.

Chapter Overview

The Founding of Rome and Birth of an Empire

Just as the Roman Empire is sprawling in its geography, it also has a densely packed history, from its founding, to its transition from a monarchy to a Republic, to its three stages of empire: Early, High/Middle, and Late (also called Late Antique).

According to legend, Rome was founded by Romulus, who as an infant was abandoned, along with his twin brother Remus, and raised by a she-wolf. Romulus eventually killed his brother and became the first king of this city on seven hills, which bears his name. Kings ruled right up until the Romans kicked out the last Etruscan King, Tarquinius Superbus, and established the Republic, with a new form of constitutional government.

This includes the establishment of a governing body, known as the Senate, comprised of a council of elders. The elders of the Senate would advise two elected consuls. Two, to keep each other’s power in check, and so that one could stay at home in Rome while the other was out waging the war that kept the Republic expanding. A third position was added as needed: a dictator, who would step in under extraordinary circumstances for a very defined and limited task, such as leading the army in a particular crisis. These positions were drawn first exclusively from patrician families, wealthy landowners. Later, they were opened to plebians, which included small farmers and merchants.

The Republic unofficially ends on the Ides of March in 44 BCE, when Julius Caesar is murdered on the Senate floor, ushering in a bloody period of civil war, which ends with Octavian and the beginning of the Roman Empire. During the Early Empire, Augustus ushers in a 200-year period of peace known as the Pax Romana. Then, during the High/Middle Empire and under Trajan, the Roman Empire vastly expands to include the Mediterranean, Britain, the Near East, and much of Europe. Finally, during the third century CE, the strength of the Roman Empire begins to falter, and eventually falls—a period discussed in the following chapter.

Objects overview

This chapter includes a wide range of architectural and engineering innovations as well as sculptural developments, paintings, and mosaics—many of which reflect the magnitude of the rise and strength of the Roman Empire, while others document the Empire’s birth or its subsequent decline. Such works range from smaller celebratory arches to large-scale civic buildings, including:

• the Capitoline She-wolf, an impressive hollow-cast bronze sculpture made in the round, visually documenting Rome’s origin story (with disputed dates ranging from 5th century BCE to medieval)
• House of Diane in Ostia, a typical multi-story Roman apartment or insula from the 2nd century
• the Sanctuary of Fortuna Primigenia from the 2nd century BCE and in modern-day Palestrina, which used concrete on a terraced hill in distinctly Roman ways, creating a unique experiential relationship for pilgrims visiting the sanctuary
• the Temple of Portunus (or the Temple of Fortuna Virilis) from 75 BCE, a Roman Republic temple which incorporates several design elements from Greek and Etruscan architectural traditions
• Maison Careé from 4-7 CE, a well-preserved example of a Roman temple located in modern day Nimes, France
• the Head of a Roman Patrician from Otricoli from 75-50 BCE, whose style illustrates the Roman veristic or hyperrealistic tradition of portraying age, imperfections, and wrinkles, sign of lived wisdom and earned respect
• Augustus of Primaporta from 20 BCE, an example of how Romans imbued power and ideology into their political sculptural traditions
• the Ara Pacis Augustae from 9 BCE, an altar that, unlike previous monuments of war, instead celebrated and championed peace through the mythological and historical reliefs that wrap its facade
• the Flavian Amphitheater (more often known simply as the Colosseum) from 70-80 CE, an engineering feat that was built in only 10 years, held 50-80,000 people, and continues to influence modern stadiums
• the Markets of Trajan, designed and built by the famed Roman architects Apollodorus and Damascus in 112 CE to house a multilevel market complex and urban center
• the Pantheon from c. 125 CE, featuring a coffered concrete dome and exquisite architectural and aesthetic detail in both the exterior and interior
• the Roman Arch of Septimus Severus from 203 CE, commemorating and emphasizing the continuity of Severus’ rule

By the time you finish reading this chapter on Ancient Roman art, you should be able to:

• Demonstrate an understanding of the innovations of Roman architecture and how these innovations contributed to the expanse of the Roman Empire
• Compare Roman with Greek and Etruscan art and architecture
• Analyze the political nature of Roman art and architecture, particularly as it communicates ideas of power for the emperor and empire
• Explain changes in Roman art and architecture as a result of expansion of the Roman Empire and the incorporation of the conquered cultures

Want to know more?

Here are some additional resources you can explore to further your understanding of the art discussed in this chapter.

• Beckett Mufson, "Reverse Graffiti" Reveals Rome's History, for Vice
• “Triumphs and Laments: A Procession Across Time”—An Interview with William Kentridge, via Art21
• Eternal Tiber, Triumphs and Laments Guide
• Francesca Tronchin, Damnatio memoriae—Roman sanctions against memory, for Smarthistory
• CrashCourse, The Roman Empire...or Republic
• Domus Aurea Virtual Reality Tour
• Gladiator Colosseum Highlights
• Isis Davis-Marks, The Tunnels Beneath Rome’s Colosseum Are Open to the Public for the First Time, for Smithsonian Magazine
• Pantheon images and 360° view (scroll to bottom)
• Massimo Osanna, Virtual tour of new excavations of Pompeii in Regio V
• Rick Steves, Pompeii, Italy: Window on Ancient Rome
• Rick Steves, Rome: Ancient Glory
• A Virtual Tour of Hadrian's Villa
• Roman Engineering via Google Arts & Culture
• Masterpieces of Ancient Roman Art, via Google Arts & Culture
• Muses in the Lab: Conserving a Roman Sarcophagus, via Google Arts & Culture
• Bettina Ann Bergmann, Roman Frescoes from Boscoreale, for the Met Museum
• The Year One: Ancient Art East and West, for the Met Museum
• Video walk-through of the House of Caecilius Iucundus, for Lund University
• Julie Jaskol, Keeping Warm the Roman Way, for the Getty Museum
• Sara E. Cole, Marie Svoboda, Yousra Rebbani, Meet the Portrait of Herakleides (learn more about the Getty’s mummified Roman), for the Getty Museum
• Investigating Herakleides: A Portrait Mummy from Roman Egypt, for Google Arts & Culture