Roman Art Vs. Classical Greek Art

Throughout the history of mankind there have been numerous great empires that have ruled large parts of the world during a specific time period and influenced the way art was created and interpreted. Even though they were almost 200 years apart, the Classical Greece (480 BC-323 BC) and the Roman empire (146BC – 324 AD) both had a similar expression of Art, as the Roman empire had mostly derived their work from previous art periods. Throughout the following analysis we will be exploring the differences and similarities between the classical Greece sculpture “The Diadem Wearer” (Figure 1) currently located in the National Archaeological Museum and the Roman sculpture “Augustus of Prima Porta” (Figure 2) that can be visited in the Braccio Nuovo of the Vatican Museum.

“The Egyptians had based their art on knowledge. The Greeks began to use their eyes.” (E.H. Gombach, 2016) Many of the ideas and designs were inherited in the classical Greece art such as the revolution of foreshortening and the idea of presenting idols that represented youth, strength and power. However, the art was more simplistic and much clearer arrangement, however, still based on idealistic ideas which were highly exploited in the Hellenistic era that followed. Even though the Romans inherited a lot from previous art eras, they wanted their art to be more related to the real world, developing a more human character to each individual piece of art. This transition can be seen between the two figures