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How Did Roman Art Develop

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INTRODUCTION Roman art dated back beyond 500 BCE, and was influenced by many cultures such as Egyptian and Greek, though the borrowed art mostly had authentic roman touches. Roman art was traditionally divided into two main periods, the art of the Roman Republic and the art of the Roman Empire, with subdivisions corresponding to the major emperors and leaders. There were many types of Roman art, these included paintings, sculptures, mosaics, architecture, jewelry and murals. This essay will investigate the nature of Roman art - what exactly is this form of art, where and when did it originate, who was it for and how and why did it develop? WHAT WAS ROMAN ART? There are many types of Roman art. Some of these include paintings, sculptures, mosaics, architecture, jewelry and murals. Figure 1 shows a mural on a wall. Most of these ideas came from …show more content…

The Romans were very impressed by the beautiful, culturally rich Greek art they saw and soon, rich Roman people (known as patricians) wanted their own Greek art. This meant that roman sculptors had to make lots of copies to satisfy the demand. WHAT DID THEY MAKE? Roman artists made paintings, sculptures, mosaics, architecture, jewelry and murals. Many of these ideas came from Greek art but almost always had authentic Roman touches. One example of this was when a small, famous sculpture was converted into a knife handle. (This is currently in the National Archaeological Museum in Perugia). The artist was not just copying the original, but he was also adapting it and making it humorous. This ability is one of the things that makes Roman art, Roman! HOW DID THEY MAKE IT? The Romans did not think that a copy of an art piece was worth anything less than the original. Therefore, many copies were made from molds, taken from the original art work. Mostly, the copies were variations, instead of direct copies. These variations were often humorous, rather than serious, like the Greeks intended it to be.

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