13 - Roman Art during the Republic

Summary

At issue in a short survey of republican art is the lack of many longer ones, as if there were no art to be discussed. The opposite is true: for nearly half a millennium, the Latin cities, Rome preeminent among them, expressed themselves both intensely and fluently, with art, architecture, and landscape architecture, private and public, in coins and engraved gems, metal and stone images, mosaic and painting, in the brilliantly modeled terracottas of houses and public buildings. Later Roman ages cherished, recorded, and imitated that patrimony and held in respect the memory of the leaders who put art into their cities - even the memory of those who created it, including that interesting generation of early republican nobles who made monumental paintings. But how was that art “Roman”? This chapter offers one concise but nuanced partial response to this question. What follows is an attempt to explore some of the distinctive variety and characteristics of republican art, stressing its public functions for Roman society. (For help in understanding the discussion of Rome's monuments and architecture, consult Fig. 19, which consists of a map of the entire city and a detailed view of the center of the city.)