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- Equestrian Statue of Marcus Aurelius
- Era: High Empire, 175 CE
- Location: Capitline Hill, Rome, Italy
- Techniques:
- larger than life gilded bronze done by the lost wax process
- awkward proportion of man to horse - propaganda, super human grandeur - awesome power of god-like-Roman emperor
- round ball or sphere represents the world - world domination
- originally body cowering under horses foot maybe
- gesture of greeting after an endeavor
- last great military emperor
- full of energy and vitality, movement of the horse, gesture of Marcus
- on the Capitolian hill because it was chosen by a Catholic pope
- 11'6" tall
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- Baths of Caracalla
- Era: Roman Late Empire, 212-216 CE
- Location: Rome, Italy
- Techniques:
- brick faced facade covered by vaulted ceilings
- 50 acres of land
- symmetrical design along a central axis
- facilitating the Roman tradition of taking sequential fridarium (cold), tepidarium (warm), then caladarium (hot) bathing
- ability to supply water
- firnaces to circulate hot air through hollow walls and floors
- 1600 people at a time
- domed section similar to Pantheon
- concrete drum and dome
- light enters through high groin vaulted ceilings
- highly decorated, lavish
- entire complex had gardens and exercise courts
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- Battle of the Romans and Barbarians
- Era: Roman Late Empire, 250-260 CE
- Location: Ludovisi Battle Sarcophagus, Rome, Italy
- Techniques:
- made of marble
- burial more common than cremation
- bought by cardinal Ludovisi
- chaotic battle scene between Romans and their enemies
- moving from one general to another, lots of civil war represented
- writhing intertwined bodies, emotional figures
- carved evenly spread across them
- dense, everything pushed forward
- extreme rejection of classical perspective
- separation from the ideal
- horsemen with no helemt showing that he has no weapons - foreshortened figure, long legs and short torso
- might be son of Trajan, doesn't need weapons, self assurance
- similar to eastern works eastern mysterious religions
- carved emblems - Persian god of light, truth, and victory over death on his forehead
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- Tetrarchs
- Era: Roman Late Empire, 305 CE
- Location: Venice, Italy
- Techniques:
- types because they were equal in power
- made of porphyry, purple marble
- attached to a corner of a building
- four co-rulers of the empire
- embracing each other represents the hoped for but unrealized serenity and harmony that they we supposed to bring to the empire
- now represents fear of impdening disatster of the age
- not well proportion, large heads and squat bodies
- patterned drapery
- no body contour
- each one has a cruiass
- grasping sheathed sword
- the two who have beards are older figures
- 4'3" tall
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- Arch of Constantine
- Era: Roman Late Empire, 312-315 CE
- Location: Rome, Italy
- Techniques:
- waning creative power and technical skill, similar to late Greek period - most of sculpture stolen from everyone else's arch
- commemorate defeat of his rival making him the absolute monarch - end of civil war
- center arch flanked by two smaller arches
- not quite engaged columns
- heavy molding
- bronze sculpture on top
- inscription explaining his deeds
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- Hadrianic Reliefs
- Era: Roman Late Empire, 117-138 CE
- Location: Arch of Constantine, Rome, Italy
- Techniques:
- stole them from Hadrian's arch
- take the head off the emperor and replace it with Constantine
- perspective and proportion are off
- statue of Constatine with figures surrounding
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- Frieze
- Era: Roman Late Empire, 117-138 CE
- Location: Arch of Constantine, Rome, Italy
- Techniques:
- stage like setting
- placed with important figures
- crowds of people on each side
- replace Hadrian's head with Constantine's
- big head and squat bodies
- rigid figures, no action, statuesque
- trying to pull away from Classical idealism
- flattened relief with incised details
- lined up heads - lacking realism
- if there are gestures, they are repeated
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- Constantine the Great
- Era: Roman Late Empire, 330 CE
- Techniques:
- made of marble
- attached to a wooden torso with a brick core
- bronze accents
- head and limbs are marble
- weighs over 8 tons
- simplification in detail
- broad simple plains
- frontal mask with enormous eyes
- lose personality - overall authority
- eternal youth
- held an orb in left hand and with cross on top-
- collasal likeness of the emperor to the god Jupiter
- he is looking up at Christian God
- too good to look at earth dwellers
- hand was pointing up probably
- 8'6" tall (either head or entire statue?)
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