When was greco roman era

These transformations ended up secularizing art by giving it new functions: pomp and decoration of palaces through painting and mosaics and the cult of leadership through portrait art. After decline, universality In 31 BC, the battle of Actium marked the fall of the Greek world and heralded the political and economic supremacy of Rome.

However, even after the civilisation from which it arose, Greek art has never ceased to inspire artists since. From its immediate appropriation by the Romans up to the numerous returns to Classicism throughout the history of art, without forgetting the Italian Renaissance, the range of forms from Greek Antiquity has become a universal reference point for Western art.

Roman Antiquity The influences of Roman art While it is unfair and wrong to consider Roman art as a simple pale imitation of Greek art, it must be said that clear and stated bonds exist between the two Antique worlds. According to legend, it was Aeneus, son of Aphrodite and hero of the Trojan war, who, at the end of a long journey around the Mediterranean, moved into the Latium 12th century BC. One of his descendants, Romulus, founded Rome in BC. More historically, it was through trade, and then the political and military expansion of the empire around the Mediterranean, that the Roman identity was forged.

However, Roman art was not simply limited to appropriation of Greek models, but also drew much of its inspiration from the history of its own country pre-Roman era of Italic cities and the Etruscan kingdom , of which some marvellous examples survive: terracotta sarcophagi, gold and silver work, fresco paintings in tombs, etc.

Art under the Republic Over the course of the Republic, the taste for Hellenistic art developed particularly as a result of the triumphal procession of spoils of war taken from conquered Greek cities. They also glorified their victories in cities by commissioning foreign craftsmen and artists especially from Athens to carry out entire architectural projects, groups of statuary and series of paintings in their honour monument of Aemilius Paulus in Delphi.

For generals, it was above all a question of setting a lasting mark of their military exploits in stone. At the same time, private art paintings, mosaics and sculptures , which could be produced either locally or far away, developed in aristocratic homes. It decorated the villas of rich families Villa of the Papyruses in Herculaneum.

However, the relative stability which followed the civil wars at the end of the Republic enabled the introduction of more peaceful themes Ara Pacis. In Rome, the ongoing construction of the forum continued to provide the city with large monuments which structured public life: forum, theatre, amphitheatre, public baths, while other large urban centres developed according to the grid plan model.

In the first century, an initial period of unrest rippled through the Empire. At the same time, the tragic eruption of Vesuvius destroyed Pompeii and encased the whole city in just a few hours, thereby providing posterity with a completely unique archaeological site.

During this period, the Imperial will was expressed above all through the architecture of Mediterranean cities, until the 4th century, when the Roman Empire was split in two Eastern Roman Empire and Western Roman Empire and its running entrusted to four emperors called the Tetrarchy. Very soon however, Constantine took back all power in the west to himself and introduced freedom of worship for the various religions. The triumph of Christianity eventually brought about the fall of the Roman Empire and produced a hybrid art, both profoundly Christian but also borrowing from Pagan culture sarcophagi combining Greco-Roman mythology and Biblical references.

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