Jacqueline Groll

Nancy Grove

Object of History

Due: December 11th, 2015

 “Ancient Greek Culture vs. Ancient Roman Culture”

As Aristotle once said, “Education is an ornament in prosperity and a refuge in adversity.” Quote found on BrainyQuote.com. Before our first museum visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, we were introduced to facts about ancient Greece and Rome. Ancient Greeks culture, which arose well before Roman culture did, innovated through the pursuit of ideas, and demonstrated an almost modern focus on physical and mental health, sports, and art. Ancient Greece was the seat of early democracy,  it created a pantheon of diverse deities, and it encouraged contemplation. In contrast, Rome, while taking many cultural elements from Ancient Greece, notably its Gods and goddesses, placed far more emphasis on military conquest and state power, thus often using art to promote a warrior ethos. During our Met visit, we were then exposed to ancient artifacts which belonged to the Greek and Roman cultures. While doing our research on the two cultures, we were taught about the similarities and difference between the two, especially regarding their architectural styles, art influences, cultural behaviors, and religious beliefs. Rome was greatly enriched by the invasions that brought Greeks into the Roman Empire, ending Greek autonomy; ultimately, Rome itself would be conquered.

In Athens, Greece, the Parthenon is a temple that was initially built for the goddess, Athena. It was constructed in 447 B.C., and created by the people of the Athenian empire. Architects include Phidias, Iktinos, and Kallikrates. As learned in class and on ancient-greece.org, the temple was built out of limestone, and the columns were made of Pentelic marble, a material that was utilized for the first time. The temple’s architectural style falls under the category of Doric order. After learning about Doric Order on http://www.cmhpf.org, an article written by Bruce R. Schulman for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Historic Landmarks Commission, I learned that the capital (the top, or crown) is constructed by a circle which is topped by a square figure. The buildings “shaft” (tall column   structures) is plain and has 20 sides. I also learned that there is no base in Doric order,  and that it is very plain yet intense due to its minimal yet intricate designs. Such as the frieze, the area located above the column, the metope which is a plain, smooth stone section between the between the triglyphs. Sometimes the metopes had statues of heroes or gods on them. The triglyphs are a pattern of 3 vertical lines between the metopes. In Rome, in 126 A.D., the architect, Apollodorus of Damascus, created the Pantheon. The architectural style of this previously functional church is that of Ancient Roman architecture. The Pantheon is characterized by Corinthian columns, which is the last of the three principal classical orders of ancient Greek and Roman architecture to be developed. Corinthian Columns are “distinguished by a decorative, bell-shaped capital with volutes, two rows of acanthus leaves and an elaborate cornice. In many instances, the column is fluted.”, as stated on http://www.aoc.gov. The building is constructed by many arches, columns, and a dome like figure with a hole centered in the middle of it. Some say the hole was created to have a proper amount of air circulation, or in case of a fire, or weather or rain. The Greek-rooted word, ‘pantheon,’ means ‘every god.’ The temple was created during the reign of Augustus and is one of the most finely preserved of all ancient Roman buildings.  

As seen in the Parthenon, Doric order is the beginning of Greek and Roman architecture. Its simplistic yet sturdy designs facilitated the temple’s ability to prevail through battles, natural elements, and age. In comparison to the Pantheon, the building is still far more deteriorated. The Romans, who borrowed from Greek design, also benefited from studying the Greeks’ shortcomings. The staircases are built thicker, like block cylinders within Greek architecture. As for the Romans, their staircases resembled ordinary bricks. One can assume that the reason why the Romans later altered the Greeks’ style, was to assist those who were climbing into the church. In regards to the Greek and Romans’ roofing structures, the Greeks followed a layering of triglyph and architrave, which held up a slanted upper roof. The Romans also followed this layering of architrave and triglyph, although the upper roof was mainly flat, with a few exceptions.

The Romans replicated much of the Greeks’ sculptural style, though in less expensive materials and with different body emphases. The Greeks began their art world with slim-bodied sculptures and limited detail, as seen in Statue of a Kouros (youth) in 600 BCE, a figure we saw the Metropolitan museum and was shown in class, made out of naxian marble.The piece “The Statue of a Kouros (youth)”, “was one of the first freestanding marble statues from Attica, the region around Athens”, as stated on the Metropolitan Museum of Art website. The slim male body, demonstrates the beginning of the Greeks idea of nude statues, which were then perfected to have more detailed and bulky bodies unlike this statue. These figures were created in marble. Later, in 460-450 BCE, the Greeks created a bronze piece made with bone and glass eyes, silver teeth, and copper teeth and nipples. This piece goes by the name of “Warrior,” which elaborates upon the athletic-featured male body. In the time period between the “Kouros (youth)” and “The Warrior,” the Greeks’ esthetic changed drastically to a more realistic, yet desirable physicality. When researching Roman sculptures, one finds what are essentially copies of Greek sculptures and sculpting methods. Like the Greeks, the Romans used marble as their main sculpting material due to its relative affordability and the time that it saved sculptors. The following information was found on “Marcantonio Raimondi: Apollo Belvedere” (49.97.114) In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History . New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/49.97.114. (October 2006). The Roman piece, “Leochares: Belvedere Apollo,” is a copy after the Greek bronze sculpture. In this piece, the Romans demonstrated their crafting talents perfectly when it comes to the detail of Apollo’s hair, shoes, and clothing. His body is sculpted to give us a semi-realistic idea of how the sculptor imagined the g-d to look. The Romans art work was designed to look like a realistic human figure when it came to sculpting and painting. In the “Leochares: Belvedere Apollo” sculpture, we see the Greeks’ technique of socket and tenon, which was used to join limbs and other extensions. The Greeks and Romans mainly sculpted and painted religious figures and male figures of state.

Aside from their iconic sculptures, paintings on pottery and frescoes were traditional artifacts as well in the ancient Greek and Roman culture. As we know the Greeks were artistically inspired by the Egyptians, which is seen immensely in classic ancient Greek pottery works. Pottery is typically made out of clay, which was found all over Greece and the finest form of clay was Attic, which had a high iron content and had a tangy tint to it. Greeks originally began using one shade of clay, followed by darker clay to show detail, but eventually discovered other forms of creating color to include detail, reverse their common tangy and brown detail technique. The previous information was found on http://www.ancient.eu/Greek_Pottery/ and written by Mark Cartwright. The Greeks eventually began making carvings and imprints in their pottery when it became more common to use pieces of columns as artwork in their homes, as well as when the romans began copying their style. A popular and fascinating design that the Greeks created upon their pottery also included the use of geometric designs. A piece that depicts the Greeks classic pottery techniques includes, the Terracotta volute-krater (bowl for mixing wine and water). Created in the Classical Period, ca. 450 B.C., and made out of Terracotta; red-figure. This pottery is created in a vase like format, and has attached handles to the top opening and the middle portion of the vase. It is inscribed with black paintings which usually reveal a story, which in this case the neck of the bowl is an obverse battle of centaurs and Lapiths and around the body is of youths and women. The story is a depiction of Amazonomachy (battle between Greeks and Amazons). The ancient Greeks mainly never depicted contemporary or historical events in art. While literary artifacts of the fifth century B.C. clarify that the Greeks understood the magnitude of their victory in the Persian Wars, and that there was no concern among artists to illustrate impactful events or personalities. Instead, their preference was for grand mythological battles between Greeks and eastern adversaries, notably Amazons. The following information was found on the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s website.

Although the Romans did copy the Greeks pottery techniques and paintings, they particularly specialized in the technique of ‘fresco paintings’.I discovered on http://www.britannica.com/art/fresco-painting, by The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica, that  fresco paintings, are a method of painting water-based pigments on freshly created plaster, usually on the surfaces of walls. The colors, are created by grinding dry-powder pigments within pure water, than drying and setting it with the plaster in order for the painting to become one with the wall permanently. Fresco paintings are known for their mural making, because it allows itself to be a durable, and monumental style by the way it mattes to a surface for life. One example of a fresco that we learned in class was the “Fresco Pompeii”, (c. 60 CE) from the Roman town of Pompeii depicting Terentius Neo griping to a scroll and his wife who holds a stylus and writing tablet. From the Villa di Guilia Felice. The villas of Pompeii were richly decord with wall paintings depicting all manner of subjects such as mythology, erotica, architecture, trompe-l’oeil, religious practices, sports and family portraits. Another famous fresco painting is a Roman Frescoed Room, from the Villa of the Farnesina, in Rome, in the early 1st century BCE. This room was most likely used as a bedroom. The fresco painting circumferenced the whole room and used trompe-l’oeil effects to create perspective. The central panel shows Dionysos nursed by nymphs, and the left panel shows a seated Aphrodite with Eros. The room is created to give it the lively/realistic effect that you are actually in a room with columns and other protruding figures and features. The last famous fresco painting that I will be discussing is “Michelangelo’s, Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel”, located in Vatican City, Rome. The piece was requested by Pope Julius II, and was thrown upon Michelangelo to create this fresco although he did not want any part in the creation of this piece. Reasons such as, he did not consider himself a painter, he was working on a marble tomb when Pope Julius requested the time consuming painting, but of course he could not refuse the pope so he created the fresco. The narrative of the fresco begins at the altar and is separated into three sections. The first three paintings, Michelangelo explains the story of The Creation of the Heavens and Earth; and is than followed by The Creation of Adam and Eve and the Expulsion from the Garden of Eden; finally is the story of Noah and the Great Flood. Ignudi, otherwise known as nude youths, sit in fictive architecture around the frescoes, and are accompanied by prophets and sibyls (ancient seers who, according to tradition, foretold the coming of Christ) in the spandrels. In the four corners of the room, in the pendentives, you can find scenes depicting the Salvation of Israel. The most famous fresco of the entire ceiling of course is the The Creation of Adam. The reproduction of this fresco have become universal in modern culture for its dramatic positioning of the two monumental figures reaching towards each other, only an inch apart but never touching. The symbolism behind this piece, demonstrates how Adam will never have the power that g-d has. He will always be an inch apart, close, but never higher nor the same.

Although the Romans had their unique artistic and sculpting styles, we are able to identify their replications much from the Greeks’ sculptural style, which they also adopted many Greek religious figures and practices as well. Greek gods and goddesses functions were retained, but their names were altered by the Romans. The statue that is known as “Venus de Milo,” was found in 1820, and is made out of marble. The statue has been thought to represent the Greek goddess of love and beauty, Aphrodite, but was known to the Romans as Venus. The statue’s damaged condition made it difficult to identify its exact age, but it has been suggested that it is a fourth century B.C. Information found on  http://www.louvre.fr/en/oeuvre-notices/aphrodite-known-venus-de-milo, by Marie-Bénédicte Astier. Roman copy of a Greek original. The Romans adopted a more naturalistic approach to their art than did the Greeks. Greek statesmen and generals, like their gods, are recognizable as ‘human,’ but they are physically idealized. This contrasts with Roman depictions, in which sculptures, mosaics, and frescoes portraying Romans of all classes – from emperors to ordinary people – betray physical quirks and nuances of expression that make them more human and less idealized.

The Greeks and Romans, shared similar aspects through iconic architectural structures, also approached religion differently in some key ways. The Roman religion, which was a state religion, was also more practical than Greek religion and emphasized on ritual and ceremonies. The Roman Pantheon included most of the deities of the Greek Parthenon, but it was more comprehensive. The Romans were more accepting of the gods of all nations. Even Mithra, the Persian sun god, and the Egyptians’ Osiris and Isis were included in the pantheon to which Romans could sacrifice. The Roman religion was also less poetic and more utilitarian than that of the Greeks: every Roman god had a specific function, a useful office to perform. Several divinities, for example, presided over the birth and nursing of an infant, and were worshipped accordingly, for the benefits they were expected to bestow. The Romans also established a college of pontiffs – religious leaders – who regulated the worship of these useful gods; the pontiffs oversaw the higher ceremonies, which were complicated and minute. One pontiff, called the ‘Pontifex Maximus,’ presided over the college; Julius Caesar shrewdly assumed this title to gain control of the state worship. The following information was discovered on http://www.tribunesandtriumphs.org/roman-gods/roman-and-greek-religion.htm. The Romans also used augurs and took auspices to learn the will of the gods to determine the best times to begin their voyages or significant projects, by using methods of divination such as reading the entrails of sacrificed animals and studying the flight of birds. The ceremony and function of the Augur and the Auguries was extremely important to the Romans, and these powerful augurs would be consulted before any major undertaking in Roman society, both public and privates. Matters of war, commerce, and religion were decided with the help of augurs. The Romans engaged in more superstitious practices than the Greeks; the Romans engaged in magic, such as the casting of spells, but this ‘superstition’ was considered to be dark, dangerous, and the province of women and foreigners.

Roman culture, with its strong emphasis on the centrality of the state, was more effective than Greece at maintaining political cohesion over long periods of time. The Romans preserved control of their Empire by often using the draconian public punishments, like the famous crucifixion of 6,000 survivors of the slave-rebel, Spartacus’ army; the crucified rebels lined the roads leading out of Rome.  The Romans’ enduring power was also bolstered by a consistent tradition of governance, with far fewer interruptions than were experienced by the Greeks. Although Rome was invaded at times, and though it occasionally fared badly in wars, it was able to maintain a stable government over many centuries. They were highly skilled at maintaining infrastructure and public works, and were brilliant engineers, who used logic and high-level organization to manage good public sanitation. The Romans tended to meet challenges by using their skills at an almost mechanistic level of organization. After doing research on https://www.quora.com/What-are-major-differences-between-Greek-and-Roman-culture-or-government, I discovered a well-known story that typifies the difference between the Greek and Roman approach to problem-solving is that of the siege of Syracuse. The famous scientist and ‘natural philosopher,’ Archimedes, used mechanical claws and arrays of convex mirrors to attack the besieging Roman fleet, while the Romans used methodical siege-craft and disciple, thus managing to breach the walls while its defenders were taking a break.  The Roman military became increasingly professional when, in the Late Republic, the peasantry was displaced owing to the rise of large-scale, slave-run plantations. Revolutions such as those of Pompey and Julius Caesar became possible owing to the professionalism of soldiers for whom the military was a career and not merely a short-term obligation.

Roman societies were characterized by strict regulation at the religious and personal level, as well as in the government and the military. Roman women’s roles were highly structured, but they enjoyed more rights than Greek women.  Roman women had more freedom to travel on their own; they had superior property rights to those of Greek women, and they were free to divorce their husbands and remarry. The Romans reinforced the importance of the state through numerous public festivals that were more piously and universally attended than festivals in Greece. Approximately one day in every four was designated for the worship of particular gods, who were celebrated through public feasts, games, and sacrifices that contributed to the communal cohesion of Rome as the center of empire. Principal feast days included those in honor of Janus, the great god of the Sabines, who was also the god of beginnings: his feast, celebrated on the first day of January, continues in the form of the Western New Year. Other feasts celebrated the Penates, Mars, Vest, Minerva, Venus, Ceres, Juno, Jupiter, and Saturn. The Saturnalia occurred on December 19: this annual thanksgiving festival lasted seven days and was characterized by wealthy Romans’ hosting open houses and giving their slaves temporary liberty.

Greek culture, unlike that of the Romans, was highly focused on ideas. Which included Greek thinkers contributing  groundbreaking concepts in mathematics, logic, geometry, and philosophy. The Greek government also differed from that of the Romans, by Greece being highly contentious in their environment during its period of independence. The peninsula was continuously challenging by conflict among the cities and, also, within them. Most cities endured multiple, violences due to changes of government owing both to foreign invasions and domestic upheavals. Which were often, internal and external challenges coincided.  The armies of the Greek city states did not possess the streamlined organization and discipline of the Roman military. Greek armies tended to be largely composed of upper-class individuals. An extreme example of that was of Sparta, where the army was drawn entirely from the privileged classes. Even in Athens, there was a great deal of tension between the wealthy, hoplite class of landowners, the prosperous city dwellers, and the thetes, or urban working class, which could not afford its own armor, and was relegated to rowing in the navy. After the classical period, Greek armies tended to increasingly rely on mercenaries, who provided much-needed technical skills, but who were politically unpredictable. Within the society, Greek women, with the exception of Spartan women, were generally sequestered in the domestic sphere under close supervision and constraint. Women had little access to public spaces and were expected to wear veils or live under the watchful eyes of eunuchs to protect their modesty. While many Roman matrons became well-known public figures, Greek women became famous only as queens or courtesans. This information was discovered on https://www.quora.com/What-are-major-differences-between-Greek-and-Roman-culture-or-government. Although the Greeks, like the Romans, could be cruel in their punishments, they did not, generally, exploit public shows of brutality to shore up state authority or to distract citizens in the manner of the Roman arena. Greece never achieved the political reach that characterized Rome, in part because the elite nature of its armies precluded the service of individuals who lived ‘low’ on the social scale, but who provided the Romans with soldiers who were accustomed to outdoor life, familiar with manual labor, highly skilled at techniques necessary for war and survival, and self-sufficient.

Although the Greeks owed a certain cultural debt to Egypt, they were highly conscious of, and even obsessed with, their own cultural uniqueness. In contrast, the Romans were strongly aware of their cultural debt to Greece. Early in Roman history, the Greeks far surpassed the Romans in wealth, sophistication, and the level of their taste in art and literature. This refined Greek esthetic, along with Greece’s long philosophical tradition, became the touchstone for Roman ideas. Later, when Rome increasingly came to dominate the Greek world, this influence spread more widely. It was always tempered, however, by Rome’s contempt for Greek governance, along with Greek cultural practices that made the Greeks seem ‘untrustworthy’ and ‘unreliable’ to the Romans who viewed themselves as being superior in their honesty, straightforwardness, and ‘manliness.’

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