Image Commentary Prep.

Question 1

Alexander the Great Mosaic - date and location

Answer 1

c. 100BC Pompeii, House of the Fawn
Commissioned for the floor of a ‘study’ by an official.
Based on an earlier Greek painting (3rd century BC?) which commemorates the defeat of the Persian king - Apelles the painter.

Question 2

Sarcophagus of the Spouses - date and location

Answer 2

Etruscan, 530-510 BCE
Found at the Banditaccia necropolis in Caere and is now located in the National Etruscan Museum of Villa Giulia, Rome
Terracotta - common material in Italy
Greek influences in their hair, pose etc.
Greek style reinterpreted for a Roman audience

Question 3

The alter of Augustan Peace - date and location

Answer 3

c. 9BC (Ara Pacis) Rome
Monument to the establishment of peace in the Roman world
Functioning altar, sacrifices carried out
Next to the Via Flaminia, one of the main roads out of Rome, built near his mausoleum and Horologium (an enormous obelisk taken from Egypt, used as a sundial with the Zodiac inscribed onto it)

Question 4

The Arch of Titus - date and location

Answer 4

c. AD 81, Rome
Set up by his brother Domitian after Titus’ death
Decoration, continuous frieze around the arch depicting triumph (Jerusalem in AD 70/triumph in AD 71), large statue group on top, two reliefs either side of passageway as you walk through
Titus being carried to Heaven on an eagle in the roof of the arch as you look up
Scene of the triumph of AD 71, with the menorah from the Temple at Jerusalem
Titus on his chariot is accompanied by winged Victory who holds a crown over his head - allegorical figures to demonstrate abstract concepts
Bare chested man - represents the people of Rome - older man in a toga - represents the Senate = SPQR
Honus and Virtus - honour and virtue - leading the horses

Question 5

Adventus of Vespasian - date and location

Answer 5

c. AD 93-95 (vatican)
Set up by Domitian, repurposed soon after his death by his successor Nerva
Vespasian is arriving in Rome (leads by bodyguards), being met by the Senate and the People, by priests, Domitian welcomes him into the city - adventus

Question 6

Profectio of Domitian - date and location

Answer 6

c. AD 93-95 (vatican)
Profectio = departure scene
Mars - god of war - and Athena/Minerva leading Domitian out of Rome (as well as winged victory), also shown are Roma, Senate, the People - he’s going off on a military campaign, indicating proper sensible warfare that is encouraged by the Senate and the People

Question 7

Trajan’s Arch at Benevento - date

Answer 7

AD 114
Passageway reliefs:
Sacrifice scene, emperor covering his head indicating pietas
Distribution of alimenta - funds for the support of children, first scene of its ilk in Roman art. Queue of people bringing their children to the emperor, small table with bundles on it. Trajan’s policy, the alimenta scheme to encourage poorer families to build up their farms and then receive funds for their children. Women in background wearing hats shaped like castle walls, indicates they are personifications of places - demonstrates that nearby cities/places are bringing their children to receive these funds
Middle panels of West side (pars militaris):
Trajan raises up the children of Italy as colonists and future soldiers, handing over the children to the gods of Mars and Minerva
Trajan receives two new soldiers from the genius castrorum
Refined, calm scenes - static and ceremonial

Question 8

Column of Trajan - date and location

Answer 8

AD 113. Rome
Becomes his tomb; interred in the base
Frieze all around the column
Repeated scenes: adlocutio (address), suovetaurilia (sacrifice associated with military campaigns will have a pig, sheep and a cow depicted), building, marching - very little fighting

Question 9

Panel Reliefs of Marcus Aurelius - date and location

Answer 9

c. AD 176-180, Rome
Some re-used on the Arch of Constantine
Imagery replicated from the monuments of Trajan
Submission, adventus, triumph
Demonstrates the qualities of an emperor - clementia, pietas, liberalitas

Question 10

Column base of Antoninus Pius- date and location

Answer 10

AD 161, Rome
Roma waving goodbye as the emperor and his wife are taken to heaven by a spirit (Eternity?)
Man holding an Obelisk
Conservative style looking back to Greek style
Oddly static
Naturalistic proportions of people
Described as the ‘death of Classicism’
Sides of the columns - depict a cavalry manoeuvre of a decursio which is often used at funerals, cavalrymen riding in a circle with troops in the middle - use of a flipped perspective, a different style to the ascension of the emperor.
Style similar to the Column of Trajan
The inclusion of two different styles = dualism/pluralism
Different styles for different scenes - chaotic versus static, Classical versus Hellenistic (or ‘baroque’)

Question 11

Bust of Vespasian - date and location

Answer 11

AD 70-80, Rome
Carved from Nero original

Question 12

Claudius with attributes of Jupiter - date and location

Answer 12

From Lanuvanium c. AD 42-43 (Vatican) - eclectic style

Question 13

Bust of Augustus - date and location

Answer 13

1st c. AD Rome

Question 14

Type 3 portrait of Nero - date and location

Answer 14

(Museo delle Terme, Rome). The portrait dates to 59/60 CE, when the princeps, now more than twenty years old and freed of his demanding mother, celebrated the fifth anniversary of his reign

Question 15

Type 1 portrait of Nero - date and location

Answer 15

Basilica of Velleia (Museo Nazionale di Antichità, Parma). The statue dates to 50 CE, when the thirteen-year-old Nero was adopted by Claudius, thus to become the presumptive heir to the throne on a par with Britannicus, Claudius’ son by Valeria Messalina.

Question 16

Type 2 portrait of Nero - date and location

Answer 16

(Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Cagliari), from the cast in the Museo della Civiltà Romana, Rome. The portrait dates to 54 CE, when Nero was proclaimed emperor at the age of sixteen.

Question 17

Type 4 portrait of Nero - date and location

Answer 17

(Munich, Glyptothek). The portrait dates to 63 CE, or shortly thereafter, in the aftermath of the celebrations of the Parthian peace accord, an event Romans hailed as the arrival of a new age of peace and prosperity.

Question 18

‘Barberini Togatus’ - date and location

Answer 18

1st c. BC (Rome)
Togati - statues of men wearing togas
Holding busts of ancestors - shows respect for them, building the family name, sense of heritage and tradition being carried on through different generations

Question 19

Portrait of an unknown man with priestly headgear - date and location

Answer 19

1st c. BC (Rome)
Veristic style = late Republican portraits; highly truthful/realistic

Question 20

Patrician Torlonia Head - date and location

Answer 20

Early 1st c. BC (Rome) possibly of Cato the Elder -Veristic style

Question 21

The Tivoli general - date and location

Answer 21

1st c. BC, Tivoli- pseudo athlete (Eclecticism)

Question 22

Portrait of a Roman matron as Venus - date and location

Answer 22

c. AD 90 (Copenhagen)
Women used Venus’ body with their middle-aged faces to show service to the state
Fashion indicated through her hairstyle

Question 23

Hadrian Wearing a Toga - date and location

Answer 23

Albania (mid 2nd c. AD)

Question 24

Hadrian Wearing a Himation - date and location

Answer 24

Turkey (mid 2nd c. AD)

Question 25

Augustus as a priest - date and location

Answer 25

Rome 1st c. BC

Question 26

Monument of Philopappos - date and location

Answer 26

AD 110-120, Athens

Question 27

Tombstone of Cornelia Glyce - date and location

Answer 27

c. AD 80 (Rome)

Question 28

Sarcophagus of L. Cornelius Scipio Barbatus - date and location

Answer 28

c. 280 BC, from the Tomb of the Scipios, Rome (Vatican)

Question 29

Meleager Sarcophagus- date

Answer 29

mid 2nd c. AD

Question 30

Tomb of M. Vergilius Eurysaces - date and location

Answer 30

50-20 BC, Rome

Question 31

Priene - location and significance

Answer 31

southwestern Turkey, laid out in a grid regardless of the challenging topography (built on a sloping hill), with a wall around the edges of the grid which follows the natural topography

Question 32

Timgad - location and significance

Answer 32

Algeria - shows us how the city was created and expanded over time; houses were given to veterans who had served in the legions, also given land outside the city
Original Trajanic foundation, regular grid plan
Built on and expanded its original foundation

Question 33

Lepcis Magna - location and significance

Answer 33

Libya - Originally a Phonecian foundation, became part of the Carthaginian state before becoming a prosperous Roman city in the 1st century BC - thrived in the imperial period and was favoured by Augustus
Imperial patronage of: Augustus, Tiberius, Trajan, Severans, Hadrian

Question 34

Ephesus - location and significance

Answer 34

Turkey - Important centre prior to Roman period, became largest city in province of Asia during the Roman period
Mercantile centre, very prosperous as the elite invested heavily in public buildings (theatre is probably the largest in Asia Minor)
State agora and civic agora
Greco-Egyptian temple worshipping a shared god

Question 35

Aphrodisias - location and significance

Answer 35

Part of it dates to the archaic period, mostly Roman buildings, would have been smaller in the Hellenistic period
Temples probably have archaic routes
Boomed in the Augustan period - sided with Caesar and then Octavian in the civil wars; counterpart to Venus who was utilised by Augustus as an ancestor
Monumental avenue running through the centre

Question 36

Palmyra - location and significance

Answer 36

Located in an oasis in Syria
Where the Romans and Parthians would meet
Crossroads of the major east west caravan route - silk road, important trade route
Grid layout as well
Various temples, main street (tetrapylon as well)
City’s individuality is very clear, even in the standardised Roman buildings - e.g. Agora has a ‘tariff court’ where traders would meet and pay taxes etc. - specific trading function of Palmyra
Large wall panels and series of texts relating to customs, dues and tariffs people should pay were displayed in the tariff court

Question 37

Arch of Constantine - date and location

Answer 37

Rome, inaugurated in 315 CE by the Senate to commemorate Constantine’s victory over his co-ruler Maxentius r. 306-312.
Very visible monument - located in a place with a lot of traffic
312, Constantine defeated Maxentius
Use of architectural spolia - warfare - refers to a piece of architecture that comes from somewhere else and is being used in a secondary context
Friezes/statues etc. were used that had been carved during the reigns of Trajan/Hadrian/Marcus Aurelius

Question 38

Portrait of the Four Tetrarchs - date and location

Answer 38

St. Marks Basilica Venice, AD 300
The First Tetrarchy (AD 293-305)